THQ reboots its wrestling franchise with WWE ’12

THQ’s ditching the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw name in favor of WWE ’12, a game which will make its debut at E3 next week. 

This “reboot” of the franchise takes advantage of what THQ is calling “Predator Technology,” which is the best name for tech, well, ever. With it they’re promising a dynamic and fluid animation system, along with a new submission system its calling “Breaking Point.” 

“What we are doing is taking the basic essence of what is good in the past games and making a new experience that feels fresh, fun, responsive, faster, smoother and is of higher quality,” said creative director Corey Ledesma in an online Q&A for THQ. “If you’ve played the SmackDown vs. Raw games in the past, I have zero doubt you will notice the difference as soon as you pick up this year’s game.”

Jim Sterling is currently scheduled to cover our THQ appointments at E3. But as a long time on-again, off-again fan of wrestling games, I’m going to make time to check it out on the show floor. Check back next week for more detailed covered. 

In the meantime, be sure to watch the most useless debut trailer for a videogame ever, one which features zero gameplay footage and goes on for close to two minutes.