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WWE 2K23

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WWE 2K23
Standard edition cover featuring John Cena
Developer(s)Visual Concepts
Publisher(s)2K
SeriesWWE 2K
Platform(s)
ReleaseMarch 14, 2023
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

WWE 2K23 is a 2023 professional wrestling sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K.[1] It is the twenty-third overall installment of the video game series based on WWE, the ninth game under the WWE 2K banner, and the successor to WWE 2K22. It was released on March 14, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.[2]

WWE 2K23 received generally favorable reviews upon release, and it is the highest-rated professional wrestling video game since WWE '13. The follow-up title, WWE 2K24, was released on March 8, 2024.

Gameplay

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John Cena stars in all three versions of the cover.

Like its predecessor, WWE 2K23 features arcade and simulation wrestling gameplay.[3][4] WarGames is featured for the first time in a WWE 2K game, and the Royal Rumble match now supports online multiplayer with up to eight players.[5] Referee voiceovers have been revamped with different voices and unique lines when the pinfall occurs.

Game modes such as MyFACTION, MyGM, Showcase, Universe, career mode MyRISE and a full creation suite return with new features.[6][7][8] Showcase features cover star John Cena and allows players to recreate key moments in Cena's career, playing as his opponents, as a reference to one of his catchphrases, "Never Give Up", in a "countdown" order of his most toughest opponents Cena has faced in his career, from his ECW One Night Stand 2006 matchup against Rob Van Dam for the WWE Championship to his Hell in a Cell 2009 matchup against Randy Orton in a Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship, culminating in three fictional matches: two matches involving Cena and any one of the opponents he faced during the showcase in the Raw arena: One where Cena quickly uses his finisher, the Attitude Adjustment, to score a pinfall victory, as a reference to the "LOLCENAWINS" meme, the other facing off against an invisible version of himself, known as "Super Cena", who has an overall rating of 100, as a reference to both another one of his catchphrases, "You Can't See Me", which is also a meme, and the meme of the same name, and a fatal-4-way elimination match at the WrestleMania 38 arena between Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, and Bruno Sammartino, under request by Corey Graves.

MyGM has been revamped and features four-player gameplay, five new GMs (Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze, Kurt Angle, Eric Bischoff and Mick Foley), two new brands (NXT 2.0 and WCW), mid-card championships, the Slammy Awards, which occurred at the end of each season, and a new main goal of earning 10 Hall of Fame trophies, which can be earned via Seasonal Challenges and Career Achievements across multiple 25 week seasons, to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, where, if achieved at the end of a season, the player can retire and end a MyGM campaign or continue to the next season.

The in-game tutorial now features Xavier Woods training at the WWE Performance Center with Happy Corbin and Coach Drew Gulak for his fictional match against John Cena at the WrestleMania 38 arena in order to create his very own Showcase match.

MyRISE features two distinct storylines: "The Lock" and "The Legacy". The Lock follows a male wrestler making his debut on the WWE main roster. The Legacy follows a female second-generation wrestler rising through the ranks, aided by her aunt's rival Molly Holly.[9]

Development

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According to Creative Director Lynell Jinks, the WarGames match type began development prior to WWE 2K22, and was made possible by the reworked engine following the failure of WWE 2K20.[10]

Developer Andrea Listenberger told Fightful that the two storylines in MyRISE were written by former WWE writers.[11]

On February 15, 2023, 2K released entrance footage of returning character Lita, which caused controversy on social media. Fans were critical of Lita's character model, citing a perceived lack of quality and the reuse of an attire which had been used from WWE 2K16 in 2015 to WWE 2K20 in 2019.[12] Lita's model received alterations to the face prior to the release of the game.[13] Lita '06 became a playable character as an answer to the criticism for the base model; an alternative attire is also available.

Roster

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WWE 2K23 features 246 superstars. It is the first title in the WWE 2K series to assign different attires to a single slot, namely for Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Lita and certain Cena models.

Release

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On January 23, 2023, WWE 2K23 was officially announced with John Cena as the cover star. Bad Bunny was also announced as a playable character for players that pre-order the game, or purchase the Deluxe or Icon editions.[2] The Bad Bunny edition was released on October 23, 2023, which includes all of the Icon Edition contents, as well as Bad Bunny's Backlash 2023 attire, a Bad Bunny EVO MyFaction card, the Puerto Rican-themed LWO shirt, Bad Bunny-themed MyFaction customization items and 65,700 VC.[14] A similar bundle, which included the base game and both Bad Bunny packs, was released on October 18, 2023.

