SaturnT3

The Underground match makes sense. It's at least something genuinely new...

Things cost money. The game has a budget. At the end of the day, not spending money on one thing allows them to spend that money on other things. If they spend $12 on Universe every year, it's $12 that would be better spent on literally anything else.

If this island/city thing replaces Universe, I'll accept it as a net positive. It'll at least be an attempt at some worthwhile.

I think we saw the change in Showcase because it drastically reduced the resources required to make the mode. They cut A LOT of motion capture and other dev work by not rendering all of that in game. I still think the mode is trash (and that mountain of "legends" that supposedly comes with it still hasn't materialized!), but it at least eats up less than it used to. I think we still see both Showcase and Universe because this community seems to value quantity over quality. It's not enough to have a deeper, higher quality game with fewer modes. If you drop Universe, the first thing people start screaming about is that it needs to be "replaced with something else". Personally, I'd rather have fewer good modes than a bunch of lackluster modes. If a mode is trash, I'd rather they cut it and put more into the good modes.

2k knows exactly how popular everything in the game is. And they budget time and resources accordingly. The idea that they neglect a "popular" mode because they didn't create it just doesn't make business sense. They didn't create CAS either, but it certainly gets a lot of attention every year. Because it's legitimately popular.

You explained why you like Universe. You didn't show it being "more popular". Again, if Universe is still so popular, why don't they invest more time and resources into it? MyGM gets regular upgrades...logic will tell you it's because they see a return on that investment.

I'm more interested in manual submission rope breaks and chain wrestling than a new match type.

Fingers crossed!

It's definitely been in more games. A few loud people definitely talk about It's supposed "potential" a lot too. Thing is, it never realizes this "potential". Year after year after year, it's the disappointment you can set your watch to. Most people have moved on. It's time to put this failed mode out to pasture. If it hasn't lived up to the "potential" some have convinced themselves it has after well over a decade of attempts, it's probably never going to. I'm not expecting them to cut it, but if they did the "backlash" would be about as big as the tiny little minority of people still crying about the grapple system. It's a small number of people making a disproportionate amount of noise.

How so? Last year's Showcase started at WrestleMania 3. Do you think they don't have footage of Johnson/Atlas vs the Wild Samoans?

Maybe. But does "Island" confirm a free roam City?

You've said this before. I think MyGM is more popular. I'd like to see them add Story Designer in its place, or combine MyGM and Universe. Give me the cutscene control and full customization of Universe in MyGM, with a "free play" option for those who don't want to manage resources. People are speculating that the latest 2K video confirms the city rumor in the form of "The Island"...but I think that may or may not be true. Belair saying "The I-..." and getting cut off does not confirm an open world city, to me. Hopefully she's teasing that The Islanders are finally in a WWE game. Tama deserves his day in the sun...

It will be very funny if the Showcase is built entirely around the last 4 years. That "Showcase is the only way we get LEGENDS!" argument continuing to get dumber and dumber...

Sounds like a no then, due to Golddust beingoff the table. If they didn't own the rights to Jake's likeness, he'd be off the table too. That's why I went with the first IC title win. It'd be pre DX Triple H and a classic Raw arena, in addition to Rocky Maivia. I'm wondering if "intergender" will be a self contained match type, rather than an across the board removal of limitations. I doubt they blew up the new gameplay that's been working so well in the interest of doing intergender.

I'll be surprised if they don't do a Headshrinkers match. If the rumored Wyatt pack is accurate, I wouldn't expect a version of the Fiend in Showcase. Maybe they'll go really crazy and do Make A Difference Fatu. I really think they'll go back and do the Wild Samoans and Rocky Johnson too, even if it's just Johnson/Atlas vs the Samoans for the tag belts. That's a really famous match. I think they're starting before 1993.

They've been going out of their way to come up with ways to freshen Showcase up, to be fair. A broader subject certainly accomplishes that. Especially when you consider that the Shield stuff is off the table, doing a Showcase based on that entire family gives them so much more to work with than the members of the current Bloodline faction or feud/story. Just off the top of my head, Rocky Maivia's first IC title win was against Triple H on Raw in 97. I already mentioned the Headshrinkers vs Steiners match from WM9. You could do a lot of REALLY cool unlockables here.

I'm hoping they go the family route just because it opens up options. I'd love to see them do Headshrinkers vs Steiners just to see the current team get to do the WrestleMania 9 arena.

Bloodline showcase officially teased. I'll always be anti showcase, but if we're looking for silver linings here...this could at least have some interesting unlockables if it covers the family as opposed to the Bloodline faction. Rocky Miavia Rocky Johnson The Headshrinkers Etc. https://x.com/WWEgames/status/1881879821095260560?t=aidiQezDs3n8gCihbfI1Eg&s=19

People wanted GM mode back as soon as it was gone, were thrilled when it was brought back, and continue to engage with it. There's no reason to believe story designer would be any different. People know what they like. It's consistently the most requested thing for a reason. Universe is a "monster" that should have been slain long ago. If it were as popular as some loud voices claim it is, they'd be investing time and resources into it. They clearly aren't, so it's clearly not that popular. Trim the fat.

I'm wondering if it's a removal of the limitation over who can wrestle who in every match type, or it "intergender" is a separate match type. Maybe it's just a regular, one on one match between a man and a woman?

I'm not making assumptions that big about something that isn't even officially teased yet. To me, the big game changing things are what progress has been made with match gameplay. I wasn't over the moon about the added match types last year either, but the gameplay improvements made 2K24 the best WWE game yet, in my opinion. I don't have to love the thing that headlines the marketing to love the game. I'm just curious to see the response at large if they really added AN ENTIRE CITY and whiffed on story creator yet again.

I'm still not convinced the city thing is happening. It just feels like an out of nowhere pivot on something that was pretty well received. On the other hand, maybe doing intergender means they don't have to do two separate career modes? Doing the city thing also doesn't necessarily mean they haven't also added highly requested things like Create a story or Create a move. This year is already crazy.

The marketing is starting to look like last year when they started teasing match types leading up to the big reveal. I wonder what the next tease will be.

Well, looks like intergender is legit. I'll laugh so hard if the open world thing is what they went big on. https://x.com/WWEgames/status/1881423271402590343?t=kYCE1SRZUweuQ4tNLxZAWA&s=19

Again, I don't think anything has changed. TNA and NXT are exchanging talent...like they have been for like a year. When that press release came out, I thought there'd be new Vince controversy or a high Dynamite rating or something. It screamed PR stunt.