After nearly 20 years of developing WWE/WWF games, Japanese developer Yuke’s will no longer be developing wrestling titles for 2K Games, including the upcoming WWE 2K20.
2K has confirmed that going forward, starting with 2K20, Visual Concepts, who served as co-developer since WWE 2K14, will now be the sole developer of WWE games.
“WWE 2K20 will be developed by Visual Concepts, who have worked with Yuke’s on the development of the series since WWE 2K14,” 2K told VGC in a statement.“As we’ve continued to invest in the WWE 2K franchise, we’ve seen the Visual Concepts team display incredible passion, talent and commitment to the future of the series. We thank Yuke’s for their years of partnership and are excited to see what the Visual Concepts team brings to the franchise moving forward.”
Yuke’s originally began developing WWE titles under THQ starting with WWF Smackdown! in 2000. However, after Take-Two Interactive acquired the game license from THQ, Yuke’s first title under the 2K banner was WWE 2K14.
Additionally, the decision for 2K to part ways with Yuke’s may be down to a factor that was mentioned in an interview with VGC earlier this year. VGC reported that Yuke’s are starting a brand-new internal development team that is currently working on a rival wrestling IP, however, this it is unclear if this is the true factor for this decision.
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WWE 2K20 is set to be released on 22nd October 2019 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.