After the startling news broke that WWE was removing Hulk Hogan from WWE 2K16 it seemed fitting that they at least replace the Hulkster with someone as equally iconic. Well, they are. WWE has announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in the game as pre-order DLC.
In connection with the recent release of Terminator: Genisys, WWE and Arnold have teamed up together to see the action movie star reprising his role as a T-800... within the squared circle. Check out the promo trailer below for WWE 2K16 [via Eurogamer].
Slash Film quips about this being a further collaboration between WWE and Schwarzenegger following Triple H's over-the-top entrance at Wrestlemania XXXI where he came out with a Terminator theme and some endoskeleton garb on.
The trailer above shows nothing of how the T-800 will look in the game, but I sure hope they nail Arnold's likeness properly. The Terminator will be present as two playable characters from the first and second films, both directed by James Cameron. In the press release, Schwarzenegger stated...
I’ve achieved many things in my life, but I’ve always said success means staying hungry and pushing the limits, […] I was honored to join the WWE Hall of Fame earlier this year, and now I’ll continue my WWE legacy with one of my biggest film roles immortalized in WWE 2K16. Match the Terminator against Stone Cold Steve Austin, Seth Rollins or Daniel Bryan, and there’s only one possible outcome: Hasta la vista, baby!
That would actually be pretty cool. Stone Cold versus Arnold Schwarzenegger? I say make it happen.
I expect this will also generate a ton of buzz within the YouTube gaming scene, because there's a bustling create-a-wrestler culture online where people love to create and share their WWE 2K wrestlers with others. In addition to this, there are regular tournaments, machinima and dream matches staged online where wrestling fans get to see matches take place that otherwise might not ever happen... like the coveted Sting versus Undertaker dream match.
The only downside to this news is that this is pre-order DLC and not just a standard unlockable. I'm sure a lot of people would love to play as Arnold in the game but the fact they'll have to pay for it as DLC before the game even comes out might just rub some people the wrong way.
Pre-order culture seems to be growing a great extent and it's resulted in many older gamers feeling burned out on all the monetary cash-grabs for games before they release. Evolve was especially egregious about this, with so much DLC planned prior to release that fans just gave up and bothered to leave the game alone. It died a very quick death following its release.
In the case of WWE 2K16, it's likely to live a long and healthy life until Yukes releases the next game, but peppering the news sphere with a lot of pre-release DLC can wear thin on gamers real quick.
WWE 2K16 is expected to launch on October 27th, 2015 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
