2K Games really stepped in the mess this year. And of course, it’s all about the buggy nonsense that was WWE 2K20. This latest game in the franchise debuted to soured reviews and fan backlash over a huge smattering of bugs that plagued, and continue to infest, every manner of the game. Bad controls, poor performance, along with texture and animation glitches galore, all combined to create this particular digital trash fire of a game.
This latest batch of insights and nonsense comes from the slickly produced “Wha Happun?” series from YouTuber Matt McMuscles. Many of you will know him from his time in the fighting game community, or perhaps as one of the founding member of the now defunct Super Best Friends Play Youtube group. His video series cobbles together reports, interviews and other content relating to video games that go through “development hell”, or are otherwise infamous for just being bad. And in the case of WWE 2K20, it’s the latter, with a heaping helping of nasty bugs on top.
Yuke’s has been a name famously associated with the WWE gaming brand for years. The Japanese developer had been intricately involved with the games based on the dominant wrestling brand for years. But it turns out that the pace that WWE execs had pushed along with 2K Games soured their desire to continue working on yearly wrestling projects. WWE 2K19 was the final WWE-branded game Yuke’s worked on.
In their stead, 2K bumped up former support studio Visual Concepts, who were clearly not given the time and support they needed to complete the game and get it polished. As of now, WWE 2K20 is in limbo. There’s growing suspicion that patches will not be coming out to fix issues, and that the franchise may be in trouble.
Check out Matt McMuscles newest “Wha Happun?” video to see more. You can find that down below if you’re in the mood for a laugh.
If you would like a more nuanced insight that’s more serious and lighter on the humor when talking about 2K20, I strongly suggest you check out Justin Leeper on YouTube. The former designed released various videos on the topic, putting a very sobering light on the things this recent wrestling game went through. Leeper also revealed new details about the thinking that led to this whole mess on the part of the publisher. Some of his claims are very inflammatory, so take them with a big grain of salt as they are presented without evidence.
As he describes it, “Six days ago, I gave my take on the WWE 2K20 debacle as a former designer (I wrote/directed/designed Road to WrestleMania mode for SVR 2009, 2010, 2011). Since that video, I’ve learned disturbing things from the game’s past and a grim outlook for the future.”
2K likely won’t care too much, as they have a much bigger annual sports franchise with the NBA to fall back on. And even though that franchise has been through the ringer recently, thanks to atrocious gambling mechanics, 2K Games isn’t hurting for cash.
