Bryan Williams On The Process Of Bringing WarGames To WWE 2K23, Returning To Franchise

Longtime WWE video game developer Bryan Williams is back for WWE 2K23, and he recently talked about bringing WarGames to the new iteration and more. Williams spoke with Fightful for a new interview, and you can check out some highlights below:

On returning to 2K Games for this entry: “I don’t know how that word got out, ’cause I honestly never said anything publicly. But yes, I am back, and I’m the happiest that I’ve been, professionally, in a long time. The last game that I was a part of was WWE 2K19, with AJ Styles on the cover. I worked on that game from our previous developer, Yuke’s. At that time, the last thing I did with the franchise was Ricochet’s moveset. Big fan of Ricochet. Been watching him since his PWG days. So, I thought that was it for me. Fast forward a couple of years, I get a text from one Mr. Lynell Jinks, asking if I’d like to come back. It couldn’t have come at a better time,” he continued. “I love the franchise. I’ve spent my entire career working on this. I’m just so happy to be back, contributing to a franchise, a promotion that I love.”

On bringing WarGames to WWE 2K23: “It was a huge undertaking. Triple H brought back WarGames at NXT 2017. Obviously, as you can imagine, when the fans saw that, they’re knocking. ‘Hey, 2K, when are we going to get this in the franchise? When are we gonna get War Games?’ So, I know for a fact we had been trying to get it in years prior, but timing is everything. The success of 2K22, [rebounding from WWE 2K20], set the franchise on the right course to make the WarGames into a reality. The engine and all the work that went into 2K22, those improvements and refinements gave us—and I’m not the biggest tech guy—it gave us enough of a solid technical foundation to build a match type of this magnitude. Being able to have two rings side-by-side with an arena environment was not possible with the previous tech that we had. It was the success of 2K22 that led us here and led us to finally being able to implement War Games, which was perfect because it just so happened that War Games was introduced to the main roster at this past Survivor Series. We have that arena in the game, as well.

“We spared no expense in bringing this match type into reality, into giving players the ability to cause all the mayhem and destruction that they have seen in real life, they will be able to replicate within the game,” he continued. “I’m super proud. I know the team is super proud. They should be. They worked their butts off. It’s a beautiful thing to behold.”

On how ideas are cleared with WWE: “Typically, I’m the creative type on the team, so I don’t do that much interaction with the WWE office. I know in past situations, from my time with THQ, obviously, they’re very hands-on with the roster. We’ll provide them a list, and it’s their game, right? So, they’re going to say yay or nay. When it comes to features, though, we’ve been partners with them for a long time. They trust us. So, when it comes to War Games, for example, it’s their match type. They promote it within their own program. So, when it comes to things of that nature, they’re like, ‘Hey, we trust you guys. We’ve done WarGames. Good luck. It’s gonna be a hard one. If you can get two rings in an environment, good luck. If you do it, make sure you do it right.’ That type of thing.”

On being excited to be back on the franchise: “Outside of just being back on the team and working with people I have a history with, that right there got me excited. But then seeing WarGames for the first time. I rejoined the team last year, in May, and to see that they already had a playable WarGames match already got me super excited. It was like, ‘Okay, this team is something special. The fact that we’re here already in production. We had a huge head start thanks to the engineers and the designers that got WarGames up and ready.’ But besides that, we have a Universe Mode in the game, and I can’t say a whole lot about it—I was told. But all you Universe fans, there is an addition this year that is gonna be a game-changer for that mode. This is not me being hyperbolic. I was talking to my boss about it before this event started. It is, I think, gonna be a sleeper, low key huge, feature for 2K23. So, all you Universe fans, and I’m one of them, be excited.”