10 Mistakes That Led To WWE 2K's Downfall

3. P*ssing Off Yuke's

Yukes WWE 2K
Yukes

2K's creative director Lynell Jenkins said before 2K19's launch that the series would make steps to mend fences with beleaguered fans who thought the games were too simulation-heavy. He said they wanted to make 2K19 "faster, more fluid" and that even he didn't think the previous few games were much fun to actually play.

This hinted at internal division, and that conflict was with Yuke's.

The longtime developers warned 2K that they needed more when senior vice president and producer Hiromi Furuta vented her frustrations to the media in May 2019. Furuta said Yuke's would be working on their own game to foster friendly competition - the relationship between dev team and publisher was shot to pieces after that.

Yuke's were blatantly cheesed off at the way 2K had handled the WWE license for years. They decided to challenge the company to come up with something better, but there was only one solution: Yuke's had to go, and they had to see if 2K (with new partner Visual Concepts) could cope on their own.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.