WWE 2K23 Team On Improvements To Universe Mode, John Cena Executive Producing Soundtrack

WWE 2K23 is arriving in March, and the game’s developers recently discussed improvements to the Universe Mode and more. ScreenRant spoke with Lynell Jinks, Bryan Williams and Dino Zucconi about the game, which arrives on March 17th, and you can check out a couple of highlights below:

Jinks on the in-game storytelling improvements: “Yeah, to me, storytelling comes in the form of so many different ways, right? Like, you know, let’s showcase John Cena in this vessel that tells that story with our documentary-type footage. And I’d say like, you know, MyRise is like your journey through coming up in the WWE, for the male storyline, which is called The Lock this year, the female storyline that’s called The Legacy, right? And so that’s all stories. With Universe, there’s some huge improvements that we made there to help tell the story and give users even more control than they’ve already had, which is crazy to think about. You can have actions that you want certain superstars to perform before a match, like, “Okay, I want Bobby Lashley to shake hands with MVP before the match, but at the last second, I want him to just punch him.” Like, those are actions that you can actually assign to that match and watch those cutscenes play out and see how that kind of dictates your rivalry.

“And to me, one of the biggest things I would say, because it touches on every single aspect of all of these modes that we’re talking about, is gameplay, right? Where like, fatigue, stamina, seeing your superstars, you know, behave differently as the match is going on and just seeing them walk around a little bit slower. Or where they’re like, getting hit by moves, and they’re going into the corner, and certain moves are getting performed to them that weren’t accessible elsewhere. That’s, to me, telling a story from the gameplay side, where it’s just kind of happening organically, and I love seeing that stuff. And then Bryan, you know, we talked about weapons, taunts, telling stories in that way, where they’re just like grabbing a weapon and taunting with it. It’s adding that character that you see when you watch the WWE, you’re like, “Oh, yeah, this guy’s just a jerk.” You can start to channel your inner jerk and do these things as well. I love all of that, and to me that, if we didn’t have story, we’d just be a fighting game, but we’re a professional wrestling game.”

Jinks on John Cena serving as EP for the soundtrack: “I mean, to me, like he has street cred, right? Like, dude has bars, he has albums, you know. He has a way better ear than most of us, right? And so to me, it was just a natural thing for him to want to take control over that, we were just like, ‘Oh my god, yes, please do!’ And you listen to the songs that he curated for our soundtrack, and you’re like, ‘I want to put that on my Spotify playlist.’ It’s awesome. Usually in development, you get sick of hearing the same song every time you boot up the game, but this one, it’s hot.”

Williams on the Universe mode: “You know, Lynell mentioned it earlier when he was talking about Universe, but I was playing with it, I was playing the game over the past weekend, and I even reached out to our Universe designer. Him and those guys have done a tremendous job on Universe this year. And the ability – because cutscenes have always been prevalent in the Universe and telling those stories within within that mode – but you know, this year, having the ability to be that ultimate puppet master where, like Lynell described, being able to scroll through a list of available actions that you want your Superstar to do, whether it’s to be respectful at the start of the match or disrespectful at the end.

“And the level of control that the players will have in Universe this year is something that I don’t think they are expecting. I mean, Universe already is about control and being able to manipulate everything, but this new layer of being able to actually now set and direct the certain actions and events to happen. I think for me, it’s a game changer for the mode, and I’m excited for the fans of this mode to get their hands on it because I think that one of those content creators who likes to stream the game, they are going to have a field day with this, I think. And the fact that it all works as beautifully as it does, I think that is something that is really going to surprise a lot of people and I’m really excited about that.”