2K Went The Extra Mile To Include WarGames In WWE 2K23

Pro wrestling and video games have gone hand-in-hand for decades. Following WWE 2K20’s terrible release, some WWE fans didn’t think 2K had it anymore, but 2k22 was a success after taking a year off to re-group. Now, WWE 2K23 was officially confirmed, with the game being listed for a release in fiscal 2023. WWE 2K22 is the latest installment in the video game series based on the sports entertainment company. WWE 2K23 will feature WarGames.

WWE and 2K Games revealed more details about WWE 2K23 on Monday. John Cena will be included in Showcase Mode. WarGames will get debuted as a match type.

Visual Concepts team members Lynell Jinks and Bryan Williams appeared on Wrestle Buddies to discuss how they were able to bring WarGames to 2K. The idea of including came up when they started rebuilding their engine. According to Jinks, it’s the “best match type we have in the game.”

To be honest, we kind of started in 2022 [WWE 2K22]. ‘Oh, you started WarGames and then cut it.’ No, we started with rebuilding our engine from the ground up and were like, ‘How do we do something like WarGames?’ Or navigating around it in a space where you don’t really have to adhere to one ring and ropes and all the constraints we were so used to with our engine. We had to basically re-think how we approach this stuff. In 2K22, what we did was backstage brawl. When I look at what we did with that elevated platform, it’s like three feet tall, you can climb on it, there are boxes and you can do stuff on it.

Advertising

Advertising

That, in previous years, wasn’t possible for us to accomplish, when we started doing things like that, ‘Oh, I can walk up, get close to the ledge, hop on it and do things’ you would expect to happen in the ring, we couldn’t do that before. Now, once we were able to do that, we got the confidence and the toolset to allow us to really start thinking about WarGames early on.

That was the first thing we started working on in 2K23. When you look at that match type and how different it is from way back until now, we’ve never done anything at this scale, from the presentation to the side-by-side, three to four people on each team coming in at different times, two rings side-by-side that you can navigate between, and the cage surrounding it. Figuring that part out was kind of a nightmare, but a cool nightmare. ‘Oh, this is challenging, let’s see what we can do now that we’ve rebuilt this.’

That’s when Brian Williams came on. ‘We kind of have the skeleton of something that is cool, but it needs a ton of work.’ He worked with the team to really figure this thing out; MoCap [motion capture], figuring out the holes in our designs, and going back and forth all the way until recently. We didn’t really lock this thing down (until late in production). To me, it’s the best match type we have in the game.

Brian Williams went on to say that it’s an impressive match type and the most ambitious match type in the franchise’s history. He said that the player is able to climb and fight on top of the cage, as well as perform dive attacks off the cage and into either of the rings. It’s a fantastic match.

“It is an impressive match-type and the most ambitious match-type that has ever been in this franchise. I don’t think that hyperbole. All the cool things you can do within WarGames, we’ve all seen WarGames matches. That trench area and all of the chaos and fighting that can occur between the two rings. You can, if a superstar known for their springboards, being able to springboard from one ring to the next. It’s chaotic, frenetic, there are weapons.

One of the cool things you can do is, as new entrants come into the match, they can take a pause and before they get in, they can go under the ring apron, pull out a weapon, object, tables, chairs, kendo stick, stop sign, baseball bat, and introduce all these things into this environment. Being able to climb and fight on top of the cage, doing dive attacks off of the cage and into either one of the rings. It’s an amazing match. I think the fans are going to be very impressed with what we’ve done this year.”

At WWE Survivor Series 2022, WarGames made its main roster debut with a men’s and women’s WarGames match. Since 2017, the match has been used at NXT events. Keep an eye on Ringside News for more.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!