While WWE 2K25 brings a whole host of new content and features, the team has also been hard at work to provide fans new updates to existing modes, including Universe.
We know fans have been clamoring for more news about Universe, so let’s get right to it, as there is a lot to share!
THE RETURN OF PROMOS
One of the newest additions to this year’s Universe is the return of Promos, which we revealed as part of our game announcement, so we wanted to touch on this a bit more.
Promos are now available as part of a new category of Rivalry actions, that include new animations and commentary. In total, there are five different promo types that a Superstar can perform:
Self-Promos:
- These create challenges for the Superstar to fulfill in their next match and gives their rival a reason to interfere. Succeeding rewards the player with benefits but failing the challenge imposes penalties
- Challenges can be viewed in the Rivalry overview before starting a match, during gameplay, and in the Rivalry Info tab within the Pause Menu.
- Challenges include winning a match, winning by submission, winning with high health, winning under 5 minutes and winning the last rivalry match, with higher rewards for the more difficult challenges.
Call-Out:
- The Superstar calls their rival out to the ring, who can choose to either respond or pull a no-show. A confrontation can lead to a future 1v1 match, no match at all, an immediate 1v1 match, or a brawl.
Promo Interrupt:
- The Superstar walks in on their rival’s promo which can lead to a 1v1 match, no match, an immediate match or a brawl.
Issue Open Challenge:
- The Superstar throws out an open challenge to any Superstar and the player will not know who their opponent is until their match entrance. A win provides benefits while defeat imposes penalties.
Accept Open Challenge:
- The Superstar answers an open challenge from their rival with benefits and penalties depending on a win or loss.
CALENDARS & SHOWS
Now let’s get into some of the new updates to managing the calendar and setting up shows. Major and Minor Shows are now eligible to be assigned to Sundays while PLE shows can now be assigned to Monday-Saturday. Another cool addition is that PLEs can run across two days, so if you want to mimic the 2-night WrestleManias or SummerSlams, you can now set them up that way.
Multiple shows can now be assigned to each day with a maximum of 3 shows, so if you’re feeling like having three shows on Monday night, you can certainly do so. The order of shows on the same day can also be customized, and this can be a combination of PLEs, Major, or Minor Shows.
If you set up a 2-night PLE, below are some available options and parameters:
Day 2 of a PLE can be assigned to any day up to 4 weeks after Day 1, so your PLE’s two-day event doesn’t necessarily have to be on back-to-back nights.
- Matchmaking will be split across both days of a 2-Day PLE with rosters being spread out over both nights, so you cannot double-book the same Superstar.
- The number of matches will also affect both nights. For example, if you set up your show to have 7 matches, that means that both nights will feature 7 matches for a total of 14.
PLE shows can also now be swapped with other PLEs on the Calendar menu, and via the Edit menu, shows can be moved to different days.
Another addition to the Universe calendar is support for Tournament PLEs like King and Queen of the Ring. In these tournaments, eight Superstars from host shows take place in a series of 1v1 matches where the winner of each match advances and the loser is eliminated. The winner of the final match of the official tournament is awarded a guaranteed title match at SummerSlam.
This new tournament show format is also available for creating your custom PLE by using the Queen or King of the Ring PLE template.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
In WWE 2K25, Universe will see the inclusion of a new team management system whereby players can assign Superstars to multiple teams.
Team members can also now have customized roles within a team:
Singles:
- Prioritized for singles and free-for-all matches
Tag:
- Prioritized for two-person tag matches and eligible for tag division championships with another tag-role team member
Trio:
- Prioritized for three-person team matches
Quad:
- Prioritized for four-person team matches
Manager:
- Prioritized as a manager for fellow team members’ matches
Teams now also support lineups for stables of 3 or more members. These lineups are smaller groups within a large team and can have their own unique names, ring announcements, crowd reactions, entrances, victories, and roles that are different from their base team.
When creating a new lineup, by default, it will inherit its base team’s settings as a starting point but can be edited.
MATCHMAKING AND INTERGENDER
In this year's game, we've revamped matchmaking for better stability and reliability. Also included is a new scoring and sorting system during match card generation. This new system takes multiple factors of each match into consideration, such as the Overall rating of the Superstars involved or whether the match is for a World title (and more) to curate the card while prioritizing the biggest matchups for the main event and opening matches of the show.
Match Tables have also gotten a new Main Event tab, allowing more customization when you want to earmark a certain type or subset of matches to pick from as the final match of a show. If the Main Event match table is empty, the standard Match Table will be used to determine the main event instead.
Universe will have support of the new match types introduced in WWE 2K25 - Underground, and Bloodline Rules, alongside the new Brawl environments.
With the inclusion of Intergender Wrestling in WWE 2K25, Universe also supports it, which is an option that can be toggled on or off.
When enabled, players can create intergender matches (non-title) and set up rivalries. There is also an option for an Intergender Division which opens up the capabilities of having an intergender championship and allows players to include Superstars from the men’s and women’s divisions to compete for that title.
There’s still so much to do in Universe and we can’t wait for players to dive in when WWE 2K25 releases on March 7 for the Deadman and The Bloodline Editions, and on March 14 for Standard.