Highlights
- WWE 2K22 servers will be shut down on January 3, 2024, leading to criticism from fans.
- The lifecycles of WWE 2K games are becoming shorter, with WWE 2K20 servers shutting down after 26 months and WWE 2K19's online modes remaining playable for nearly four years.
2K will soon be shutting down WWE 2K22 servers, thus ending all online services for the 18-month-old game, the company said. The surprise announcement agitated some WWE 2K fans, who have promptly taken to social media to criticize the decision.
Originally released in March 2022, WWE 2K22 debuted to largely favorable reviews and a positive reception from the fandom. Much like every mainline installment since WWE 2K20, it was developed by Visual Concepts. 2K's California-based subsidiary already had half a dozen WWE projects under its belt as the co-developer assisting Japanese studio Yuke's by the time it was handed the reins of the franchise.
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And while the studio is currently hard at work developing WWE 2K24, it would appear that some of those efforts will come at the expense of the 2022 entry in the franchise, which will no longer have online support come early next year. Specifically, 2K revealed that WWE 2K22 servers will be shut down on January 3, 2024. "Now is the perfect time to upgrade," the company wrote on Twitter, with that suggestion arriving mere weeks after the 18-month anniversary of the WWE 2K22 release.
When Are the WWE 2K22 Servers Shutting Down?
- January 3, 2024
A vocal portion of the series' fandom was taken aback with this turn of events, swiftly taking to social media to criticize the decision. One fan thus characterized the server shutdown as a "garbage move," while multiple others bemoaned the incoming forced migration to WWE 2K23, opining that the newer game offers a worse online multiplayer experience than its predecessor. The total number of people that are still regularly playing WWE 2K22 and are hence directly affected by this incoming sunsetting is unclear.
That notwithstanding, there is no doubt that the game itself was a massive hit for 2K; aside from revealing yet another GTA 5 sales milestone, Take-Two Interactive's quarterly earnings report from August 2022 saw the gaming giant reveal that WWE 2K22 had the best launch month of any franchise entry in the United States, the series' core market. Earlier that year, Games Sales Data reported that WWE 2K22 debuted as the second-best selling title in the United Kingdom, overtaking heavy-hitters like Gran Turismo 7 and FIFA 22, all the while more than doubling the British launch sales of its immediate predecessor.
While this move is far from unprecedented, it would appear that the lifecycles of WWE 2K games are getting substantially shorter. As a reminder, WWE 2K20 servers shut down after 26 months, while WWE 2K19's online modes remained playable for nearly four years. 2K discontinued multiplayer services for both of those titles in May 2022.
WWE 2K22 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GamesIndustry
