The leak stems from an official website for the WWE 2K franchise. When scraped, the WWE 2K CDN revealed several previously undiscovered images in a folder intended for assets related to WWE 2K22’s store. These images featured coins labeled with “VC,” a term that will be familiar to NBA 2K and PGA Tour 2K franchises. Three images were found, each showing different quantities of VC, including a chest of golden VC coins with a WWE logo emblazoned on it. It seems WWE 2K22 will be receiving 2K’s proprietary in-game currency.
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VC has a long history in 2K sports games, or at least in the NBA 2K franchise. It was introduced in NBA 2K13 and immediately was used to drive the economy of the basketball game. It’s since spread throughout all of the NBA 2K series’ game modes, including single-player, MyGM, MyTeam, MyPlayer, and MyCareer modes. It’s used to unlock player abilities, purchase cosmetics like jerseys, open randomized packs of player cards, and is deeply rooted in virtually every aspect of the game, whether it’s progression-focused, online, or otherwise.
Suffice to say, the appearance of VC images tied to WWE 2K22 has many fans of the wrestling game franchise very nervous. Microtransactions have been an increasing frustration for WWE 2K fans in recent years. WWE 2K Battlegrounds, the most recent release in the series, lets players unlock characters with microtransactions, unlock character skill trees and abilities with microtransactions, and more. Considering 2K proudly proclaimed “There are no paid microtransactions in WWE 2K18,” just years ago, it’s amazing how much things have changed.
Obviously, there’s no official word on this subject from either 2K or developer Visual Concepts. WWE 2K22 is tentatively slated for release in March 2022 and no announcements have been made regarding gameplay, let alone microtransactions. It’s possible that the issue has been confused or will be changed before release.
With that said, there’s little to no reason not to believe WWE 2K22 won’t add VC and more thorough monetization. 2K has already done the same thing with its golf series, PGA Tour 2K21, which now also features VC. In 2018 Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told shareholders to expect “recurrent consumer spending opportunities” to increase in its games going forward. 2K games have delivered on that promise and WWE 2K22 appears to be just the latest example of that.
WWE 2K22 releases March 2022.
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