Now is the Time for an AEW Video Game to Take Over

The WWE 2K series is in desperate need of some serious competition. Fortunately, the stars may be aligning to make just such a thing happen with AEW’s recent announcement.

For the better part of the last two decades, WWE has held a near-monopoly on wrestling. During that time, it seems that they’ve become rather complacent. This is reflected in the product as ratings continue to drop week after week, to say nothing of other controversial decisions they have made and continue to make, from running shows in Saudi Arabia (and how badly those are received, even outside of the context of their setting) to releasing numerous contracted workers and employees during a pandemic as they are on course to record their most profitable year ever.

(I could go on and on, but consider that a very abridged version of some of what they’ve been up to lately.)

Similarly, for that same period of time, the annual WWE releases from 2K Games have held a near-monopoly on wrestling video games. During that time, many fans have become tired of the same recycled, notoriously buggy product being released year after year, and WWE 2K19 seemed to hit a new low for the series. That is, until WWE 2K20 was released.

WWE 2K20 arrived to market with a severe handicap, as longtime developer Yuke’s took leave of their part in creating the yearly titles, with co-developer Visual Concepts being left to pick up the slack. Not only did that not work out so well, but things went so poorly that for the first time ever, they cancelled this year’s entry in the long-running series that began under publisher THQ.

In the meantime, they opted for something else to fill the void that would be left in the hearts of fans of video graps: WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a title from Saber Interactive, who had previously made NBA 2K Playgrounds. The title was thought to be a spiritual follow-up/successor to more over-the-top fare like WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game and WWE All Stars, and in some ways, it was.

However, it would not quite prove a suitable substitute for the more simulation-styled WWE games, and would be largely panned by critics and fans alike. The most egregious aspect that turned many a player off would be a grinding/monetization system that seems more at home in a mobile title, though other shortcomings (such as various characters possessing nigh-identical move sets) have been common grievances as well.

Much like WWE itself, the WWE 2K games have long had the floor all to themselves, and with little in the way of competition, they can more or less afford to get sloppy. After all, they’re the only big game in town.

Mind, I did say the only big game in town, not the only game in town.

Back in the ’90s, competition was rather plentiful. Many publishers and even platform holders such as Nintendo and SEGA produced their own original wrestling titles, often with characters who were “legally distinct” from those who actually appear in real life, even if fans could easily draw the parallels.

Even Capcom got into the act with Saturday Night Slam Masters (above, aka Muscle Bomber: The Body Explosion), a Street Fighter-esque take on the genre featuring original characters that they’ve sadly since relegated to their vaults. While the original would appear on the Super NES and SEGA Genesis, the Japan-only update, Muscle Bomber Duo: Ultimate Team Battle, and their sequel, Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II, would remain exclusively in arcades to this day.

Rumor has it that it’s the art and designs of Fist of the North Star creator Tetsuo Hara that have kept the series locked away, but honestly, they’ve probably introduced enough wrestlers into Street Fighter by now that they wouldn’t have to create many new characters to fill out the roster for a modern reboot.

Naturally, the biggest rivarly — at least in the west — would come from games based on rival promotions. Extreme Championship Wrestling was late to get into the act, only receiving two games in ECW Hardcore Revolution and ECW Anarchy Rulz (left), both developed and published by Acclaim in 2000, based on the groundwork which had been laid with their previous partnership with the World Wrestling Federation (or WWF, as WWE was known at the time) in WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude. Like those titles, the ECW games featured something of a more realistic style for the time, utilizing digitized images of the wrestlers placed atop 3D polygonal models.

Chief rival World Championship Wrestling, on the other hand, would be a bit more pick-up-and-play arcade style in the releases of WCW vs. nWo World Tour (right) and WCW/nWo Revenge, exclusively for the Nintendo 64. These titles, which were received better than the PlayStation alternatives, were developed by AKI Corporation (now syn Sophia), and were published by THQ. This is the style of game that WWF would inherit when they severed their longstanding relationship of about ten years and decided to jump in bed with THQ, a partnership which itself would last until the latter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy some 14 years later. WCW themselves would team up with Electronic Arts for their further video game ventures until the former was bought by WWF in 2001.

Following the jump to THQ, two of the next WWF games to come to the Nintendo 64 were WWF WrestleMania 2000 and WWF No Mercy. These built upon what AKI had created for WCW previously, with the latter becoming immensely popular, remaining a favorite among wrestling video game fans to this very day. It even sports its own modding community, adding wrestlers who have risen to stardom (or perhaps whose stardom precedes the game’s release) in the years since its release. (Remember this one, it’s going to be important later.)

It was around the same time WWF WrestleMania 2000 was released that THQ would also release WWF SmackDown! on the original PlayStation. Developed by Yuke’s, this would ultimately be the developer that THQ and later 2K Games would stick with for most of their big releases.

