AEW world champion recently spoke with TalkSport to provide an update on the AEW video game, which the Cleaner teases will have a unique feel from any recent wrestling game. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says they are in contact with the team at Yukes everyday:
I’m really excited. We’re always in contact almost everyday with our teams at Yukes. I’m always in contact with Geta-san as well and I feel like we’ve got a really good chemistry and dynamic with one another. The biggest challenge we have right now is kind of representing the current wrestling style in a way that still make it feel like the games of old. Because things have changed, it’s not the same wrestling climate as it was in 2000.
Being able to give fans a different feel for each character they choose:
As you know, we’ve kind of crossed over into a new generation of wrestling and wrestling styles and certain types of wrestling never ages. I wrestle a certain way and the way that I wrestle may not be the way that Fenix or Jungle Boy wrestles, but how can we represent all of those styles in a way where it makes you feel as if you’re playing as those people, how do we make that mesh well in an actual wrestling game? We’re getting closer to that answer and I think with every little new addition to our engine, we feel it out, we see it and play it out. Then we tweak it, then we have other ideas how to tweak it and then tweak it again from there and then maybe we’ll come up with a brand new idea.
Says fortunately they haven’t had any setbacks as of yet:
Luckily we haven’t had any huge setbacks anytime we’ve come up with a new idea or something that we could perhaps implement. It’s sort of like ‘yeah, we can do that’ and try it out, it’s not ‘no, we’re reaching too hard. So it’s cool how there hasn’t been one great or innovative idea where it’s like I know it probably hasn’t been done, but what if we did this and my biggest fear when I feel like I have a good idea and I know it hasn’t been in a wrestling game before and I say it is if they say ‘no, that’s going to be difficult.’
Thinks the game is about a year away from being released:
I wouldn’t say years [away] plural. I would say in a perfect world, give it about a year’s time. We’re working really hard and we’re lucky to have two teams, one in America and one in Japan, working on this almost around the clock. We do know that time is of the essence, we can’t let this sit around forever and people want a game like yesterday [laughs] so, we do want to release something as soon as we feel it’s ready and representative of what our brand should be and what will make fans happy. Again, we don’t want a Street Fighter 5 launch, we don’t want a Cyberpunk launch. So we’re going to create something that will fun to play from day one, but it will be ever-evolving as our roster is. Kenny Omega is an executive vice president in AEW and has been very hands on with the development of this game. As great as it is on launch, as our roster grows – let’s say we add a pay-per-view name, add a new arena, let’s say we sign whoever, anybody! – we want to be able to support those new additions as well. It’s gonna hopefully be what people are hoping for. Hopefully the new additions/update will be really prompt. That’s the plan anyway! So everyone can feel up to date with our roster and how AEW grows.
