AEW Fight Forever Developer Reveals Major Reasons Behind the Game’s Failure

AEW entered the video game market in 2023 by releasing AEW Fight Forever, which had a lot of hype behind it. The game got mixed reviews, and many ended up deeming it a colossal failure and now, a developer for the game has revealed why the game failed.

While speaking on Mic Check, Justin Leeper, a developer for AEW Fight Forever, revealed why the game failed in the end. Leeper explained that working on AEW Fight Forever was different from his earlier WWE projects. AEW, acting as the licenser, was very hands-on, and he worked directly with Kenny Omega, who served as the creative liaison.

Leeper praised Omega’s collaborative leadership, comparing him to gaming legend Hideo Kojima. Omega had a clear creative vision but also valued input from others and deferred when necessary, making the process cooperative and open.

“As for the differences between working on the AEW game and the SmackDown vs. Raw franchise, I’d say AEW was very hands-on as a licenser. I worked closely with Kenny Omega, who acted as the creative liaison. I gained a lot of respect for him. Like Hideo Kojima, Kenny has a strong vision but is willing to collaborate and defer to others when needed. He knows wrestling and understands games but also knows what he doesn’t know, which made the process very collaborative.”

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However, developing the game wasn’t easy at all. Leeper described it as chaotic, saying that shipping a good game often feels like a miracle. Unlike the SmackDown vs. Raw series, AEW lacked a major publisher like THQ or 2K to oversee production.

This created challenges around decision-making, budgeting, and long-term planning. With only 10 months to write and implement the story mode on a tight budget, Leeper even performed motion capture himself and learned to create cutscenes in Unreal Engine.

The project felt almost like an indie game. Although he is proud of the final product, Leeper admitted AEW Fight Forever didn’t receive the same high scores as his WWE work. Limited resources and some early decisions meant the game didn’t have the depth or replayability that many players expect from a $60 release and it ultimately failed.

“Video game development is chaotic—about 85% of the time it’s a s*** show and a good game shipping is almost a miracle. Unlike THQ or 2K, AEW didn’t have a major publisher guiding the project at the time, which created challenges about who controlled decisions, budgets, and direction. I had only 10 months to write and implement the story mode, with a much smaller budget compared to the Road to WrestleMania era. Other departments had it pretty hard too. I even did motion capture myself and learned to put cutscenes into Unreal Engine.

It felt almost like an indie project. I’m proud of what I did, but AEW Fight Forever didn’t score as high as others games because we lacked the big resources and legacy content that 2K provided. Some decisions also didn’t give the game the long-term replayability that players expect from a $60 title. People want different things from games, and while fans can always vote with their wallets, I don’t think we fully delivered the longevity many were hoping for. So it failed.”

It is to be noted that AEW had been looking for a new partner for their upcoming video game projects and would likely part ways with Yukes. On top of that, Tony Khan also confirmed more AEW video games will be on the way in the future. So only time will tell if fans will get a proper AEW video game again that will be better than AEW Fight Forever.

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