In a new article from the Video Games Chronicle, Hiromi Furuta, the senior VP and producer for the wrestling video game development company Yuke’s, has put together a new team to create a rival wrestling IP in order to reinvigorate the staff who have been working on the WWE 2K projects. Furuta states that the lack of competition (AKI Corporation) in the creation of wrestling games has led the 2K series to become repetitive, and she feels that Yuke’s hasn’t been able to achieve the type of content that fans crave.

I think having no competitor isn’t healthy at all. When we had competitors in the wrestling space, we were determined not to lose and that was a great motivator for creating something great. But right now, looking at the market demands, players are expecting something new every time we release a game and we feel like we haven’t achieved what we’ve really wanted to do. For example, in many cases we’re still using old assets and we’re not able to do some things in the way that we want to.

Furuta then explains that the WWE team will be retained, as the WWE wants them to continue to put out the 2K series.

It is a project dear to our hearts and has even become a part of some of the veteran creators’ lives. We have a huge history making these games and still have a good relationship with 2K. Anyhow, WWE would never allow us to stop making these games! However, the new project we have in mind will be the internal competition for WWE.

Check out the full article here.