WWE has today announced that former world champion Stone Cold Steve Austin will be the new face of their very own video game, WWE 2K16.
Austin has slowly started to appear back on the WWE scene in the wake of his very successful wrestling podcast – The Stone Cold Podcast – and now it seems that the company will use his presence to promote their new game.
Many wrestling fans had speculated that upcoming stars such as Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns or Bray Wyatt could feature on the game's cover, however Austin, a man that last laced his boots in 2003, will take centre-stage.
Commenting on the announcement, Austin said: "I think it speaks to the impact my career had on the business. It was a testament to the times when the business was as hot as it's ever been. I got a chance to lead that charge and all these years later, it comes back around."
This news was broken via WWE.com and their Twitter page earlier today, striking a recognizable and (in the words of Michael Cole) "vintage" pose:
Big #WWE2K16 news … and it's THIS!! More details: http://t.co/SXfe1xxDDN @WWEGames pic.twitter.com/1it07tCNp1
— WWE (@WWE) July 6, 2015
On a side note, Austin is not much of a gamer, however he has been talking about his expectations for WWE 2K16 in a recent interview with WWE.com.
He said: "It'll be interesting to see who's going to be in the game. I'm looking forward to see who they dig out in WWE history and bring up. For all the different matchups, with 120 playable characters, that's almost insane. From what I know about the game, this one is going to be the coolest one ever."
The WWE 2K16 game will be released for both Xbox One and Playstation 4 on October 27th. Read more here.