After the dust had settled at today's THQ auction — which saw most of the studio's major properties and developers picked up by competing publishers — there were two major items left untouched: Darksiders 2 developer Vigil Games and the WWE license. While things are still not looking good for Vigil, and a possible Darksiders 3, it appears THQ may have found a buyer for the WWE.
Though they had nothing official to report at the time, the WWE took to Twitter to say there will be more games in the future and that additional news should follow. After that there appeared a report that THQ and Take-Two Interactive reached an agreement, outside of the auction, for the WWE license.
Take-Two Interactive, as some may know, is the parent company to 2K Sports, purveyor of best-selling titles in both basketball (NBA 2K) and baseball (MLB 2K). If this sale did, in fact, take place it's likely that 2K Sports would be responsible for putting out these future WWE titles.
As for developer Yuke's? Well that's another story, one that surely won't be written today. Many hardcore WWE fans have criticized Yukes for some time now, so the likelihood of that developer continuing on with the IP is pretty low. Still, Yuke's must have been busy on a new title, so perhaps 2K could bring them on and act as if nothing happened.
However, reviews for WWE '13 were decidedly mixed with some outright lambasting the title as one of the worst in recent memory. That seems a little harsh for what has ostensibly become a well-oiled machine, but all criticisms are important factors for Take Two to consider moving forward.
For now it's best to avoid assumption and rumor and stick to the facts, of which there are very few. We should know more about whether Take Two (and by extension 2K) acquired the WWE license either some time tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Would you like to see the WWE license end up at 2K? Or would you rather the rights revert back to WWE and they get involved in game development?
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Source: IGN
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