How WWE 2K25 Aims to Capitalize on Wrestling's Popularity and The Bloodline Storyline

The WWE 2K franchise was at a low point nearly six years ago.

WWE 2K20, the first game in the series not to be developed by Yuke’s, was a massive disappointment. Visual Concepts had taken over as the lead studio, and their first outing was a major disappointment.

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This led to the series taking a year off before returning with WWE 2K22, starting a comeback story that feels straight out of WWE storytelling. It makes sense, then, that following WWE 2K24‘s focus on Cody Rhodes, WWE 2K25 tells the story of Roman Reigns and The Bloodline dynasty.

During a recent hands-on event, I had a chance to chat with Creative Director Lynell Jinks.

WWE 2K25’s Development Has Been An Exciting Time

As I alluded to earlier, the WWE product is incredibly popular. Nearly 70,000 people showed up at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the Royal Rumble last weekend, an attendance figure that seems absurd for a non-WrestleMania event. We haven’t seen this much buzz and excitement around WWE since the Attitude era, and Jinks recognizes this.

“For me, it’s been exciting, right?” He told me. “Because it’s like, you know, as a developer, you want to work on an IP that, you know, is popular and, you know, has a fan base.”

He alluded to the missteps of WWE 2K20 as well. He thought that they had lost the fanbase. Instead, they’ve welcomed the series back and look to capitalize on wrestling’s growing popularity, especially with this year’s Showcase theme following Roman Reigns and The Bloodline.

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WWE’s Focus on The Bloodline Has Been A Blessing and a Curse

You’d figure with WWE focused on long-term storytelling with The Bloodline and commitment to sign more members of the Anoa’i family to the WWE roster, that’d be a good thing for Visual Concepts and WWE 2K25. It indeed is, but it can also be a curse, Jinks says.

As great as it is to see wrestlers like Jacob Fatu make their way to WWE, developing a video game takes time, which means they sometimes have to scramble to include them in time for release.

“We always have our work cut out for us, ” he told me. “We want to make sure that, you know, we have enough time to support [these wrestlers coming in].”