WWE 2K23 can fix 2K22’s biggest mistake by giving fans a larger, more accurate and more varied roster to play with. Following the massive disappointment that was WWE 2K20, Visual Concepts were under huge pressure to breathe new life into the 2K Sports franchise with WWE 2K22. This overhaul was a huge success generally, with the time invested into its development reinventing the series - fixing issues that led to the cancelation of 2K21. The revival of the MyGM Mode saw fans return to the franchise for the first time since 2K Sports assumed full control and marked arguably the best comeback in WWE since CM Punk.
However, the game is by no means perfect, with the lack of variety of match types in WWE 2K22's MyGM Mode being one such issue - although by far the game’s biggest flaw is its problematic roster. WWE 2K22 comes loaded with a base roster of little more than 180 superstars, which can be expanded to just over 220 when DLCs are added. On the face of it, this may seem pretty sizable, but it pales in comparison to 2K Sports’ past offerings of 252 superstars in WWE 2K19 and 266 in WWE 2K20.
This issue was then exacerbated even further by wider cuts within the company, that saw a number of high-profile wrestlers depart the WWE. As a result, almost a fifth of WWE 2K22’s playable characters were no longer WWE wrestlers by the time of the game’s launch, meaning that it didn’t really feel reflective of the product that fans were tuning in to watch every week. To make matters worse, of the released talent, superstar selection was quite inconsistent, with the recently cut Daniel Bryan and Keith Lee failing to feature, whereas the likes of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce were included despite those wrestlers departing the WWE back in April 2021. This may well have been motivated by a desire to not gift free exposure to those who quickly jumped ship to AEW, but the complete disregard for chronology was jarring, to say the least.
Competition Should Push WWE 2K Forward
Although WWE 2K22 was a major improvement over past games, with AEW: Fight Forever listed to have a December 31st release on Amazon, WWE 2K will soon have a new competitor, so future releases should be bolder than before, not more conservative. Granted, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009’s zombie Finlay is highly unlikely to ever return to the franchise, but WWE 2K22’s absentee legends, which included series mainstays like Mr. Perfect, Paul Bearer and The Honky Tonk Man, absolutely need to return in WWE 2K23. So too do beloved alternate versions of fan-favorite wrestlers, such as masked Kane and long-haired Triple H.
Fortunately, with 2K Sports reverting back to annual releases with WWE 2K23, Visual Concepts’ costly motion and likeness capture will occur closer to the release of the game than with WWE 2K22, so any roster discrepancy should be minimal, making WWE 2K23 less reliant upon community creations for its roster accuracy. Furthermore, with Triple H taking over as WWE’s head of creative, following the controversial retirement of Vince McMahon, notable of the released talent, like Brawn Strowman, have returned to the company, with Bray Wyatt’s The Fiend all but confirmed to follow in the near future. As a result, Visual Concepts and 2K Sports should be able to produce a deeper, more vibrant roster in WWE 2K23 that also better represents the company’s current product. Should the companies supplement this with a deeper legends pool and a greater variety of alternate versions of wrestlers, then WWE 2K23 will easily be able to fix 2K22’s biggest mistake.
