Ahead of WWE 2K25’s launch in March, we spent 90 minutes with selected parts of the game to test out the new features and get a feel for how it plays.
Following our time with the game, we got the chance to speak to Creative Director Lynell Jinks, Design Director Alan Flores, and Lead Gameplay Designer Derek Donohue about this year’s game, and the thought process behind some of the new additions. During this time, we also tried to get some of the community’s questions answered.
WWE 2K25 Questions & Answers
How does the chain wrestling system work? And how does it get triggered during the match?
Lynell Jinks: “So you trigger it by holding the grapple button, and it will happen in particular match types, like one on one. It won’t happen in tag matches or whatever. You get these little circles similar to how it was last introduced in our game, 2K19 or 2K20. And you kind of have to find that sweet spot. The first person to find the sweet spot gets to the next kind of stage of the mini game. And with those options you’re kind of choosing a slice of the pie, and it will branch into different animations and different holds. And you can also kind of break it if you feel like the person is kind of getting closer to that sweet spot than you are. But I think it’s a great improvement on the last iteration that we had in the game. And to me, it’s one of the things that the fans have been asking for for a while, ever since we took it out. So it’s back, and better than ever.”
How will the third-person camera work in WWE 2K25?
Jinks: “We put all this effort into our entrances with the animations and pyro and our characters look amazing. I think after a few times of watching it, there really isn’t much to do, so people end up skipping them after a while. And I was like, ‘We really need to give people something to do during entrances,’ and so we added these. Third-person camera is usually to kind of pan around and look at the characters and get behind them, or get in front of them and zoom in and zoom out. But we actually added more spectator cameras that are placed around the arena to give you more control and to change it up. And it made entrances fun again.
But when we were doing that, when Alan and I were reviewing it with the gameplay team, someone was like, ‘We could try this in gameplay.’ We were like, ‘hell yeah, please, let’s try it’. And miraculously, it worked. And to us, it changes the game. It feels like you’re playing more of like an Uncharted, or GTA, or something like that. It’s weird. Your brain just kind of forgets that you’re playing, you know, a traditional wrestling game. It feels more like an adventure game, almost.”
Alan Flores: “I agree. And one of the things that Lionel pushed for really hard was to have it available during entrances as well. And it feels so much more immersive, like you’re actually controlling what’s going on at every aspect, and I’m actually being part of this entrance. One thing that we did have to change was some of the controls because we have some things mapped to the right stick in gameplay. So there’s a modifier that you use when you do that. But after playing with it for two minutes, you forget that it’s even there, you just get used to playing it with the right stick and controlling stuff. It’s really amazing. It’s very, very, very immersive. Very, very fun.”
In the last year, the way WWE produces its TV shows has changed a lot. Did that have an impact on the visuals of the game, too?
Jinks: “I would say, from a presentation standpoint, not necessarily, because it seems like they’re also trying to try different things and find the sweet spot of what they can do from a technology standpoint. And I know they tried the AR thing for a while and, and we’re like, I don’t know if this is gonna stick right. And we were looking at that as, like, maybe that’s something that we invest some of our time into. But then now you look at what they’re doing on Netflix, these drone cams and all this, and you’re like, I think we’re on the right lane, as far as what they’re doing presentation wise.
They’re almost making their broadcast feel more like a video game with these floating cameras that can go anywhere, flying through arenas. Like, oh, that’s very video game-like. And so, I think we’re kind of borrowing from each other a little bit, which is great to see. So we’ll try our best to simulate what they’re doing on broadcast, but at the same time, I think maybe they might start doing some of the stuff we’re doing, so we’ll see.”
What motivated you to bring back the intergender matches?
Jinks: “It’s been one of the things that we know our users have been asking for for a long time. And we would talk to the WWE about it. And like I said, we’re a simulation. And so we were like, ‘Hey, is this something that you think we can do?’ And they were like, ‘ah, that’s not really a reflection of our product. And let’s just focus on making sure that we represent what you see on broadcast.’
And so we would ask, and we would be told no. Over the years, I think they’ve begun to trust us more, thinking these guys probably know what they’re talking about now, considering that they’ve been nominated for sports game of the year two years in a row. Let them do this and our version of it, because we’ve seen some modders doing some things that don’t necessarily work well with our game. Our incorporation of it into WWE 2K25 is really well done.
