2K Games has decided to give its yearly wrestling series a break following the lackluster performance ofWWE 2K20, and in place ofWWE 2K21will be releasing anarcade-style spin-off calledWWE 2K Battlegrounds. In its original announcement from April 27 2K Games said, “We’ve also heard your requests to keep theWWE 2K19servers running; they will remain active for the time being.” However, an in-game message appeared to contradict that sentiment this week.

Players took to the Internet after an alert appeared inWWE 2K19saying the game’s servers would be shut down on August 06, 2025 — likely when they were originally meant to be deactivated. The officialWWEGames Twitter account posted a response to this on Monday letting fans know they should “disregard” the message, asWWE 2K19servers “will remain open for the foreseeable future.”

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To many fans of the wrestling game franchise, this extension of server activity is probably a huge sigh of relief even if it has a currently vague end-point. WhileWWE 2K20did a few things better thanWWE 2K19, critics and audiences widely agreed that the more recent title was a buggy mess. As both are available on current consoles and PC, the ability to keep playing whichever one a person prefers is a nice gesture given the series' lull.

This is an especially good thing for thosefans who reacted negatively to theWWE 2K Battlegroundsannouncement. The title is being developed by Saber Interactive rather than the core series' developers Visual Concepts, and establishes a more cartoonish, over-the-top style of gameplay with aura power moves and feeding wrestlers to crocodiles that do not appeal to some players.

However one thingWWE 2K Battlegroundswill have over its predecessors, likely in-part due to its more basic graphical style and gameplay loop, is platform accessibility. Recently the ESRB released its ‘T’ rating for the game that revealedBattlegroundswill be coming to Switch and Stadiain fall 2020 on top of the usual contenders: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

That said, fans who are not interested in the new spin-off title can at least be confident in the fact thatWWE 2K19servers will be open for the foreseeable future — likely until whatever the true follow-up game will be is revealed. At this point only time will tell whetherWWE 2K Battlegroundswill join the ranks of thegreatestWWEvideo games, or the worst of the bunch.

WWE 2K19is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One