In the first few moments of the WWE 2K Battlegrounds teaser trailer, wrestling superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson murders, nay, sacrifices fellow superstar John Cena by feeding him to a crocodile. Needless to say, this year's WWE game is going to be a little different than what many were expecting.
Developed by Saber Interactive, WWE 2K Battlegrounds looks to be taking pretty much all of its cues from the studio's similarly styled NBA 2K Playgrounds. According to 2K's press release, the game is meant to be "a completely new WWE gaming experience that will feature arcade-style action and over-the-top Superstar designs, environments and moves."
Furthermore, the goal for Battlegrounds is to provide "social pick-up-and-play fun, but with plenty of depth for those who want to get way into it."
Say what you will about the character models being a little on the hobbity side, because you're totally valid, but the action itself looks to be fitting of the larger-than-life spectacle that professional wrestling attempts to conjure. As someone who grew up playing the WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw series before it was renamed and subsequently began taking itself too seriously, I'm pretty stoked by the prospect of a wrestling game actually being fun again.
The announcement of WWE 2K Battlegrounds comes just one week after publisher 2K confirmed rumors that this year's entry in the WWE 2K series had been cancelled. Additionally, the publisher emphasized that it wasn't abandoning its annual wrestling simulator, but rather taking a year off to allow the developer to fine-tune its product.
"As part of that commitment, we are extending the production timeline and will not be releasing a WWE 2K simulation game in 2020 (T2 fiscal year 2021). We want to ensure the development team at Visual Concepts can create a great game that will entertain grizzled WWE 2K veterans, as well as newcomers who want to climb through the ropes and step into the ring for the very first time."
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is set to release Fall 2020.
