WWE 2K is a series of professional wrestling video games developed by Visual Concepts & Yuke's and published by 2K Sports. The games in the series are based on the professional wrestling promotion WWE and feature professional wrestling match types, storylines and playable characters based on WWE programming.
Formerly SmackDown vs. Raw, the game was named originally after the company's SmackDown television program, the series began initially with the release of Wrestlemania 2000 exclusively for the N64 in October 1999 (despite the fact that it's inspired by the Pay-per view that came out five months later). WWF SmackDown! in March 2000 and initially remained exclusive to Sony's PlayStation consoles. The series was retitled to include WWE's other flagship television program Raw with 2004's WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw and the series expanded with yearly releases for various seventh generation consoles as well as mobile devices. Yuke's had also released the games in Japan under the name Exciting Pro Wrestling. However, after SmackDown vs. Raw 2006, THQ took over as the Japanese publisher and the Japanese releases adopted the western name.[2] The series was later renamed simply WWE for its 2012 and 2013 iterations.
After THQ's dissolution in January 2013, it was reported that the publishing rights for the WWE video game series were acquired by Take-Two Interactive.[3] Take-Two confirmed the acquisition in February, saying that it would also retain the services of Yuke's and the THQ staff that worked on the WWE series. WWE 2K14 is the first game to be released under the 2K brand.[4]
Reception of the series has been positive overall, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 was rated 31st and 28th (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively) in IGN's "Top 100 Games" list.[5] It is among the best-selling video game franchises, with 37 million copies shipped as of 2009.
