WWE 2K22 revealed, hoping for a stronger future for the franchise

Today, at night one of Wrestlemania 37, WWE 2K22 was revealed, with the slogan “It Hits Different”.

The teaser trailer isn’t a lot to go off at this stage, but it does show Rey Mysterio delivering a trademark 619 to Cesaro, and from what we can see, the game certainly looks the part.

We don’t have much more information to share at this stage, except that a press briefing promised that WWE 2K22 would be built as a foundation for a stronger future for the franchise. Regaining some of the reputation lost is going to be very important for developer Visual Concepts, after the disastrous entry of WWE 2K20 that was riddled with glitches and bugs that made it, at times, unplayable, despite being kind of hilarious. To prevent this happening again, 2K plans to “show more and show it earlier”, with more transparency on development progress this time around.

Considering the awkward development cycle that included a core developer leaving half way through production, the WWE 2K series took a year off last year for the first time since 2K acquired the rights to make WWE video games under their sports banner back in 2014. Instead of a simulation style game, 2020 saw the release of WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a more cartoon-like take on wrestling, that was fun but incredibly shallow.

Only time will tell if WWE 2K22 brings the franchise back to a higher quality – as a big wrestling fan, I’m certainly hoping this is a step back in the right direction. WWE 2K22 will likely launch towards the end of 2021.