2K Severs Ties With Yuke’s For WWE Franchise

According to a recent statement from publisher 2K, the company has announced that Japanese developer Yuke’s will be cutting ties with the publisher following the statement going public. Gaming website Video Game Chronicles received official word from 2K sharing that the upcoming installment for the WWE 2K series will instead be developed by Visual Concepts for this year’s title.

Yuke’s has been the primary developer for the WWE franchise dating back to start of the millennium with WWF Smackdown! back in 2000. Since then, the developer has been working on succeeding titles for the franchise under THQ until the publisher shutdown in 2012. The following year in 2013, 2K picked up the franchise and Yuke’s continued to work on future installments until last year’s WWE 2K19.

Studio Visual Concepts who already develops the mainline NBA 2K series has for the past few WWE titles been working alongside Yuke’s, and now, the publisher feels that the developer should take helm for future installments as well.

“WWE 2K20 will be developed by Visual Concepts, who have worked with Yuke’s on the development of the series since WWE 2K14.,” 2K’s statement reads. “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.”

Regarding Yuke’s stance on the matter, Video Game Chronicles also shares that the developer will still support the publisher through the game’s engine: stating that the Osaka-based studio is currently working on its own unique wrestling title which has been a side project alongside the WWE 2K titles that were previously worked on.

Do you think the decision to split with Yuke’s will affect upcoming WWE 2K titles?

WWE 2K20 is slated to release on October 22, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC.

Source: Video Game Chronicles