After nearly two decades of annual WWE game releases, fans of the professional wrestling promotion have been patiently awaiting news regarding the franchise’s next iteration.WWE 2K22has been an endeavor, dealing not only with the pandemic impacting development, but also a fanbase heavily critical of the franchise’s quality in recent years. It seems theWWE 2K22developers at Visual Concepts will be testing fans again, as new leaks point to expanded plans for monetization and microtransactions.
The leak stems from an official website for theWWE 2Kfranchise. When scraped, theWWE 2KCDN revealed several previously undiscovered images in a folder intended for assets related toWWE 2K22’s store. These images featured coins labeled with “VC,” a term that will be familiar toNBA 2KandPGA Tour 2Kfranchises. Three images were found, each showing different quantities of VC, including a chest of golden VC coins with a WWE logo emblazoned on it. It seemsWWE 2K22will be receiving 2K’s proprietary in-game currency.
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VC has a long history in 2K sports games, or at least in theNBA 2Kfranchise. It was introduced inNBA 2K13and immediately was used to drive the economy of the basketball game. It’s since spread throughout all of theNBA 2Kseries' game modes, including single-player, MyGM, MyTeam, MyPlayer, and MyCareer modes. It’s used to unlock player abilities, purchase cosmetics like jerseys, open randomized packs of player cards, and is deeply rooted in virtually every aspect of the game, whether it’s progression-focused, online, or otherwise.
Suffice to say, the appearance of VC images tied toWWE 2K22has many fans of the wrestling game franchise very nervous. Microtransactions have been an increasing frustration forWWE 2Kfans in recent years.WWE 2K Battlegrounds, the most recent release in the series, lets players unlock characters with microtransactions, unlock character skill trees and abilities with microtransactions, and more. Considering 2K proudly proclaimed “There are no paid microtransactions inWWE 2K18,” just years ago, it’s amazing how much things have changed.
Obviously, there’s no official word on this subject from either 2K or developer Visual Concepts.WWE 2K22is tentatively slated for release in March 2022and no announcements have been made regarding gameplay, let alone microtransactions. It’s possible that the issue has been confused or will be changed before release.
With that said, there’s little to no reason not to believeWWE 2K22won’t add VC and more thorough monetization. 2K has already done the same thing with its golf series,PGA Tour 2K21, which now also features VC. In 2018 Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told shareholders to expect “recurrent consumer spending opportunities” to increase in its games going forward. 2K games have delivered on that promise andWWE 2K22appears to be just the latest example of that.
