It seems that the WWE 2K series might be taking a year off to recover from the injuries inflicted by last year’s disastrous WWE 2K20, at least according to one of its former creative voices. 2K Games’ sports entertainment simulation franchise entered a rough patch following the switch from longtime developer Yuke’s to Visual Concepts last year, resulting in one of the worst-received video games in WWE history.

Indeed, when WWE 2K20 hit stores last year, fans were greeted to a title that was broken in literally every aspect imaginable. Not only were the in-game graphics a severe downgrade from past installments and next-gen gaming in general, but it was plagued by a number of bugs that rendered it nigh-unplayable, including one infamous glitch that literally prevented the game from running in the year 2020, aka the year that is featured in its title. Many of these issues have since been rectified via patches, but at this point, the damage has already been done.

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Ringside News has reported yesterday that there won’t be a WWE 2K title for 2020, at least according to Justin Leeper, the former writer for the franchise’s “Road To WrestleMania” campaign mode. “I have heard from reliable sources and I truly believe that WWE 2K21 has been canceled. There will be no game this year,” Leeper told fans in a YouTube video, also noting that this might be for the best given what happened with WWE 2K20. There has been no word from 2K Games regarding any kind of cancellation for the series, but it is worth noting that Leeper has proven to be a reliable source of WWE 2K-related news in the past.

Another troubling sign of the WWE 2K series’ supposed hiatus is the lack of any sort of video game-related announcement at WrestleMania 36However, despite this silence and WWE 2K20’s troubled reception, the company has started live-streaming dream matches between the likes of Roman Reigns and The Rock in the game on Xavier Woods’s YouTube channel, UpUpDownDown.

Previously, Justin Leeper himself once pitched to re-invent the WWE 2K series as a live service with constant updates instead of annual installments, and perhaps this might be the new direction the WWE 2K series takes following its supposed year-long sabbatical. Regardless, it’s clear from the poor performance of WWE 2K20 that a new approach is needed, or at the very least a longer development cycle to prevent the sort of game-ending glitches and bugs that plagued that installment. Only time will tell if this time off will lead to a better game, but hopefully, the WWE 2K series can rise up from its latest setback to produce a champion in the world of sports-game simulators once more.

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Source: Ringside News, YouTube