The WWE 2K franchise has seen mixed reviews as of late. The latest installment — WWE 2K20 — showed up in the headlines, but for the wrong reasons. There were a ton of glitches that you just had to see for yourself. A lot of them have appeared in Reddit forums and YouTube videos, showing wailing body parts and otherworldly movements.
It’s unfortunate that the series has faced these sort of challenges, but many in the community were hoping that the next installment could right these wrongs. Unfortunately, the hits just keep coming for this beloved wrestling series.
WWE 2K21 will not be coming out this year after all. WWE CFO Frank Riddick made this announcement in a recent earnings call. That’s unfortunate news, but to be expected given how WWE 2K20 released. Riddick didn’t divulge any details on why this next installment isn’t coming out this year, but it’s pretty clear the last installment and the coronavirus didn’t do the project any favors.
So where does the franchise stand today? Well it seems like a WWE 2K22 isn’t out of the question just yet. The developer Visual Concepts will just have to figure out this wrestling gaming space. They have a lot of resources at their disposal, but they just need some time getting the mechanics down better.
Even though their last entry wasn’t received well, at least they have some constructive criticism to use as they work to make the series better. There are a lot of opportunities, too. For instance, they can take this time off to figure out a way to make the character models more realistic. That was a huge criticism that this game received at launch. Some of the characters look nothing like their real-life counterparts.
Some more time in the oven could do the next installment some good in this regard. More importantly — though — Visual Concepts needs to master the mechanics. It is very challenging to get moves right when you have to account for a lot of factors that pro wrestling involves, but it is possible.
The developer will just need to burn the midnight oil and learn from their mistakes. Meanwhile for fans, they’ll just have to go back to previous installments to get their wrestling action on before the next installment rolls out sometime in the future. It’s a sad day for WWE 2K fans, but at least there are still great entries worth revisiting in the franchise.
