WWE confirms no annual video game release this year

There will be no WWE 2K video game released this year.

WWE today confirmed that there will be no WWE 2K21 released this fall. Near the very end of today’s Q1 financial briefing, Frank A. Riddick III, the interim chief financial officer of WWE, confirmed that there would be no launch of a game this year. This would mark the first time since 1997 that a WWE video game won’t be released annually.

WWE Games’ Twitter account, which is handled by video game publisher 2K, wrote the following after the briefing: “We will be sharing details on the future of the WWE 2K franchise as well as some exciting news on Monday at 7:00 a.m. PT.”

Justin Lepper, a former writer for the WWE Raw vs. SmackDown video game series, reported earlier this month that there would be no WWE 2K21. He mentioned 2K is working on another game not developed by WWE 2K developer Visual Concepts. That game was not mentioned in today’s WWE conference call.

Yukes, the longtime developer of WWE games dating back to the SmackDown video game series on the original PlayStation, is no longer involved in the development of WWE’s video games.  

WWE 2K20, which was released in October for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC received lackluster reviews, averaging 43 percent on Metacritic.