Take-Two Adds WWE to 2K Sports Brand

Take-Two Interactive have acquired exclusive rights for the next five years to the WWE video game license, formerly belonging to THQ which have held the rights since 1999. Following the unfulfilled sale to the Clearlake Capital Group last month, the deal with Take-Two will see the wrestling franchise being added to 2K Sports and is set to become WWE 2K14 under its new brand.

According to WWE's executive vice president of consumer products Casey Collins, THQ and WWE held a private bid in order to find the most suitable partner for the rights and were less concerned with financial factors. In an interview with ESPN, Collins commented:

"We looked at a lot of different leaders in the industry and talked to all of the big guys, and for us, we had been with THQ for so many years, it was nice to finally go out and date a few other companies and see what kind of thought process they had about the video game industry going forward. As we look at the next-gen systems coming out, whether that's this holiday or next holiday, we want to make sure we align our property with who we thought would be a leader going forward on these next-gen systems."

Collins, along with other WWE leaders, saw Take-Two as a "perfect partner" having been impressed with their work on the NBA 2K franchise. 2K Sports were equally as enthusiastic about taking on WWE with the brand's vice president of marketing, Jason Argent, commenting on the similarities between the NBA and WWE franchises in terms of size, demographics, development and marketing.

There are plans to put together a strong team to ensure that the title will still meet its Autumn 2013 release window. The team is set to include a handful of key designers of the WWE franchise from THQ, the 2K Sports game design team at Visual Concepts and also Japanese game developer Yuke's.

All parties have voiced positive comments about the future of the franchise. Argent comments:

"Everything that we've done with NBA is what we're trying to contribute to WWE. So the growth that you've see in the NBA franchise from the authenticity in the game to the excitement of the marketing that surrounds it is all something we expect to add to the franchise. We're going to create one hell of a video game franchise."