With WCW and ECW swallowed whole by WWE, there has been little in the way of worthwhile rivals for WWE’s product, both in real life and in the world of video games. Just as there was a spark from indies such as TNA Impact or Ring of Honor, there were occasionally sparks of competition from your Legends of Wrestling here or the odd TNA Impact there, but nothing ever really stuck for the long term.

Today, perhaps the most notable competition by far is Fire Pro Wrestling. This series began in 1989 with Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag for PC Engine, created by the late Masato Masuda, who had previously acted as the sole programmer of Pro Wrestling for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The series has been active ever since, changing hands from Human Entertainment to Spike Chunsoft, though many of its entries have not been released outside of Japan. The most recent installment, Fire Pro Wrestling World (seen in the trailer above), was released worldwide for Steam in 2017 and the PlayStation 4 in 2018. Though most releases in the series lack the official license of real-world wrestling organizations, World was licensed by both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Wonder Ring Stardom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oY2NxPtHyY

Another noteworthy title that hasn’t been released yet is the upcoming RetroMania Wrestling from Retrosoft Studios, an official sequel to Tecnos Japan’s WWF WrestleFest arcade game from 1991. Well, half-official. Or half-sequel? Basically, it’s approved by the creators of the original WrestleFest game, but without the WWF/WWE license.

In addition to going for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) license instead, the roster is filled with legends like the late Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, and various talent who were unsigned with any big leagues at various points in development, such as Tommy Dreamer, Matt Cardona (fka Zack Ryder), Bryan Myers (fka Curt Hawkins), Colt Cabana, Johnny Retro, and more.

Fire Pro Wrestling certainly has its audience, albeit one limited to two platforms, and RetroFest will no doubt find its own as well. But much like the darlings of the indie scene, which produces a lot of quality talent and shows that often go relatively overlooked, they aren’t likely going to be or be seen as competing on the same stage as WWE and 2K Games. In the eyes of the mainstream, they just don’t have the kind of marquee name value, particularly in the west, to step in as a “legitimate” competitor to the McMahonopoly.

But there is one that might.

On Tuesday, November 10th, 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) — or rather, AEW Games — held a special event on YouTube. There had been talk of them entering the video game scene ever since they hit the scene with the AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view in May 2019, and while it would get mentioned here and there, just enough to keep the flames stoked, there hadn’t really been anything of substance until now. And even then, the game is still in early goings.

In addition to some early development footage (seen above), AEW Games revealed that they were partnering with none other than Yuke’s to develop the game. That’s right — the same developers who were a part of the downward-spiraling WWE 2K series and had jumped ship last year were now revealed to be the technical hands behind AEW’s effort. Given their recent history, why should anyone hope that they’ll do any better here?

Well, for one thing, Yuke’s senior vice president and producer, Hiromi Furuta, said a few months prior to their departure that they are “aware that our creators are beginning to lose sight of their passion and confidence and becoming focused only on completing assigned tasks. That’s not the direction Yuke’s wants to go in.” In addition, he noted that in addition to retaining the WWE team (for the short term, apparently), they were also going to create a new wrestling game that could potentially compete with the WWE games.

This poses the question of whether or not they were already in talks with AEW at the time, or if one had approached the other at some later point and whatever they were working on was converted to become an All Elite Wrestling game. That’s an answer which remains to be seen, however.

Making things even more interesting is the reveal that the game will be directed by none other than Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita — the director of the beloved WWF No Mercy. You can already see some of that game’s influence here in the game’s character models, which manage to be detailed but not exactly life-like (not that the digitized images of WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude were lifelike themselves, but you could see them striving for it more there).

It’s said that competition brings out the best in everyone, and while AEW is typically careful not to label themselves as competition for WWE, they do present themselves as an alternative. And for some, it’s been quite a welcome alternative on television, as for whatever reason (or for many reasons built up over a period of time), WWE just might not be doing it for them anymore.

In that same vein, Yuke’s was interested in creating competition for WWE in the video game arena, and are now poised to do so by aligning themselves with a marquee name that airs in primetime every Wednesday night on TNT (TSN2 in Canada, and Fite TV in other parts of the world). If the increasingly buggy and/or overly-monetized product that 2K Games has been releasing isn’t enough of a catalyst for them to up their game (so to speak), then perhaps a competitive spark will help do the trick. Even if it doesn’t, then hopefully AEW Games and Yuke’s will provide a worthwhile mainstream alternative for fans.

Either way, while there’s no release date for AEW’s console title yet, the iron is hot and ready to be struck, with WWE’s games at the weakest point they’ve been in a long time, if not ever. The question then becomes whether they try to take advantage of the void presently left by the absence of a big-time annual triple-A release, or bide their time to release the game they want on their own terms, and risk losing the potential to gain some serious ground against the biggest name in the industry.

Thanks for reading!

Header image via @AEWGames on Twitter.

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.