def jam vendetta is a 2003 professional wrestling video game published by electronic arts and developed by aki corporation and ea canada. it was released for the playstation 2 and nintendo gamecube. "def jam vendetta" was released on march 31, 2003 in north america, may 23, 2003 in pal regions, and on august 21, 2003 in japan. it featured hip hop musicians from the def jam records label as fighters. the engine for the game was first designed for a sequel to ea's "wcw mayhem", but ea lost their wcw license when wcw was bought by the world wrestling federation (wwf) in 2001.