When AEW Fight Forever, then unnamed, was announced back in November 2020, the excitement among fans for the young promotion was high. People were eager to play as their favorite AEW wrestlers on the system of their choice.
Unfortunately, however, that excitement began to dwindle as information on the game came few and far between. From the revelation that the creation suite would be limited for created wrestlers to an outdated roster, many were upset about the state of the game.
When launched, the game received mixed reviews. Concerns from players ranged from the aforementioned roster, a limited mode offering, and multiple bugs at launch.
Our review put it in the “wait for a sale” range, saying at the time, “It’s clear there’s a foundation here of a great game, but, at this point, AEW Fight Forever needed more time in developmental before hitting the main roster.”
Now, nearly a year after its release, the state of things remains tense around the game with questions regarding how money was spent on development, Yuke’s’ future working with AEW, the future of the company in gaming, and more.
A Fight From The Start
Multiple sources within both AEW and around the development at Yuke’s have said that the game shouldn’t have been announced as early as it was. One source went as far as saying that announcing it as soon as they did nearly “killed the game from the start”.
“It put even more pressure on the developers to not only deliver something great, but deliver something faster than what it should’ve been,” a source told Insider Gaming on the condition of anonymity due to still being around the game. “The longer we went without updating people, the more pressure we felt which led to, for some people, carelessness with what was being done.”
As more of the game was shown publicly, those working on the game took note of the perception immediately. While almost everyone believed they had a good game being made with a foundation being laid, many felt that keeping the game in development and holding back at least another year or so would’ve been for the best.
So, why did it get released when it did in June 2023?
“We needed to recoup money from development,” one source said.
While AEW owner Tony Khan has, at least publicly, made it known about not being afraid to invest high amounts of money into things around the company, there was a belief and feeling of many that the game was one area that money had to be made back.
“They (AEW) knew they were going to lose money on this game,” another said. “But there was a lot of pressure to make money back solely because of how overbudget the game went.”
That budget, which wasn’t small to begin with, fell somewhere between 1.5x to 2x the original expected development cost. This led to a number of features planned for the game at launch being either delayed or cut entirely.
“Around a third of the planned launch features didn’t happen, and some may still not happen at all,” Insider Gaming was told.
One of the features that was talked about for launch but was ultimately added as part of the game’s DLC plan was the “Beat the Elite” game mode. The mode, which was released for the game in December 2023, sees players face 10 randomly selected wrestlers with the goal of getting to the Elite and beating one of the in-game members of the group.
Another feature that was planned, and even publicly mentioned as being a part of the game at one point, was cross-platform play. Insider Gaming was told that testing of the feature produced too many issues during development, leading to it being scrapped with plans to revisit down the line. When specifically “down the line” is, it was said that “your guess is as good as anyone’s”.
The Future Of AEW Fight Forever
Since its release, AEW Fight Forever has released regular DLC updates to the game. These updates, however, usually feature one added wrestler at a time along with things like cosmetic additions for created wrestlers, new soundtrack songs, and, in some cases, new arenas like the now old AEW Dynamite arena as well as a new beachfront arena.
Though new traditional match types haven’t been added to the game, the plan was always to introduce more variety to the game as it aged. Stadium Stampede, the game’s take on the battle royal genre, was added as a free update to the game, and was well received both internally and externally. Many at the time felt it was a step towards adding more matches to the game as part of future updates.
That said, things like adding Trios matches, sources say, continued to be more difficult to implement than the Stadium Stampede was.
“They’re trying, but it just feels like something that may have to wait for the next game if they don’t put extra resources to it now,” one person said about adding bigger matches to the current game. The source did acknowledge that discussions on how to implement the bigger match types could be done. Where those discussions went, however, is currently unknown.
Speaking of the next game, there is a lot of doubt surrounding the continued relationship of AEW and Yuke’s. While the relationship started off strong, it continued to go downhill throughout the game’s development and remains tense as work continues.
“No one knows what’s going to happen when the planned updates are done,” sources said. “We know AEW wants a second game to be made, but as far as who will make it, that’s completely up in the air. Them (AEW) owning the game engine puts the ball in their court for where to go from here.”
Currently, Yuke’s is still working on updates to the game per its agreement with AEW. As of now, the plans are to finish up all existing agreements before a firm decision is made on the future.
Insider Gaming reached out to All Elite Wrestling, Yuke’s, and publisher THQ Nordic multiple times for comment on this story before publishing. As of publishing, each request has gone ignored.
