Earlier this week 2K Games announced that WWE 2K21 will not be coming out as the developer Visual Concepts is skipping a year to make improvements after the lackluster launch of WWE 2K20. In its place, the studio is releasing WWE 2K Battlegrounds, an arcade-style fighting game with exaggerated and cartoonish action that has now been revealed to be coming out on PC, PlayStation 4, Google Stadia, the Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
When WWE 2K Battlegrounds' announcement trailer was put out on April 27, no consoles were listed for its "fall 2020" release window. However, the American Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) revealed what Battlegrounds will be coming out on in its published rating. The game received a "T" for "cartoon violence" and "mild suggestive themes," which according to the rating summary includes female wrestlers wearing outfits that "expose moderate amounts of cleavage and/or buttocks" and "suggestive" taunts such as a hula-styled circular dance.
Toward the middle of April, the ESRB announced that for the first time since its inception in 1994 it would begin adding labels for games which include loot boxes and microtransactions. WWE 2K Battlegrounds is listed as having "In-Game Purchases" on all platforms, as well as systems in which "Users Interact" presumably through online matches that can feature both "custom characters and WWE Superstars."
The inclusion of a Switch and Stadia version for this new title by developer Saber Interactive is somewhat significant given WWE 2K20 was only available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It's likely this wider platform presence was more doable on account of WWE 2K Battlegrounds' more cartoony, simplistic-looking art style and presumably smaller arcade scope, but it will be interesting to see if the next mainline WWE 2K game follows suit.
Game releases being leaked through the ESRB or its European equivalent, the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) board, is not an uncommon occurrence. In March, the ESRB leaked that Blue Manchu's Void Bastards would be coming to Switch about a month before the official release was confirmed by Humble Bundle.
While it is admirable that 2K Games seems to have taken the lessons it learned from WWE 2K20's launch to heart by giving the next game more time in the oven, many fans have had negative reactions to its replacement title. With as wide a console release as it's getting, Battlegrounds should have ample opportunity to either confirm these suspicions or rise above them come fall.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is launching fall 2020 for PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: ESRB