Take-Two Interactive Sending Massive Copyright Takedown Notices Over WWE 2K22 Screenshots

WWE 2K22 is one of the most highly anticipated wrestling games in a long time. 2K Games, an internal development studio under the Take-Two Interactive banner, has refined the game engine and gameplay modes in hopes of creating a much better experience for gamers. WWE2K20 was widely considered a disaster.

2K has been heavily hyping the March 11th release of the new WWE game. An elaborate trailer showed some footage. A few sites were allowed to offer gameplay previews. Since then, screenshots and other details have been shared far and wide online. That being said, the company might not be 100% proud of their product, because they’re trying to suppress early looks at the game.

Take-Two has resorted to sending out DMCA notices to virtually anyone who shares this material. Karrion Kross and Scarlett screenshots received takedown notices across Twitter and tons of accounts were affected. We were given a full list of takedowns, and it is massive. Many gamers are familiar with this story. Embargoes on game material this close to the release date never means anything good.

A recent example is the universally panned release of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. The game was hyped as a massive, open world game with every feature a gamer could want. On release day, the game turned out to be a buggy dud. It took over a year to get the game into a playable state on consoles.

We’re not saying that WWE 2K22 is going to be the Cyberpunk 2077 of pro wrestling video games. They would have to sink pretty low to top the glitchfest that was WWE 2K20, still this isn’t the greatest sign of their confidence.

2K Games claims that the new WWE title has been refined and will make good on the promise of an improved game. Tracking down individual Twitter users who have shared screenshots is a troubling strategy by the developers. An embargo on official reviews has made it even harder for gamers to get info.

Many fans have lost their Twitter accounts over the DMCA takedowns. Everything seemed fine until people started mocking the odd player models and lack of real updates and gameplay previews. Time will tell whether this move is to legitimately protect Take-Two’s intellectual property or if they’re just trying to hide another bad game.

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