WWE 2K19

WWE 2K19 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Japanese developer Yuke’s and published by 2K Sports in late 2018. This game represents the last game of this long-running franchise that was developed by Yuke’s, who announced that after 18 years it will step away and leave development duties to other studios. As the last title from this studio, creative leadership at Yuke’s decided to try to move away from the simulation-based gameplay that was found in several previous titles and bring back more fluid arcade-based move sets.



The game mode that received the most attention from developers was 2K Showcase Mode which was in this game focused on the career of famous wrestler Daniel Bryan. Here, the players have the chance to follow his rise to the top of WWE, with 11 unique models of this wrestler in 11 of his most impactful matches. In addition to this lavishly produced single-player mode, players can invest a lot of time in the expanded Tower modes (Daily, Weekly, or PPV towers) that can be played both offline and online.

Towers can also be played in two ways, “Steps Tower” which will save the player's progress if he loses matches or leaves the match, and more advanced “Gauntlet Tower” where the entire challenge has to be finished in one sitting without losing a single match. Other notable gameplay modes in WWE 2K19 include multiplayer and “Road to Glory” which allows players to join one of the eight powerful wrestling factions from WWE history.

However, even though the game is filled with a lot of content and potential for great gameplay, the launch of WWE 2K19 was not as smooth as developers wanted it.

The game was plagued with various performance issues and bugs of many types. While the vast majority of those issues were fixed with free game update patches shortly after the launch, world media and social media impressions have forever marked this game as one of the more troublesome in not only the WWE 2K franchise but also in the entire history of sports games. In the months following the release of this title, Yuke’s confirmed their departure from the franchise, seeking to develop new titles without the constant pressure of the yearly release schedule.

WWE 2K19 is a competent wrestling game, which has now after many patches finally worthy of the player’s attention. It provides many gameplay modes, a competent in-ring action, polished presentation and if nothing else, it is more stable and playable than the following release in this franchise which was developed by a new studio Visual Concepts.