Take-Two confirms Visual Concepts will continue as WWE 2K developer

Take-Two has confirmed its Visual Concepts studio will continue to work on WWE 2K, following a ‘disappointing’ full debut.

The publisher is “actively working” with the California-based developer to improve the quality of future games starting with WWE 2K21, it said in an earnings call on Thursday.

WWE 2K20 was the first entry in the series to be developed entirely by Visual Concepts. The former co-developer took charge following publisher 2K’s split from veteran WWE studio Yuke’s.

[UPDATE: Plans for WWE 2K21 have been cancelled, WWE has confirmed.]

Take-Two previously said it was “disappointed” by the negative reaction to WWE 2K20, which mostly surrounded the game’s significant technical issues at launch.

VGC’s WWE 2K20 launch review said the game was “hamstrung by huge technical issues.”

2K has since released a series of WWE 2K20 patches designed to address the numerous bugs the game released with. However, in a further blow to the game’s developer, a clock bug left WWE 2K20 unplayable on the first day of 2020.

Speaking in an earnings call on Thursday, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick assured investors the company would address the issues seen with 2K20.

“While we’re disappointed that WWE 2K20 didn’t meet our expectations, both in terms of sales and in quality, 2K is actively working with Visual Concepts to ensure that these issues are addressed in the future. They’ll have more to share on their plans soon,” he said.

“The WWE brand continues to expand worldwide and remains a substantial longterm opportunity to grow our WWE 2K series by improving the quality of the game.”

Prior to 2K20, Japanese studio Yuke’s had been developer of mainline WWE titles for almost 20 years, having worked on the series since 1999’s Smackdown for PSOne.

Following the news that it was taking over the series, Visual Concepts creative director Lynell Jinks posted an energetic video on his YouTube and Instagram accounts, telling fans that “it’s our time to take our shot” as sole developer on WWE 2K20.