Take-Two will release WWE 2K14 this fall after officially acquiring the rights to the WWE video game license for the next five years.
The publisher has hired key designers from former license holder THQ’s Fight Team to work alongside internal 2K Sports studio Visual Concepts and veteran series developer Yuke’s on the game. Target platform have yet to be confirmed.
2K Sports vice president of marketing, Jason Argent, told ESPN: “We’ve looked at the WWE franchise with respect for a long time. There are a lot of similarities that we see, from the size of the franchise to the demographics of the franchise, and they fit in very well with what we’ve done with NBA in terms of development and marketing. We thought we could add tremendous value right off the bat and down the road.
“Everything that we’ve done with NBA is what we’re trying to contribute to WWE,” he added. “So the growth that you’ve see in the NBA franchise from the authenticity in the game to the excitement of the marketing that surrounds it is all something we expect to add to the franchise. We’re going to create one hell of a video game franchise.”
Casey Collins, WWE’s executive vice president of consumer products, said of the new deal with Take-Two: “The work they do, and the quality of the games they put out and how they’ve been able to grow their [NBA] franchise with not only the simulation aspect of the game, but also the entertainment aspect, we thought they’d be a perfect partner.
“What we’re going to do moving forward is meld Yuke’s with the team at Visual Concepts, so we can have the best of both worlds. Having Yuke’s’ experience and then getting the Visual Concepts guys on board with them, we think this is going to be a dynamic duo.”
The most recent WWE game launched last October for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. And while we praised it for being the “the best wrestling package of the year” in our WWE 13 review, we also said “we hope the gameplay is freshened up a little more next time”.
