WWE 2K14 Announced!

[Smacktalks]

Today seen the official announcement of a 5-year deal between WWE and Take Two, which confirmed the takeover of the WWE license which will now see future games published under the 2K Sports brand.

Also confirmed was the return of Yukes who will continue to develop the game, but they'll also be accompanied by Visual Concepts, 2K's in house developers that work on the other 2K Sports series such as NBA 2K14.

So first off the WWE '14 name is gone and future games will now be named in the same manner as the other 2K Sports titles, meaning the next game will be WWE 2K14 which WILL be released later this year.

The official announcement came from the WWE executive VP of consumer products Casey Collins, who told ESPN:

“We looked at a lot of different leaders in the industry and talked to all of the big guys, and for us, we had been with THQ for so many years, it was nice to finally go out and date a few other companies and see what kind of thought process they had about the video game industry going forward.”

“As we look at the next-gen systems coming out, whether that’s this holiday or next holiday, we want to make sure we align our property with who we thought would be a leader going forward on these next-gen systems.”

“With Yukes, we have a lot of history, and we’ve been very happy with what Yukes has done in the past,”. “What we’re going to do moving forward is meld Yukes with the team at Visual Concepts, so we can have the best of both worlds. Having Yukes’ experience and then getting the Visual Concepts guys on board with them, we think this is going to be a dynamic duo.”

“Everything that we’ve done with NBA is what we’re trying to contribute to WWE. So the growth that you’ve see in the NBA franchise from the authenticity in the game to the excitement of the marketing that surrounds it is all something we expect to add to the franchise. We’re going to create one hell of a video game franchise.”

Also confirmed is the return of some familiar names from the WWE Games such as Cory Ledesma, Bryan Williams and Aubrey Sitterson, who alongside the rest of the THQ Fight Team will be working for Visual Concepts.

What all this means is that we'll see the release of the formally named WWE '14 which was being developed by THQ and Yukes later this year, albeit under the WWE 2K14 banner.

As for what the game will feature, whether it be current era, attitude era, the invasion, ruthless aggression, etc. we still have to wait and see, but the good news is that everything is signed and the deal is done, meaning it wont be long before we get to hear the first details of the new game.

Let me know what you think on the news below and specify what era and improvements you want to see in 2K14 as I'll be putting together some concepts in the coming weeks and months so I'll look to feature the best ideas.

For more on the news check out the article links below:

WWE.com

ESPN

IGN

Source: Smacktalks.org, WWE.com, ESPN, IGN

[The 4th Doctor]

Still not excited cause Cory Aubry and Williams are back.

[Spyder78]

Now we go thru the wait & see process to what they come up with for this installment

[Mathayus]

Still not excited cause Cory Aubry and Williams are back.

I hope the same game with the same shits. Only if they makes the Monday night wars WCW version I would be interested.

[The 4th Doctor]

New label same team.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

[Aero]

i can't see too many new features this year off the back of this, but in all honesty, if 2k sports are gonna go balls deep into this venture, we should start to see changes fro 2k15 onwards, so all in all im interested in the long term, but 2k14 will just be a money making racket.

[best in the world]

In my view, WWE 14 or WWE 2K14, whichever it is called, we be nothing more than the usual yearly WWE game with the 2K name on the cover and not much will change. THQ already has done the biggest portion of the work which means 2K will reap the benefits and probably not change too much. WWE 15 or WWE 2K15 will be the year it changes more dramatically, I'm guessing. That's the first whole calendar production year for WWE and 2K games and also the first year the new next gen consoles like PS4, WII U, and whatever Microsoft is calling the next XBOX console will be in use. That'll be when all these gaming companies are jockeying for position to wow the gamers with their eye candy graphics and some additions to gameplay. I just hope that 2K sports can provide a realistic and fun WWE game for those of us like me, who have been playing since the Nintendo and Super Nintendo days. WWE has always had great game developers[although some of the throwback titles did suck] and their games have always at least been fun to play. We shall see soon enough.