One of my favorite things to do growing up was playing wrestling video games in order to create my own wrestling world and develop a show exactly how I would want to compared to what we are seeing on television every week. WWE 2K22 has been delayed and they have been going downhill fast so today I decided to talk about why WWE 2K22 needs to be one of the best sports games that 2K Interactive has released.
Playing sports games establishes which team should be better than the other and helps beginners understand NFL lines if you are playing Madden for example.
Unprecedented Amount of Time
The nature of sport platform games is the fact that the developer needs to consistently produce a brand new game annually. However, due to the nature of COVID-19 and some other issues surrounding it, the last WWE game made was WWE 2K Battlegrounds in 2020 (which was an arcade game more than what we have been accustomed to) and the last WWE 2K game in the series was WWE 2K20. 2K20 was released worldwide on October 22, 2019 so that means this game has over 18 months between releases so they have time to improve.
Typical gameplay glitches and just a run of the mill game is going to kill any chance of increasing their sales. There always is going to be some mechanical issues that need a larger test sample to fix but every mistake and issue will be dissected to a fine powder.
Competition in the Marketplace
For the first time in a long time, there are actually a good amount of alternatives in the wrestling video game marketplace. All Elite Wrestling is also expected to make their video game debut in the first quarter of 2022 as well and there is already RetroMania and Fire Pro Wrestling World has been picking up steam in recent years. With a WWE 2K title that has been regressing in recent memory, the need for a good title is more prevalent than ever for WWE.
The use of WWE wrestlers obviously aren’t in those games due to licensing and other legality issues but the biggest thing is the gameplay because people have become able to create wrestlers not available in other games to replicate dream matches and everything in between.
Need Some New Features
One thing that has been lacking is the lack of features that grab the player’s attention. They announced the re-addition of GM Mode, which was in previous WWE Smackdown vs RAW games and that is a good start. With the ability of creation, there can be a feature to create your own match type and create an arena similar to the WWE Performance Center to host weekly shows out of.
One ability that would be interesting as an addition would be to create a rival promotion and essentially go head-to-head against WWE, similar to what TNA did a decade ago in real life. But the lack of creativity in these games and now the lack of having high-level names like Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt, and Adam Cole just to name a couple of fan favorites.
Conclusion
This game can be make-or-break for the WWE 2K franchise because they will continue making these games but this was used as a reset and if fans are disappointed once again, there are alternatives to play instead. 2K Interactive seems to be having their sporting titles decrease in quality so now having an added pressure of potentially being the last game that the WWE could have all the mainstream eyes on them in the video game world.
Robert J. Smith is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including JoyStiq and Android Authority. In regards to academics, Robert earned a degree in business from Fordham University. Robert has passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
