When WWE 2K26 launches in March, it will introduce one major change to a feature that’s been core to the franchise for years. DLC packs are no longer being offered for sale, as publisher 2K instead implements a battle pass system for unlockables throughout the game. The change has rankled a fair number of WWE games fans who think they now have to work for the DLC in addition to paying for it. In reality, it’s a very different story.
Each of the six passes will cost $9.99, the same price as previous DLC packs. However, there will also be a free track on the pass requiring no additional purchase and offering a suite of rewards each season. In season 1, the free track includes the legends and bonus content that would have previously been unlocked with the Supercharger add-on.
All told, between the free and paid tracks of WWE 2K26‘s Ringside Pass, 120 rewards will be up for grabs in each pass, with season 1 consisting of 40 free and 40 premium tiers. As you can see below in the first images from Ringside Pass, each tier contains multiple rewards.
In a Q&A with Polygon conducted on a video call, Visual Concepts game designer Cornell Gunter explained how the Ringside Pass works and why you may ultimately get more for your money than before. He also reveals the biggest difference from what’s become a standard pass offering in games like Fortnite and Call of Duty — you can’t use the virtual currency you earn from the pass toward purchasing the next one.
[Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.]
Polygon: When do you first start putting the wheels in motion to make the switch from traditional DLC to a pass?
Cornell Gunter: Every single year we look at the sentiment from our community… We try to figure out ways to reinvent the wheel, to give our players content consistently throughout the year. And we feel like the Ringside Pass gives us that opportunity.
We look at other situations, like passes around the industry. But one thing about our Ringside Pass that we think really is going to benefit our communities. There’s no pay-to-play [winning]; there’s no opportunity here to do that. We’re not offering or giving out any sort of attribute boosts or anything like that. What we’re focusing on is giving you content, and that comes in the form of Personas, the DLC stuff… There might be a couple of surprises here and there. But our main focus with Ringside Pass is giving content to our players throughout the entire year.
When it comes to Ringside Pass, are you ultimately getting more than you would have in the past with standard DLC packs?
Yes. So what we have this year, Ringside Pass, consists of two tracks. You have your free track, which consists of [the] Supercharger content in season 1. That means all of your legends, arenas, belts, and things of that nature that players were seeking to use with the Supercharger bundles from previous years. You’re able to obtain that for free this year. That’s one of the big things for us, is that players can still earn something and get something in our game without having to pay a dime.
Now for the players that are investing, that do want to pay for the premium track, there are things — including the DLC superstars — on there for you to obtain. But also, again, there’s Personas. There are other things that I don’t want to spoil too much, but I would just say that there are some things that our community has been asking for from us, from a superstar standpoint, that we hear loud and clear. We’re trying to achieve those things this year during that pass.
Something I love about the Fortnite Battle Pass is that if you play enough, you’ll earn enough virtual currency to purchase the next pass, creating a continuing cycle. Is that possible with Ringside Pass?
We are treating each of these seasons as seasons of their own…. To my knowledge, we are not providing any sort of carryover potential for you to be able to get something for the next season. However, you know one thing about our seasons [is] that the content never goes away. So if season 4 comes out and [you] need to go back and finish season 2, you can always go back and finish it. So you will never, ever lose that content. You never miss out on anything. Nothing is timed when it comes to our seasons.
I’ve been playing WWE video games for a very long time, and there’s one universal truth: The first time something is introduced, it’s pretty good. However, it doesn’t reach full potential for a couple of years as tweaks are made. How do you envision Ringside Pass in WWE 2K28?
I think the one thing that [it] looks like more in 2K28 is just hopefully we can expand for more content. That’d be the thing. Being able to give every player — no matter what they play — something. “Hey, can I give you something cool that can go into MyGM? Hey, can I give you something cool that goes into MyRise?” That’ll be the thing because we want the Ringside Pass to be for everybody.
We don’t want it just to feel like it’s catered to somebody else. And I think this year, our players are going to see that we do not just give love or prioritize one specific game mode in our title. We try to spread it out completely across the whole entire game to where players can earn XP playing in different modes. But then also you can use the rewards that you get all over the place.
WWE 2K26 will be released on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on March 13.
