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2K Games have not released a WWE 2K21 game. It is the first time in years that the gaming community did not get their favorite wrestling game. The franchise's yearly installment of the WWE 2K series has instead launched a more arcade-based WWE 2K Battlegrounds as a substitute.
The uncharacteristic year break in the long-standing WWE 2K series was due to the backlash and harsh criticism of WWE 2K20, which eventually led to postponing and finally discarding the idea of a WWE 2K21.
The last game had severe glitches that made the game unplayable. This happened due to a lot of management issues and fallout. 2K's in-house studio Visual Concepts took over from Yuke's during a critical time that damaged the game's development in unimaginable ways.
The year-long absence of WWE games would see them transition to building their next one for a newer generation of exciting consoles. With Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X's NextGen technology, WWE games should take full advantage of the platform's capabilities for this next installment.
#5 Facial scans and regular updates in WWE 2K
Fans of the game would universally agree that some of the most prominent character models are perfectly scanned. Their real-life counterparts look accurate and precise. But despite that, the same praise cannot be given to all of the in-game character designs.
Many of the mid-card talents in the game are not designed well. Sometimes, even the community creations manage to stand out by having more resemblances to wrestlers than their official in-game models. This factor does hinder the experience of a gamer. Another aspect that 2K needs to consider implementing is updating a wrestler's gimmicks and looks until the next release.
As you are already familiar with, many WWE superstars change their looks along with their personas. So within a calendar year, a wrestler can undergo multiple changes.
If you consider that alongside the vast roster, then such changes turn out to be frequent. To account for these things and keep the game up to date, 2K regularly needs to update their models to their new looks and stats.
#4 WWE 2K Showcase modes
Some of the most fun gamers have ever had with WWE games come down to two in-game modes. The first is the recent 2K showcase mode which tends to take a realistic recap covering significant era, rivalries, or events of a WWE Superstar that has made a mark on the company's history. It is a story-driven, single-player campaign.
We have seen the 2K showcase feature "Best Friends, Better Enemies" featuring Triple H and Shawn Michaels along with "Hustle, Loyalty, Disrespect" featuring CM Punk in WWE 2K15.
For WWE 2K16, the showcase mode had "Austin 3:16" that revolved around Stone Cold Steve Austin's highlighted career. Since then, the 2K showcase was significantly downgraded to a DLC in 2K17 and omitted completely in WWE 2K18.
WWE 2K19 saw the showcase return with Daniel Bryan's career. WWE 2K20 attempted to showcase the "Women's Evolution." A few of them do stand out. But mostly, they give a low replay value leaving the gamers' desire for more.
2K should focus a lot on making it back to 2K15 & 2K16's standards which were fun to play. I don't think the players will mind revisiting a tale featuring the Attitude Era or the Ruthless Aggression era in the next showcase.
#3 The return of the GM & Road to WrestleMania modes in WWE games
After WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, we never got to play the fan-favorite GM mode again. In similar fashion after WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, we never got to see any Road to WrestleMania mode again.
Two of the most famous modes were let go of with no new inclusion that served as a worthy replacement.
No wonder it left ardent fans desiring for both modes to return. The GM mode had a management and booking aspect to it. As the General Manager of Raw, SmackDown or ECW, you had the privilege of drafting your roster and running your shows for brand supremacy against the other GM.
You felt invested in competing with your rival brands in setting up spectacular events that earned you good ratings. It was a lot of fun.
Similarly, The Road to WrestleMania was a single-player campaign involving a WWE Superstar whose aim is to get on the card for that year's WrestleMania. With a few months in hand, the superstar would get in the middle of a fantasy storyline with unique scenarios. You would have access to compete in a few PPVs before going into the biggest show of the year.
It is now the perfect time for WWE 2K to make up for a year's absence with the return of either a GM mode or a Road to WrestleMania mode. I guarantee you that if 2K does either of them, their redemption after the derailment will be in order.
#2 A powerful WWE 2K creation suite
Apart from WWE, there are a lot of significant wrestling companies out there. Each of them boasts of having their fair share of loyal supporters. However, when it comes to games, that diversity shrinks into one. No other wrestling promotion has a yearly installment for the gaming community.
It creates a huge distinction that eventually leads to all the fans getting a hold of the only product available in the market. In this case, that's the WWE 2K series. After obtaining the game, those fans are ready to explore and see what the creative community has. They download arenas, wrestlers and championships from other promotions and indies to have their shows to play in the game.
WWE games should push this factor by making the creation suite more versatile while giving a lot of freedom to the creative community. Gamers shouldn't be told as to how they want their experience to be.
Features like creating a storyline and a wrestler, designing a championship, building an arena, importing audio and videos alongside scanning a face should only enrich the overall experience. The game should utilize the community to ensure a tailor-made experience for the fans to enjoy.
#1 Creating a glitch-free WWE experience
The main thing the long-standing WWE 2K series cannot afford is another glitch fiasco.
Last year, the game received a lot of backlash due to the unfinished product that they launched. It has become a pattern for gaming companies to rush and launch games before they are even ready.
WWE 2K20's glitches were trending everywhere. The whole game would not recover from its trainwreck of a release. Eventually, the company had to call off their next installment to ensure that such an experience never happens again. With no WWE 2K21, everyone anticipates the next installment to be built directly from scratch for the next generation of consoles.
Now, more than ever, a lot of people will be testing out the game with a scrutinizing approach. This game should be delivered to the fans as a desirable experience. The developers should be sure that the game does not even have the slightest of glitches that make it lose its credibility in the gaming community again.
