Publisher 2K Games and developer Visual Concepts have announced WWE 2K22 at this year’s WrestleMania.
The game was revealed alongside a new teaser trailer that includes both live-action and in-game footage of WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio, “a high-flying lucha libre legend and one of the most exciting and decorated Superstars in WWE history,” who joins the ring and preps his opponent Cesaro for his 619 signature move.
While a release window and platforms weren’t announced, 2K Games end the teaser with a note that WWE 2K22 is “coming soon” and also revealed it’s tagline, “It Hits Different.”
Here’s the teaser trailer:
Previously, 2K Games split with longtime WWE 2K developer Japanese studio Yuke’s, ending their two decade long partnership developing the games. While Visual Concepts is solely developing the WWE games now, Yuke’s will still help with the game’s engine. The last WWE game they fully worked on was WWE 2K19, released back in 2018 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
The most recent game in the WWE franchise to be released is the Saber Interactive-developed WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a cartoony spinoff that simplified the gameplay and was riddled with microtransactions. The game was put out after the negative reception on WWE 2K20, the first game developed after 2K split with Yuke’s, which launched riddled with bugs and an overall regression in quality, while the team has been using the same game engine for years.
Yuke’s previously handled all of the art, tech, and overall design of the games, while Visual Concepts handled audio, animation, and script writing. Since then, Yuke’s has recently announced their own wrestling game, a new All Elite Wrestling game, which the former WWF No Mercy director Hideyuki ‘Geta’ Iwashita is overseeing.
For now, you can check out the official WWE 2K22 website, follow them over on Facebook, or on Twitter and Instagram, and check out their official YouTube as well. Will WWE 2K22 finally live up to the legacy of the series, which predominantly saw success under Japanese developer Yuke’s? Sound off in the comments below!
