WWE 2K22 fans want a gameplay reveal NOW and they're losing patience


With WWE 2K22 now only a handful of weeks away, all eyes seem to be fixed on the eventual gameplay reveal which will showcase the title's new fighting engine.

We've seen glimpses, but fans are growing impatient for a proper full WWE 2K22 gameplay reveal thanks to the trust issues WWE 2K20 created.

WWE 2K22 fans want a gameplay reveal NOW and they're losing patience

While we have technically seen some of the new WWE 2K22 gameplay, it's been a tiny fraction of what most fans continues to demand.

WWE 2K22 hype has been building this week with roster and ratings reveals on the official WWE Games account on Twitter, but the fan reaction to each reveal is growing restless.

So far, the only WWE 2K22 gameplay showcased has been in the few trailers which have been released, and even these looks have been mostly zoomed in and heavily edited.

Those techniques work fine for the trailer itself and the framing of those videos, but they're a style choice that's causing issues as WWE fans continue to push back against the next installment in this struggling franchise.

If you check the replies of their latest tweet hyping the nWo 4 Life Edition of WWE 2K22, or take a quick look at others talking about the game on various social media platforms, it's not hard to find multiple gamers insisting the company drop a gameplay reveal immediately and stop talking about pre order rewards until that reveal is made.

2K needs to consider the trust issues from WWE 2K20

While some fan backlash is always going to happen, and they don't always represent the consensus of fan opinion, the situation with WWE 2K22 is severely hindered by the franchise's most recent history.

WWE fans want to be excited about WWE 2K22, but they don't trust it. Even the best efforts of 2K are up against a huge barrier at this point, because fans remember the WWE 2K20 pre-launch footage seeming decent as well.

If you watch the first gameplay trailer for WWE 2K20 below, it's heavily edited with short clips and only a few actual in-match gameplay clips while relying heavily on entrance footage.

If you weren't already aware of the issues that WWE 2K20 faced at launch and the fan reactions as people made side-by-side comparisons to WWE 2K19, this might look like a perfectly fine trailer for a perfectly fine game.

Of course, most WWE fans aren't in that imaginary camp, as most of them remember WWE 2K20 launching and becoming the biggest joke on the internet for several consecutive days as videos of horrendous game-breaking glitches flooded social media and YouTube.

WWE 2K22 needs an extended and unedited gameplay preview

If they're not willing to take a step like releasing a WWE 2K22 demo, the most important move at this stage in the process is to prove to fans that the game works and play well.

No amount of graphics improvements, pre order rewards, or additional game modes will matter if the core gameplay might be as broken as it was in WWE 2K20.

2K has promised deep dives between now and launch, but the longer they wait to actually showcase gameplay the more skeptical fans will become towards placing a pre order.

WWE 2K22 gameplay
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MORE: Fans want more, and for once they have good reason to make that demand

If they take the step of actually showing an unedited gameplay preview, whether it's just pure footage without commentary or something of content creators playing the game, that's going to be the most crucial piece of the puzzle now.

It needs to be lengthy, two to five minutes at least, and it needs to be unedited. Anything showcasing gameplay stuck to music with elaborate cinematic editing is going to be viewed with more skepticism.

WWE 2K22 might truly "hit different" as they continue to insist, but as of now nothing has been shown that would reasonably convince fans burned by WWE 2K20 that this year's gameplay won't have those same problems.

For more articles like this, take a look at our WWE 2K page.