Summary
Some prospectiveWWE 2K25players are beginning to worry about this year’s installment in the series as more information becomes available about its new The Island mode. Specifically,WWE 2K25’s Island mode’s similarities to theNBA 2Kseries' The City has some wrestling game fans concerned.
In 2020,NBA 2K21added The City, a large, free-roaming neighborhood where players can test their skills and raise their reputation as they try to become a basketball legend. However, this mode is looked down upon by many fans due to the spending of Virtual Currency, which can be bought through microtransactions, to buy clothing, shoes, and other items that aren’t transferable to later games in the series.
WWE 2K25’s The Island Mode, which will only be available in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game, has a lot of similarities to The City, which is a cause for concern among many longtime 2K fans. In The Island, players will guide their custom wrestlers through a series of arenas to try to impress Roman Reigns, but they’ll also use the game mode to acquire customization and upgrade cosmetics that can be used in other game modes. Some 2K players, like Reddit user Regents-k-i-d26, are claiming that the game mode has already “killed WWE video games” weeks beforeWWE 2K25’s release on March 14. This longtime 2K fan has soured onNBA 2Kgames since The City’s launch and, while they expect 2K will make a lot of money by including The Island game mode, they also expect the spending of additional money on in-game items will result in a worse game.
WWE 2K25 Fans Are Concerned About The Island
WhileWWE 2K25’s rosterwill be the largest the series has ever seen, the game also features a Create-a-Superstar mode that offers several slots for creating custom wrestlers. Many fans seem concerned that locking cosmetic items that can be used in these creations behind a paywall will ruin the series' oft-celebrated customization features.
In past years, theWWE 2Kseries' MyFACTION modehas already garnered similar hostility from the fan base. The game mode allows players to build teams of four male or female superstars that they can acquire at random by opening card packs or earn through participating in MyFACTION’s various events like Weekly Towers and Faction Wars. Many unlockable wrestler variants and items have been kept locked behind this mode’s random card pulls, which have a high cost when purchased using earnable in-game currency, leaving most players forced to make microtransactions for the ability to not have rows of question marks and silhouettes filling out their roster screens.WWE 2K25will also have a MyFACTION mode.
