EXCLUSIVE: Visual Concepts Reveal If WWE Management Changes Affected The Development Of WWE 2K23

2022 was a turbulent year for WWE. The year began with Vince McMahon as Chairman and CEO but the boss was out by July 2022 amidst a sexual misconduct and hush money scandal. McMahon was replaced at the top by Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan, who became co-CEOs, while Triple H was appointed to the new role of Chief Content Officer to head up WWE creative.

Triple H then proceeded to bring back a swathe of former talents, with the likes of Karrion Kross, Dakota Kai, Johnny Gargano, and Braun Strowman, among many others, all returning to WWE by the end of 2022.

Speaking with Cultaholic Wrestling's Andrew Hodkinson, Visual Concepts Creative Director Lynell Jinks revealed if the management changes impacted the development of WWE 2K23.

"Luckily by the time we lock up our roster, we make a lot of those decisions early on in order for us to get the game out in less than a year of production. A couple of things might change throughout production where we will have to pivot or new additions come onto the roster and we've got to look if we have the capacity to support this and make our submission dates to Microsoft and Sony, and make sure it doesn't jeopardise us not shipping the game on time. So it's a lot of back-and-forth with WWE," Jinks began.

"I will say, though, 2K23 we had the opposite problem with 2K22. With 2K22 we had to cut. We had two-and-a-half years of development so the roster was changing it seemed like every week which created a ton of problems for us, especially with modes like MyRISE or Showcase. Trying to figure out, 'Can this person still be in the game even though they're not a part of WWE?' I think WWE did a pretty good job of allowing us to keep certain people that were involved in heavy storylines in some of our modes," he continued.

"This year was the opposite - a lot of people came back which was a great thing. For me, I think I'd rather have that problem than the opposite. We've got to try and do our best to make sure we fit those new additions in within the time that we have."

Check out Cultaholic Wrestling's full chat with the developers of WWE 2K23 here. TripleJump's thoughts on the game can also be found here.

WWE 2K23 is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. You can buy the game here.