WWE 2K20 has had a rough go about it, to say the least. The game was critically panned when it launched, plagued by a suite of glitches, serious technical problems, and a general lack of polish. It was unclear how the quality dropped so dramatically from WWE 2K19 to WWE 2K20, though many seem to think that the departure of longtime developer Yuke's has something to do with it. More information on WWE 2K20's development is unavailable at this time, but an industry insider has now said that people at Visual Concepts have quit over the game's reception, and that the budget for WWE 2K21 is likely to be slashed.
This news comes from Justin Leeper, who worked as a writer and cut-scene director on some of the SmackDown vs. Raw games, and more recently did some motion capture work for Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding. In a new video, Leeper has said that he has heard of "double digit" people quitting the WWE 2K team at Visual Concepts, and that they didn't quit to move on to other projects. According to Leeper, these developers quit because they didn't want the "stink" of WWE 2K20 hanging over their head anymore.
The WWE 2K20 debacle may also have a negative impact on next year's game, WWE 2K21. The poor WWE 2K20 reviews have allegedly translated to poor sales, and according to Leeper, this means that the WWE 2K21 budget will be slashed. "It's going to have to be made for much less money," he explained. "Which means less money to fix things, less money to innovate, and now there's about 10 less people on the team, so as you can tell the outlook's not very good for 2K21 either."
It should be noted that nothing official on WWE 2K21 has been announced at all, and "double digit" employees quitting the WWE 2K20 development team is also something that hasn't been made public. Considering this, fans should take Leeper's report with a grain of salt, though his status as a former developer on the WWE video game series does lend him more credibility than than just some random YouTuber.
It makes sense that if WWE 2K20 sells poorly that the sequel would get a smaller budget, and while that's a shame, it may eventually lead to the WWE video game license heading elsewhere. 2K Sports has produced some high quality WWE games since acquiring the license from THQ, but getting some fresh eyes on the product could be a good thing in the long run.
WWE 2K20 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
