The Chief Brand Officer of WWE, Stephanie McMahon, has announced that the company are set to launch a brand-new role-playing video game.
WWE have been highly active in the video game industry in the past few years. The company is most renowned in the video game world for their annual release of console games. However, WWE 2K22 was a bi-annual release due to a number of wrestlers departing WWE during production.
WWE 2K22 has gone down well amongst video game fans. It is a significant improvement on the series’ previous instalment, WWE 2K20.
That game was beset with issues upon launch. Users reported several severe glitches and bugs that heavily impacted playability. According to Games Industry, sales of WWE 2K22 on launch week were more than double that of its predecessor.
As well as their console games, WWE has recently branched out into the mobile market. WWE Champions is a puzzle-based, RPG action game that became available on mobile devices in 2017.
In addition, there is WWE SuperCard. The game, of which 2K are developers, sees users collect their favourite wrestlers in virtual card form. They then do battle inside the ring. 2K have tried to replicate this in a similar format in 2K22, with the inclusion of the MyFaction mode.
But McMahon has confirmed that WWE have exciting new plans for another addition to its ever-increasing video game portfolio.
Stephanie McMahon confirms new WWE RPG video game
Speaking at WWE’s Q1 2022 earnings call, Stephanie McMahon talked about how pleased the company was with 2K22.
She said (quotes via WrestlingInc): “Innovation and interactivity are critical of the success of any media property. We were extremely pleased with the re-launch of our premium video game, console franchise, WWE 2K.”
McMahon continued: “WWE 2K22 was a commercial and critical success, with the highest Metacritic scores on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms, in franchise history, with over 5.6 million hours viewed on Twitch to date.”
The former on-screen authority figure then explained why gaming is so important for WWE, and their upcoming release of an RPG.
“We continue to see strength in the performance of our mobile games, with 2K and Scopely’s Supercard and Champions. We recently signed a new deal in the role-playing game space that will be announced soon.
“Gaming is a priority for WWE to reach our next-gen audience, with over 80% of WWE’s audience self-identifying as gamers, and nearly 60% of the gaming audience, in general, being 34 years or younger.”
WWE fans will now have to wait in anticipation for more details of the new RPG. However, the company’s confirmation is the first step towards what they hope will be another successful release.
Featured Image Credit: WWE
