The announcement of an All Elite Wrestling (AEW) game was met with widespread excitement. Wrestling video games can be seen as a stagnant genre, and AEW promised a return to a style of wrestling game many consider to be the peak of the genre. Now AEW just has to follow through, which may happen sooner than some expected. AEW champion Kenny Omega shared during a recent interview a tentative release window for the AEW video game coming in early 2022.
The news comes from the sports news website TalkSport, which recently interviewed Kenny Omega regarding the current status of the game. Asked about the game's ongoing development, Omega says that "in a perfect world" the AEW video game will launch in around a year. At the very least, Omega says he wouldn't consider it to be years away. This isn't a firm release date, but 2022 seems likely, and early 2022 is a possibility.
Omega's context for the statement is with regards to his familiarity with game development as a fan. He describes how AEW doesn't want a "Street Fighter 5 launch" or a "Cyberpunk launch," making clear that the AEW video game isn't going to try and be rushed or put out before it's ready to meet expectations. That said, Omega also said he wants to get the AEW game out as soon as it can be ready to make fans happy.
A year does sound early, given how little has been shared about AEW's in-development video game. This is AEW's first game, and it is promising a style of experience and a quality that doesn't get made quickly. AEW does have the benefit of working with an established game developer in Yuke's, which produced annual WWE games, but stopped working with WWE after the 2019 release.
For the time being, AEW fans should probably maintain a healthy amount of skepticism regarding Omega's comments. Release windows mentioned offhandedly rarely work out as planned. That said, it's great to hear how much confidence Omega has in the progress Yuke's is making, but there's a lot of work left to be done.
One other thing worth mentioning from Omega's interview is that AEW has plans to provide robust post-launch support for the upcoming video game. Omega mentions wanting to be able to add things like new arenas, new pay-per-view events, or additional characters that may be signed to the company. Whenever the new AEW game launches, it'll do so with a hopefully bright future.
The AEW video game is currently in development.
Source: TalkSport