WWE 2K:16?
Live from the center of the ring, last pew, back of the church. Guy Padre kicking it to you from the Padre’s Pew surrounded by the digital ghosts of Smackdown games past.
Details of the next big squared circle release, WWE2K15, have started to leak out. Well, more like rumors have started to spill forth based on conflicting reports from seemingly legitimate sources. Some say Visual Concepts (NBA 2K fame) will be working on the game solo, minus longtime developer Yukes. Another suggests that it will be a collaborative effort with Yukes still involved.
The biggest noise however is over the release date, as it is being speculated that WWE 2K15 could release not later this year, but in 2015 around the time of Wrestlemania. This stems from reports that it was listed as part of a projected revenue report as a Fiscal 2015 title. At this point until someone comes right out and says “Well let me tell ya somethin’ Padre! This is what we’re doing…brother!”, it’s all video game dirt sheet malarkey. The boys in the back ain’t talkin’, but when they do, here’s what The Natural Guy Padre thinks we will hear:
- It will drop the leg on Next Gen consoles (Xbox-One and PS4) as well as a simple scoop slam on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Next gen will obviously be the superior product with more bells, whistles and significant leaps forward. Yes I know my brothers and sisters, “significant” changes and improvements go together with this series like TNA and making money, but I have hope the jump will see Visual Concepts really open up the toolbox to make this the wrasslin’ equivalent of B-ball’s NBA 2K series. It’s just smart business to release it on all four systems considering the vast install bases of the older consoles. Whether it hampers 2K taking full advantage of the development potential of the new consoles remains to be seen.
- That leads me to the rumored delay. My thought is that it could be true and not true. Kind of like the Montreal Screwjob (Bret screwed Bret, Bret got screwed), it’s all in the angle from which you approach it. Say the March 2015 release date is true. It would make sense for the Next Gen version to drop around then, bigger, better, with new modes and all the power of those uber-consoles behind it to make a more robust innovated game that benefits from the longer dev time. I can then see the old-gen, PS3 and 360 versions still coming out in November of this year and being more like upgrades to WWE 2K14. Two dates, two games, two sources of revenue. Now, all that being said, the whole “Fiscal Year 2015” bru-ha-ha could just come down to internet detectives misinterpreting what Take-Two Interactive deems a fiscal year. By U.S. standards, the first quarter of say fiscal year 2015 would be October 1st 2014 through December 31st 2014. Also, just today, Amazon opened up pre-order pages for the game across all four systems with a release date of October 28, 2014. So, who knows. Amazon dates have been wrong in the past. Final verdict from the Padre’s Pew = Wait and see.
- Creation mode will remain untouched. That’s good and bad. I’m confident 2K knows that CAW/CAS mode is a big draw of the series for the hardcore virtual ring psychologists. So fears of “Oh noes dey gonna remove CAW mode” are probably unfounded. But if history shows us anything it will probably get a tweak or two, but don’t expect any major overhauls…yet.
- Look for some kind of NBA 2K update feature that keeps wrestlers current gimmick-wise and stats wise throughout either regular Universe mode (which I expect back with its usual lipstick on a pig updates) or the oft rumored new solo mode. Think Road to Wrestlemania but with NXT branding.
So in summation my collective Ringside Apostle marks, we don’t know squat for sure, other than the game is in development and details should be coming soon, as they usually do around SummerSlam. And that’s the bottom line…’cause Guy Padre stole that line from Stone Cold so he could say so. Or something like that.
(Flip the page to catch Vince McMahon catch a beat down from…Bishop Wyatt?!!!??)