Last week, we reported on the cancellation of WWE’s yearly title of 2K’s development and publishing following last year’s mess; so this news may not be a surprise. It seemed like the team at Visual Concepts had been given a crumb of resources, a mountain of work, and very little time to do it when it came to 2K20. I’m not excusing the horrors of war that mangled mess of a “game” happened to be, it’s just not easy doing what they were expected to do.

History seems to be repeating itself, after an announcement yesterday. Following a weekend of speculation, we finally know what WWE 2K Battlegrounds will look like, showing a familiar look to one of THQ’s last WWE games. Developed by Saber Interactive, the same team behind NBA 2K Playgrounds, it will look very similar to the old WWE All Stars and Legends of WrestleMania games. It also seems to look like those rubber stretchy toys you’d have as a kid, mostly of the Hulk (the green one, not the racist), or a stupidly large Spider-Man that looks as if Bruce was eating all his vegetables and drinking all the milk.

Either way, the fan reaction to this announcement has been met with a bit of hostility. Admittedly, I don’t think I’ll like it all that much, I’m not one for the arcade-like wrestling of the 90s which All Stars tried to be. However, for years now there has been a small contingent of wrestling fans who also play these games, outright yelling for a return in some way to those days. I can’t blame them, I yell ad nauseum for a return to the GM mode or for them to bring it back in some form. We’ve leaned a little too far into the “sports-simulation” end of the games, treating WWE seriously in games that are often rated for older teens (16+ in Europe).

I can somewhat understand a maturing and jaded audience showing displeasure, though as I’ll say soon enough in an editorial, there’s more than enough going around. Other promotions are producing their own games in this same arcade-vein as Battlegrounds, it’s the desire for things not to change while they change themselves that’s the problem. Given what I said when I first saw this trailer was filled with expletives, I can’t repeat it here, but I also don’t see the point in damning the game for the rest of time.

There is one thing I’m not too keen on, however, and that’s the complete lack of announced consoles. WWE 2K Battlegrounds will release this fall, as announced in the press release, however, there’s a lack of “PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch” in the announcement. With the visual style making Charlotte and Becky look… let’s simply say wrong, I don’t have much trust in it not to be flopped out onto phones also. The subdued style may just be to put the game on the Nintendo Switch, however, it’s not promising.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds will release this Fall, presumably on all major consoles. More information will come in the next few months leading up to release.

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