WWE 2K21 will not release this year, WWE confirms

Plans for WWE 2K21 have been cancelled, WWE said on Thursday.

Confirming an earlier report which claimed the annual wrestling series would skip 2020, WWE interim CFO Frank Riddick told investors in an earnings call: “No, there’s not going to be a launch of the game this year.”

Following the comment, the official WWE 2K Twitter account claimed it would be sharing details on “the future of the WWE 2K franchise” as well as “exciting news” on Monday, April 27 at 7am PT.

It’s claimed publisher 2K could be planning to release a smaller, spin-off wrestling title this year instead.

The latest news follows earlier suggestion that 2K Games could skip this year’s annual wrestling instalment.

Justin Leeper, who previously worked as a writer on WWE games, claimed last week that WWE 2K21 had been cancelled, according to his sources. Leeper had shared accurate details on WWE game development in the past.

Yuke’s, the long-standing developer of WWE games, also confirmed that it would not be working on a WWE 2K game this year.

Speaking to VGC this month, the Japanese studio said it “does not have plans to be involved in any way in the next WWE title,” thus ending its near-20-year association with the wrestling license.

The most recent WWE game instalment, WWE 2K20, was a disappointing full debut for developer Visual Concepts, resulting in one of the lowest Metacritic scores in publisher 2K’s history.

VGC’s WWE 2K20 review said the game was “hamstrung by huge technical issues” at release, which the game’s developer later attempted to address via a series of WWE 2K20 patches.

The release issues were significant enough to generate mainstream coverage from the BBC. Extreme examples included fighters levitating, objects disappearing and faces falling off. In a further blow to the game’s developer, a clock bug left WWE 2K20 unplayable on the first day of 2020.

Take-Two confirmed earlier this year that Visual Concepts would continue to work on the WWE 2K series after what it called a “disappointing” debut.

The publisher said in its February earnings call that it was “actively working” with the California-based developer to improve the quality of future games.

At the time, it also suggested that Visual Concepts would have “more to share on their plans soon.”