Earnings call: No WWE 2K21 game in sight

If you were planning to purchase the upcoming WWE 2K release, don’t because it’s not coming. WWE 2K21 is off the table, according to remarks made during the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) earnings call Thursday.

An early report was made available on Twitter from talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy.

Mike Hickey of Benchmark Company made an inquiry regarding WWE 2K21.

WWE 2K20 went to market last fall. Unfortunately, it did not receive a good reception, receiving poor reviews as a result. GameSpot scored the game at 2/10, citing a “torrent of frequent and disruptive bugs and glitches.” Depending on the platform, Metacritic scored the game between 43 and 45 out of 100 (43 for PC and PS4, 45 for Xbox One). Additionally, Ben Wilson from GamesRadar+ scored the game at 2.5 stars. Finally, IGN gave WWE 2K20 a 4.3/10 rating.

Take-Two ‘disappointed’ but optimistic

According to a report from GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch, game developer 2K did not return requests for comment. However, some members of management at Take-Two Interactive stated they were “disappointed.”

Take-Two president Karl Slatoff states that he was optimistic about the brand’s future.

“The WWE brand continues to expand worldwide,” Slatoff states in a November 2019 interview with GameSpot. “And we believe there remains a substantial long-term opportunity to grow our WWE 2K series by improving the quality of the game.”

The release was the first WWE game exclusively under development by Visual Concepts, which produces the NBA 2K series. Prior to that, the series developer was Japanese studio Yukes. Video Games Chronicle states in their report that Yuke’s stepped away because of their frustration with their working relationship with 2K Sports.

Yuke’s is currently in the development of their own wrestling game to rival the WWE 2K series.

A competing game against WWE 2K?

A prior report by Justin Leeper, a writer on the Smackdown vs. Raw video game series, made a hint of this happening.

Leeper notes that a “different kind” of wrestling game is on the way in 2020 that does not involve Visual Concepts.

It appears that Yuke’s was the developer of this game after all.

For more news and sports, follow Jake Leonard @JakeLeonardWPMD and Heartland Newsfeed @HLNF_Bulletin on Twitter. Additionally, you can follow Heartland Newsfeed on Facebook and Reddit among other platforms.

Jake Leonard

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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.

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