And I would say it’s been done in a classy way, too. We don’t allow blood to be triggered during intergender matches or bruising as well, but still have kept the same amount of fun. And I would say just replayability, like just doing these different match types with different superstars. I think Royal Rumble is one of the ones where you’re like, man, it just opens it up, like you don’t know who’s coming out next. It could be anyone. And I think that adds to that fun factor that we keep talking about.”
Derek Donohue: “The biggest thing is player freedom and completely expanding the roster. I mean, as people know, the women’s roster is smaller in size than the men’s roster. And as a result, after playing the game for several months, you might have kind of gone through all the matchups you’re excited to play, and now, if you’re a big fan of playing as women’s wrestlers, you have so many more matchups available to you in the game just by virtue of intergender wrestling being available.”
Which areas have you prioritized for improvement in terms of realism?
Jinks: “I know it’s this is not the best answer, but it’s everything. Every year we get another stab at trying to represent the WWE and professional wrestling as closely as possible, as to what people perceive it as on broadcast, or even when they go to the arena and see it up close. And so we always see the things that we want to improve every year. And every year the team pours their passion and heart into just trying to make sure that this version is the best wrestling game ever, right?
And I feel like that’s our that’s our mission. To make sure that we’re not only making the best wrestling game out there, but making sure that people see the amount of effort that goes into this product every year. Because, you know, we are asking a lot of people to drop their hard-earned money, especially these days, on another version of a game that released a year ago. So we just do our best to try to make sure it’s a worthy update.”
Will you be able to interact with the NPCs outside of the ring in underground matches?
Donohue: “So the ringside crowd reacts heavily to the action in the ring. You’re going to see them pounding on the mat during submissions, responding to big attacks and ducking out of the way and diving away as people get launched out of the ring. But there is no interaction in the other direction. You’re not going to have ringside spectators causing the wrestlers to change their movements or anything like that, and that’s important for us to be able to support online as well. There are a million challenges that could happen if there was interaction there, and getting online support was a big, big feature for us. So yeah, the balance we struck there is making sure they react heavily to you, but you’re not necessarily going to be affected by you.”
Why did you settle on The Bloodline Dynasty as the focus of the Showcase mode this year?
Jinks: “I think the better question is why not The Bloodline? We’ve got to acknowledge them. I would say it’s the hottest thing in professional wrestling for the past two or three years. And so again, why not? It’s just seeing the amount of merch from every member of member of The Bloodline, just walking around. And I’ve seen so many Roman Reign clones that are just fans dressed up and look just like Roman with the tats and everything.
And even with the final boss, The Rock last year. And I just think that their popularity has skyrocketed. And you know, for us, it’s just being able to work with them. And Paul Heyman, who’s just lent his voice and his mic skills to our Showcase mode, has just been an incredible experience for us. And we even have The Bloodline rules match, so we’re all in. And I couldn’t be happier with the integration that we have with The Bloodline in our game.”
Have any changes been made the tutorials this year to make it more accessible to newcomers?
Donohue: “Absolutely. Last year we changed the way we do our tutorials with the introduction of the Performance Center. So rather than being kind of a first-time user experience, where the first time you boot the game, you go through a tutorial match and then it’s over, we have to pick and choose what to teach in that match, because if we taught everything in the game, it would be 45 minutes long.
So instead, we changed our approach to be a series of kind of bite sized lessons that each can go deep on a specific topic, and you as a player can choose what you learn. You can skip the lessons for grapples and strikes if you already are a master of that, but you realize, oh, there’s a new submission mini-game. Or how exactly does target changing work or carry and drag, these really good utility mechanics that have been in the game for a long time, but I still see people ask questions, ‘how exactly do I do that?’
We want to make sure we give people the opportunity to really explore these beat mechanics in a way that guides you through all of it, but in a way you can play at your own pace. I want people to be able to hop in and take just the first few lessons Performance Center and say, ‘You know what, I feel ready to go play some matches.’ And then after 10 or 15 matches, they realize they’ve been seeing some things, or seeing AI do some things they want to learn how to do. You can pop back into the Performance Center and learn those lessons. So it really has to be paced well for both a beginner and a returning expert to the franchise.”
Over the coming weeks, we’ll learn more about the new features coming to WWE 2K25.
Published: Feb 5, 2025 12:00 pm