Back in January, the unfortunate demise of THQ became complete as several developers swooped in to purchase its assets at auction. As a result Relic, the developer of Company of Heroes, is now owned by SEGA, THQ Montreal is under Ubisoft's wing and Volition, the studio behind the Saint's Row franchise, has become a branch of Koch Media.
THQ also used to wield the licence for WWE, and many people have been wondering what exactly has happened to it now the American publisher is no more.
Well, wrestling fans, you'll be happy to hear the licence has not vanished off the face of the Earth as Take-Two, which also took over the Evolve IP for a cool $10 million, has penned a five-year deal to publish WWE games.
Take-Two has filed the game under its 2K Sports line, leading to a rebranding of the series — the next WWE game will be known as WWE 2K14 and it should be out towards the end of the year.
Yukes will still be involved in the game, as it has been for so long, so it's unlikely there'll be any major changes to the gameplay. Take-Two is, however, bringing in Visual Concepts to help with the development, which could breathe a bit more life into the series.
So there you have it, it took a while to pin down but the WWE licence finally has a new home - Take-Two has officially been tagged in to take over. There's no news on which systems the game will be made available for, though it does usually release across a multitude of platforms, meaning a Wii U version is reasonably likely.
What are your thoughts on the move? Do you think Take-Two will do a good job with the franchise? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
[source purexbox.com]
Comments 22
That's good to hear, but I wonder (and not because of my avatar) but what about the Spongebob games, who will continue to develop/publish them, probably Nickelodeon games or hopefully Wayforward.
So disappointing to hear that Yukes are staying on. I was really hoping EA would get it.
@Peach64 Your upset Yukes are staying on? You're upset that in this day age that more then 100 innocent people get to keep there jobs?
As for EA, EA would have been terrible for the WWE franchise as would a new developer you realise Yukes have probably been making these games longer then you've been alive! If EA had taken this licence all the work Yukes did would be gone! We'd probably use create a star we'd lose universe mode we'd loose all the other stuff Yukes have created over the many years they've done this?
2K is a great company and always deliver fantastic sports games i don't even like Baseball or Basketball but dammit 2K's sports games are fun!
Well I stopped carrying about Wrestleing a long time ago. Hope this is good for the fans of it though.
Seriously. WWE needs more Scotty 2 hotty! >:[
@manic221 Who the heck are you to judge me? It's never nice to see people lose their jobs, but if Yukes can't survive without making WWE games than is that even a developer that deserves to keep going? These games have improved at a snail's pace with Yukes at the helm and have partly contributed to THQ going out of business. The license should go to the people that are going to make the best game, not to anyone out of sympathy. Heck, a new studio could have hired hundreds of new people to create the next WWE game, but instead those people are now going to remain unemployed, unable to feed their families etc. The WWE games would still be getting made, and still supporting a large developer.
@Peach64 you clearly have no idea what you're talking about with WWE Yukes have 1 year to make a game! you try make a game in 1 year it's not easy!
As for do they deserve stick around because they only make WWE games that's a ridiculous thing to say, Yukes is a Japanese development company that's been making wrestling games for years it's there specialty. And you offer EA as a better solution?
Look at EA games they improve slower then WWE does, the people that buy Fifa, Madden, Tiger Woods etc have been buying the same game since the HD era began! They haven't changed in 6 years! and yet they are a better solution then 2K whose games have consistently improved since the HD era began?
It's amazing how much Yukes have managed to do working on a game in 1 year, Universe mode is fantastic there creation sweet is consistently improving and Attitude Era mode was great, I'm curious have you even played WWE 13? I really don't think you have...
Yukes have done more with WWE under THQ then EA ever did with there various sport franchise... 2K is a great home for WWE and they made the right choice by keeping on Yukes and bringing in one of there own teams to help them out.
as for saying they're one of the reasons that THQ went out of business that's WRONG! The WWE franchise was one of THQ's best sellers for years WWE 13 sold more copies then Darksiders 2 too did don't just make crap up because you think it supports your point of view! For your information THQ went out of business due to poor business decisions and because you clearly have no idea i'll spell it out for you UDRAW! they made far too many and the ones for the HD consoles killed THQ simple as that!
I'm still disgusted that you think people loosing there jobs is okay.
@manic221
Yukes has made awful wrestling games for the past decade.
@AbeVigoda WWE '12 and WWE '13 where both great wrestling games they have there issues but they where still great games. You only have to go look up reviews for those games (particularly WWE '13) to find out that i'm right.
in fact i'll do it for you http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/wwe-13 currently has an 8.2 user rating which is a really good score. as is the critic average which is 78 it's not excellent but it's still pretty good terrible would be in the 40's or lower get your facts right.
Well at least EA didnt get it. It will be interesting to see how 2K does the WWE games.
@manic221 At least be consistent. If you're going to point to metacritic to prove how 'good' WWE 13 was, then you should also be aware that FIFA 13 has a score of 90 on there, but according to you, only idiots buy that?
@rossy771 Yukes only work on WWE games (they did do UFC 3 too) and as far as i'm aware where 100% owned by THQ therefore had 2K or another company dropped them like Visceral (sadly) the more then 100 developers who work at Yukes would also be on the unemployment line.
@Peach64 I don't recall saying the Fifa games where poor? I'm sure they're a great to the people who like football but that doesn't change the fact that Fifa 13 is pretty much identical to the games that came before it...
The most recent wrestling game I've played is WWF No Mercy. I've also played Smackdown! on the Playstation - briefly, and I currently own Smackdown 2! (although I haven't got round to playing it).
I'd really like to play a modern wrestling game (as good as No Mercy is), and though a few have been released on the Wii console over the years, all of them have been severely lacking compared to their PS3/X360 counterparts.
As long they release any future games on the Wii U (heck! maybe even the 3DS), I'll be pretty happy.
I'm glad EA didn't get the license. I fear they'll load it up with season passes, online passes, DLC and microtransactions.
Also, I worry about whether EA would even bother releasing it on the Wii U given their current support. Of course, they can always outsource the port to a small inexperienced studio...
(WTF! I just checked Wikipedia and Smackdown! 1 & 2 were apparently released in the same year!)
@edhe 2K are generally really good at supporting every platform and both of there current sports games are out on Wii U.
WWE '12 and '13 both had Online passes and season pass DLC but they where just extra wrestlers on top of the 84 already included in the game and frankly i'll buy DLC for extra wrestlers as long as the roster is as big as it was when it first started.
@manic221
Pointless comment is pointless.
Nice avatar choice! (Even though I kept her out of my party most of the time)
2K has done some pretty good quality sports games in the past. Not sure what sort of quality they can pump out for what could be 8 or 9 systems by the end of the year.
Haven't played a wrestling game i enjoyed since the N64 days. Will keep an eye out for WWE 2k14 though.
Not a Wrestling fan, but it's good that the games will continue to be developed for the people that are interested. Unless they suck, I wouldn't know. I'm still wondering what happened to the Destroy All Humans franchise, loved those games, but I'm assuming it's current state is similar to Darksiders.
I remember playing the original Smackdown with my dad on the PS1, and then I used to love the Smackdown VS Raw series, but it's been awhile since I last played one (SVR'08).
Glad to hear 2K is keeping Yukes on (since they're the veterans in the area). My dad says the 2K Baseball games suck (he prefers the MLB the Show titles), so I would have worried if 2K were tackling the series on their own (since they're less familiar with the genré).
I grew up with WWE games. I think they're in good hands with 2K .
Well, I'll bet Chris Hoffman (of the late Nintendo Power magazine) will be glad to hear this.
Good for WWE and 2K, I hope they post more details soon.
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