There are two types of gamers in the world: those still fighting the good fight against microtransactions becoming the norm in video games, and those of us who have already given up the battle. I’m firmly in the second camp, happily exchanging my real money for virtual currency that I can then exchange for altered cosmetics for characters, vehicles, weapons, clothing, and pretty much anything else a game like Fortnite will let me customize.
As willing as I am to spend on microtransactions in games I enjoy, I have to draw the line somewhere. That line in the sand is how 2K has introduced them in its sports titles. This started with The Neighborhood, a virtual space that featured purchasable cosmetics, PvP and PvE minigames, and social interaction, in NBA 2K20. It was a decent idea, but at the time, it already felt dated.
Related
WWE 2K25 Is Good, But With More Time It Could Have Been Incredible
This year’s wrestling game is excellent fun, but I can’t help feeling that WWE 2K25 cuts corners.
That mode evolved into The City in NBA 2K25. It became a central part of the game, being tied to the popular MyCareer mode. 2K’s WWE games are now getting in on the action with their own version of the mode, named The Island, featuring minigames and locations themed to various WWE Superstars. The problem is, The Island is a huge step backwards in the realm of gaming microtransactions.
So many games have figured out how to present cosmetics to encourage users to buy them, but The Island mode makes even window shopping infuriating.
What’s Wrong With The Island?
Introducing The Island in WWE 2K25 was likely a winning proposition from a financial standpoint – everything in the mode costs fake money, which is first purchased with real money. However, as a longtime fan of the WWE video game series (dating back to 1999’s WrestleMania 2000), I can confidently say it is possibly the worst way to introduce microtransactions.
The biggest issue with The Island is that not everyone has access to it. With the release of 2K25, the studio presented two versions of the game. If you play on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, or the Switch 2, you get the ‘current-gen’ version, complete with The Island. If, however, you’re playing on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or a PC, you’re locked into a ‘last-gen’ version of the game. That includes fewer bells and whistles and, for some reason, no Island.
That also means many of the cosmetics available in The Island may not be available on the ‘last-gen’ version of the game. Meanwhile, other cosmetics from the mode appear for free in that version of the game. Given that, I find myself wondering why I have to spend in-game currency on an item while another platform offers the same objects for free.
Related
Once you load the mode itself, you have to create a character before you can shop, naturally. Unfortunately, you can’t simply import one of your created wrestlers, which would have made sense.
Once another character is created and you load into The Island, you’re introduced to a third-person view of your new creation as it (slowly) runs around a map filled with other players doing the exact same thing. Everyone is running to a store or a minigame, unless they’re just standing around AFKing.
If you want to buy something, the arduous task begins. Dotted around the map are a variety of stores themed to various WWE superstars, or Nike, in case you want the swoosh logo all over your wrestler. When you arrive at these stores, rather than going into them and looking around, a shop menu simply pops up.
You don’t walk through the store looking at options. The entire mode involves running around a map to access various menus, just to see what’s actually for sale. There is no overall marketplace or shop to view everything offered.
Should I have to do all of this to hand a billion-dollar video game company my money in exchange for a cool new set of boots I want to put on my wrestler? Probably not.
2K Can Fix Its Microtransactions Easily
It shouldn’t be so difficult. In most games, it’s not. Fortnite, alongside a number of other live-service titles, has already cracked the code on how to best present cosmetics for sale to gamers. There’s a single store filled with a variety of cosmetics for different modes of the game.
This makes it easy to browse and pick out purchases, trying things on the character you’ll be playing the game as. And you don’t have to walk around a virtual world just to buy a new skin or Jam Track.
Fortnite is also excellent at making sure players know exactly what’s available. Epic, the studio behind Fortnite, is very loud about its new cosmetics. It touts new additions on social media while adding splash pages and banners in-game. Conversely, there’s no real way to find out what’s available on The Island unless you wander around it and enter the right shops.
I want to be excited about cosmetics being available for games I love, and Fortnite understands the assignment. A skin of Will Smith in Bad Boys is the thing that first pulled me into the game, and now, several years and over 300 skins later, my love of the game is still going strong. What other game will allow me to jump out of a bus as Jar Jar Binks to take the fight to the cast of Naruto?
Related
We Should All Be Talking About Pirate Yakuza’s Condemnation Of Microtransactions
One substory in Pirate Yakuza is a metaphor for devs shoving MTX everywhere, and RGG is firmly on the side of players.
I can’t say the same for WWE 2K25 and The Island. While I have made a couple of purchases to see how the process works, the minigames involved (which range from scavenger hunts to wrestling matches) don’t interest me. I don’t care to wander a map looking for a tattoo shop and hope that there’s something cool for sale that I can adorn my created wrestler with (there’s not) or hope a new shirt has been added to Seth & Becky’s Driporium (yes, that’s the store’s real name).
It’s unfortunate that The Island has made cosmetic microtransactions such a pain; WWE 2K25 is a stellar title otherwise. After the debacle of WWE 2K20, the studio has rebuilt the game to become as good or better than it has been in years.
The MyRise story mode is a blast filled with branching paths, the matches themselves are always fun, General Manager mode keeps getting better, and the creation suite paired with the community creations mode means you can make practically anyone or anything for your dream matches. Add in that this year’s game includes intergender matches, so you can properly use Rhea Ripley to destroy ‘Dirty’ Dominic Mysterio, and you’ve got the makings of an all-timer.
That’s why it’s so disappointing that The Island is the major focus of WWE 2K25. Sure, 2K may have found some success with this concept, be it here or in the NBA 2K franchise, but as a longtime player of these games, I have a hard time imagining this success lasting — especially when there is a much easier-to-navigate, more inviting way for me to fork over cash in rival games.
My plea is simple, 2K. I want to give you my money. All you have to do is make it easier and less time-consuming for me to do. Also, let me download The Shockmaster.
WWE 2K25
- Released
- March 14, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen // Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Visual Concepts
- Publisher(s)
- 2K Sports
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Multiplayer, Local Co-Op
