No Mainline WWE 2K This Year - the Franchise Will Return, Reinvigorated, Next Year

Outside of Fallout 76, it's hard to think of a recent game that launched in as poor of a state as WWE 2K20. The latest entry in the long-running wrestling series was wrought with bugs, crashes and outright broken feature upon launch. In the face of this disaster, and the fanbase's outrage, 2K has announced that there will be no mainline WWE 2K entry this year; the next entry will release in 2021.

With the extra time, Visual Concepts (who took over from developer Yukes in creating WWE 2K20) is working in reinvigorating the franchise and ensuring that next year's release maintains a focus on "quality and fun". In addition, 2K has hired industry veteran Patrick Gilmore to take the role of Executive Producer at Visual Concepts. With notable work including the Medal of Honor, Killer Instinct and even Disney's Aladdin on the Sega Mega Drive, this hire is clearly an effort to assuage player doubts towards the future of the WWE 2K franchise.

Although there'll be no mainline series entry this year, 2K has also revealed a 'stopgap' WWE title in WWE 2K Battlegrounds, an arcade-style wrestling game in the vein of NBA 2K Playgrounds (and being developed by the same studio, Saber Interactive). Set to release in autumn 2020, the game will dial wrestling's over-the-top aspects up to 11. Take a look at the teaser trailer above—you'll get the idea.

So there are major changes happening in the world of WWE 2K videogames. Time will tell if these are the moves the franchise needs to make a strong comeback.