“FIGHT FOREVER” – What went wrong?

I'm a huge wrestling fan. And it's been that way since I first saw Sting in his character “Crow” as a child. At some point I became a fan of The Rock and have been (mostly) locked up ever since. I say mostly because WWE has had some seriously lean years. Specifically for me, since 2014 when I stopped watching WWE. Then in 2020, an up and coming company called AEW brought me back to professional wrestling.

Despite all my history of watching pro wrestling, I still played the games. Out of WCW/NWO: World Tour To this day, I have played every major wrestling video game (even the legendarily bad ones). WCW Backstage Attack) and even a few indies (like Excellent WrestleQuest).

Videos from VICE

When Kenny Omega announced an AEW game to be developed in collaboration with Yuke's, it was a tribute to WWF No mercyI was really excited. Especially knowing that No Mercy's game director was consulted. The game was released in June 2023 and was fine. There was a clear foundation, but AEW couldn't really build on it. So what went wrong?

AEW: FIGHT SOMETIMES?

Let's start small, the online community for this game was almost non-existent. And it was strange. The appetite for the match was there, especially with CM Punk not only in AEW, but in a match for the first time in years. Of course, there would be a whole incident before the game's release that would result in him being removed from the cover, but that's no longer relevant

There were people who wanted to play, but apparently not online. Aside from that, the game's animations were a bit rough and the gameplay was a bit slow. However, given the roster that AEW had and the fact that Kenny Omega is an enthusiastic player and really cared about doing well, there was real potential.

The other problem was the game modes. Career mode was pretty simple and wasn't all that different from simply starting a series of one-on-ones in a quick game. The creation suite wasn't nearly as comprehensive as expected, and that was quite a disappointment. Especially considering that when it comes to wrestling games, the creation suite is everything.

I botched the move

The biggest problem for me with the game is the way the DLC release was set up. For a new game looking to gain a player base, releasing the “Elite Edition” and subsequent “Ultimate Edition” is a wild move. Now AEW is no stranger to wild moves, but you can't get that with gamers.

But then to drop it MORE The content after the “Ultimate Edition” borders on disrespectful. And that was before July of this year, when they released an “All Season Passes” package for $40. The same price as the base game currently. It was just a bad way to handle the game overall. That's sad, because there's a fair amount of content involved in all of this.

People will excuse a bad game with the promise of improvements or a better sequel. However, if you don't respect their time or money, you start to lose them. And AEW did exactly that. I sincerely hope that Kenny Omega has learned from the year since the game's release, because the AEW roster has the kind of talent that would make an incredible wrestling game. However, the focus must be on the quality of the game and not on the amount of additional content.