WWE 2K Developer Yuke’s Creating New Wrestling IP to Compete with Themselves

Tomas Franzese May 13, 2019 10:40 AM EST

WWE 2K19 developer Yuke's is creating a new wrestling game IP in order to increase competition and prevent stagnation.

Every year, Japanese developer Yuke’s works with Visual Concepts and 2K Sports in order to create new WWE 2K games. While they are fun, it has become clear that things have stagnated recently with games like WWE 2K19. Yuke’s has apparently noticed this stagnation as well, according to Video Games Chronicle, and to combat it they have created an internal team to craft a brand new wrestling game IP that can compete with their current wrestling series.

While it may seem a bit odd for Yuke’s to want to compete with themselves, Yuke’s Senior Vice President and Producer Hiromi Furuta made it clear that the WWE 2K series has been suffering due to a lack of competition. “I think having no competitor isn’t healthy at all. When we had competitors in the wrestling space, we were determined not to lose and that was a great motivator for creating something great. But right now, looking at the market demands, players are expecting something new every time we release a game and we feel like we haven’t achieved what we’ve really wanted to do,” she said.

This new wrestling game is apparently in the “very early” stages of development, so the exact direction it will go is not determined yet. That being said, Hiromi Furuta seems to be very confident in the project, saying “we’re not chasing money or trends. We’ll go in whatever direction we feel is most interesting, combined with the passion of whoever leads the project. As long as whoever leads the project has enough passion, then I’m sure we will achieve our goals. In terms of our new wrestling project, there are many experienced creators here in this field so I’m confident it’s going to be an awesome game.” DualShockers’ own Michael Ruiz suggested a game focusing on the women of wrestling in an opinion piece last year, so that is one possible direction Yuke’s could go in to stand out from WWE 2K.

The wrestling game scene will certainly get a lot more interesting if this new IP materializes in a couple years, though WWE 2K fans apparently shouldn’t worry about Yuke’s abandoning that series. “It is a project dear to our hearts and has even become a part of some of the veteran creators’ lives. We have a huge history making these games and still have a good relationship with 2K. Anyhow, WWE would never allow us to stop making these games! However, the new project we have in mind will be the internal competition for WWE,” Hiromi Furata ultimately concluded.

The inevitable WWE 2K20 has not been unveiled by Yuke’s and 2K Sports yet, but DualShockers will be sure to let you know when they do finally announce it. In the meantime, WWE 2K19 is available on Amazon.

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