On January 30, 2K released behind-the-scenes footage of Cody Rhodes being scanned, who makes his first appearance under his real name since the 2014 game WWE 2K15 following his return at WrestleMania 38, now under his nickname, "The American Nightmare".[15]

The Deluxe Edition includes a season pass for future downloadable content, MyFACTION bonuses, and three days of early access on March 14. The Icon Edition features all Deluxe Edition content, as well as the "Ruthless Aggression Pack" which contains: classic OVW versions of Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Batista, the WrestleMania 22 arena, additional MyFACTION bonuses, and the John Cena Legacy Championship.[16]

On March 6, 2023, the downloadable content for the game was announced. Five content packs containing 24 playable characters these were released from April to August, including superstars from Raw, SmackDown, NXT and Legends.[17] These characters include: Bray Wyatt, Wade Barrett, Eve Torres, Zeus, Harley Race, the Steiner Brothers, Pretty Deadly and Hit Row among others.

Reception

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WWE 2K23 received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[18][19][20]

In a preview of the game, Dale Driver from IGN observed that the game largely felt the same as its predecessor with a few improvements.[33] IGN noted greater flexibility and creativity in the game compared to its predecessors.[34]

Awards and Nominations

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Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2024 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Sports Game of the Year Nominated [35]

References

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  1. ^ "WWE 2K23". WWE 2K23 Official Website. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Reed, Chris (January 23, 2023). "WWE 2K23: Here's What Comes in Each Edition". IGN. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  3. ^ James, Dean (February 3, 2023). "Hands-On Preview: WWE 2K23 Builds Upon Last Year's Return To Form". MSN. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  4. ^ Driver, Dale (February 2, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Hands-On Preview". IGN. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  5. ^ Sajid, Hassan (February 2, 2023). "New WWE 2K23 gameplay trailer shows the new WarGames mode and more". Xfire. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  6. ^ Norton, Brad (March 1, 2023). "Everything we know about WWE 2K23: Release date, roster, new match types, more". Dexerto. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  7. ^ Makar, Connor (February 2, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Preview: the first real step towards a bright future". VG247. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  8. ^ Wilson, Ben (February 2, 2023). "WWE 2K23 preview: WarGames, Showcase and the return of Cody Rhodes". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  9. ^ Williams, Leah J. (March 8, 2023). "WWE 2K23: MyRISE will feature two original storylines". GamesHub. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  10. ^ "WWE 2K23 Developers Talk About The Challenges Integrating WarGames Match". Yahoo!. February 6, 2023. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  11. ^ "411MANIA". WWE 2K23 Developer On Writing MyRise Mode. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  12. ^ Lentini, Robert (February 16, 2023). "'This is not Lita!' – Wrestling fans react to Hall of Famer's character design in WWE 2K23". Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  13. ^ Dalton Derrick [@PhoenixNitro] (March 7, 2023). "Lita's initial model was one of the worst I've ever seen. I was very excited and shocked to see that Lita was updated before launch. I think this looks a lot better than what was initially shown! Still not perfect, but I'll take it compared to what was shown haha" (Tweet). Retrieved March 13, 2023 – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Scullion, Chris (January 23, 2023). "WWE 2K23 has been officially confirmed for a March release". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  15. ^ Noah, Steve (January 31, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Cody Rhodes Entrance & Behind the Scenes Videos". Operation Sports. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  16. ^ Reed, Chris (March 7, 2023). "WWE 2K23: Here's What Comes in Each Edition". IGN. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  17. ^ SimoneSDH. "WWE 2K23 DLC List: All Characters Packs and Release Dates". The SmackDown Hotel. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  18. ^ a b "WWE 2K23 for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  19. ^ a b "WWE 2K23 for PlayStation 5 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  20. ^ a b "WWE 2K23 for Xbox Series X Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  21. ^ Handley, Zoey (March 21, 2023). "Review: WWE 2K23". Destructoid. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  22. ^ Colantonio, Giovanni (March 14, 2023). "WWE 2K23 review: the wrestling comeback story continues". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  23. ^ Stewart, Marcus (March 17, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review - Tightening Some Holds". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  24. ^ Wakeling, Richard (March 20, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review - Head Of The Table". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  25. ^ Wilson, Ben (March 13, 2023). "WWE 2K23 review: "The series is finally back on top form"". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  26. ^ Wells, Cory (March 13, 2023). "Review: WWE 2K23". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  27. ^ Green, Jarrett (March 17, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  28. ^ Rodriguez, Jason (March 14, 2023). "'WWE 2K23' review: a return to form for the franchise". NME. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  29. ^ Potter, Ben (March 13, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review (PS5)". Push Square. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  30. ^ Tan, Nick (March 13, 2023). "WWE 2K23 review: Repeated strikes". Shacknews. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  31. ^ Madnani, Mikhail (March 21, 2023). "'WWE 2K23' Steam Deck Review – Shockingly Good, but Needs More Work". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  32. ^ Borthwick, Ben (March 16, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review – Head of the Table?". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
  33. ^ Driver, Dale (February 2, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Hands-On Preview". IGN. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  34. ^ Green, Jarrett (March 17, 2023). "WWE 2K23 Review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  35. ^ "2024 Awards Category Details Sports Game of the Year". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
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