WWE 2K16: Latest News and Rumors for Week of Aug. 3

In what has become an annual tradition, as the summer begins to wane, the hoopla for WWE 2K16 starts to swell.

How the next installment of WWE's video game will look and play and just who will be available to insert into virtual matches become increasingly hot topics. Fans don't know a ton about the game thus far, but several Superstars have been confirmed, and there are hints about a few more joining them. 

WWE 2K15 was a bit of a disappointment. The game's first venture into next-generation consoles led to stunning visuals, but on a game that lacked the features players are used to having. 2K continues its revamping of the series this year, leaving gamers curious to know what changes are ahead.

With a look at rumors, hints and official news, let's dive into what we know about WWE 2K16 so far.

What's Confirmed So Far

The game is currently scheduled for release on Oct. 27 in North America and Oct. 30 for international markets. Last year, however, 2K had to push back the original release date in order to finish the product. 

Steve Austin is on the cover this year. There's no word yet if there will be alternative covers as well, but for now The Texas Rattlesnake is the game's poster boy.

WWE's Twitter account offered a look at it early last month:

A number of young guns will join him. WWE.com listed the first official members of the game's roster, compete with character art.

• Bad News Barrett
• Daniel Bryan
• Dean Ambrose
• Finn Balor
• Paige
• Seth Rollins
• Steve Austin

Balor, the current NXT champ, will be making his debut in the series.

2K has been busy doing motion capture with him. He talked about the experience in a recent video for the WWE 2K YouTube channel:

And while the roster will include a variety of names from the past, it won't feature Hulk Hogan. Amid the recent controversy surrounding Hogan's racially charged comments, he's been plucked from the game.

2K sent the following statement to IGN: "We are highly respectful of the way that our partners choose to run their business and manage our partnerships accordingly. We can confirm that Hulk Hogan will not appear in WWE 2K16."

So there will be no Austin vs. Hogan dream matches unless players create The Hulkster themselves.

There will, however, be the option to have Ambrose have a showdown with the Terminator. The movie cyborg will be available as a pre-order character, as seen in a recent trailer:

This marks the first time that the pre-order-exclusive character is someone from outside the world of wrestling. Sting and Ultimate Warrior were the big incentives to pre-order in the past two years.

Roster Rumors, Buzz

The one thing that appears clear from the early news surrounding WWE 2K16 is that the roster is going to be robust. There is reportedly an initiative to make the game massive from a choice standpoint.

That's certainly what PWInsider's Mike Johnson is hearing. He wrote that the roster will feature 120 unique characters and "will be made of main roster, NXT, WWE legends and possibly even some ECW originals." 

He also added the following:

"

I am told that 2K is working really hard to insure they can include the most up to date WWE roster possible and that they are even already working on recent signings like Samoa Joe to include him as, most likely, a downloadable character. The plan is to give WWE fans the greatest potential gaming roster ever.

"

A potential leak pointed to some of the names that could make up that roster. 

GameStop Italy (h/t SEScoops) mentioned that Andre the Giant, Triple H, The Rock and Alexa Bliss will all be part of the game. Those first names comes as no surprise. Bliss, who isn't even one of NXT's top Divas, is an unexpected arrival to the WWE 2K series.

Her inclusion hints that NXT will be well-represented. And it looks like there will be more of a female presence this time around.

The current NXT women's champ says that she was scanned for the game. Sasha Banks confirmed as much on Twitter:

Eva Marie posted a behind-the-scenes photo of what appears to be her shooting a commercial for the game:

That seems to point to her being a part of WWE 2K16 as well.

And to offer a not-so-subtle tease, the WWE 2K posted a shot of John "Bradshaw" Layfield's trademark cowboy hat on Instagram:

Whether he's in the game as just an announcer or as a wrestler too remains to be seen. Having him in there as both seems more likely, considering how many spots 2K has to fill.

Other Elements

In addition to scanning wrestlers to ensure the immensity of WWE 2K16's roster, 2K appears to also be hard to work at reworking a number of other details.

Chase Stevens, who briefly wrestled for WWE in 2008, has been discussing his recent motion-capture work on the game. As part of a Q&A session, he posted on his Facebook page that they were redoing all the create-a-finishers.

He also said, "The create-a-finisher is reshot every year because of computer technology getting better by the year. This years' game will be tons better then last year's. 2K didn't get much time to put the game together last year after the switch from THQ."

That all makes perfect sense. Last year's edition did feel rushed and incomplete. Having more time to put its own imprint on the game will presumably make it feel less like a rehash of the old WWE 2K games.

And finishers aren't the only details; the company is revamping. As Bleacher Report's Brian Mazique explained in the video below, 2K has put in work to improve the game's cloth simulation:

That's not a term everyone is familiar with, but it essentially refers to how clothes move in the game. Working on making that more realistic will help the graphics and overall realism. 

Jerry Lawler gave fans some early info on the announcing part of WWE 2K16. In an interview on Cerrito Live, he said that he would be working alongside Jim Ross again. He also noted that there would be a Steve Austin Attitude Era section.

Fans got an glimpse of what seems to be part of that mode. A leaked video showed Lawler and Ross working on commentary for a match involving Austin, Shawn Michaels and the tag team titles:

That's just a taste of the information sure to come. WWE typically reveals the majority of the roster during SummerSlam weekend. Following that, the pace of updates increases as hype for the game grows.