Following a week of teases, professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling has announced not one but three new video games in development under their new AEW Games banner. At their 1.0 Special Event livestream, Executive Vice Presidents Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes unveiled the new games, including a partnership with legendary developer Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita , best known for his work on WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64.
As part of the partnership, AEW will also be working with Yuke’s, the developer behind many of the WWE Smackdown vs Raw and WWE 2k series of games. The first of AEW’s game announcements is an as-yet-untitled “console game” to be released at a later date. Early development footage shows Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega reversing one another’s finishing moves before being interrupted by AEW Women’s World Champion, Hikaru Shida. Shida lands her finishing maneuvers, the Falcon Arrow and the Tamashii knee strike, on Omega to demonstrate the “dream matches” advertised on-screen.
The second of the announced games is AEW Elite General Manager, a mobile game management simulation to be launched in 2021. The game will be worked on by AEW referee Aubrey Edwards, herself a former games developer, alongside Canada-based studio Crystallized Games. Putting fans in the role of head booker, Elite GM lets players design their rosters, book their shows, set their matches, and run their shows to turn a profit, motivate their wrestlers, and excite their fans.
The third game announced at 1.0 Special Event is AEW Casino: Double or Nothing, an online mobile casino game featuring AEW-branded gambling — slots, poker, blackjack, roulette and other casino games will be overlaid with AEW wrestlers, themes, settings and avatars. The game is being developed by European studio KamaGames, who have an existing background in mobile poker and blackjack games. Casino: Double or Nothing will be the first of AEW’s games to release, and is expected later this year.
AEW Elite General Manager arranges on mobile devices in 2021
With avid gaming fans on its roster, AEW Games is in good hands. Kenny Omega has had past involvement in a number of gaming tournaments and expos, and has taken personal responsibility for the direction of the fledgling wrestling company’s video game initiative:
“When I first signed with AEW, I asked [AEW president] Tony Khan to let me help assemble the best gaming team on the planet, to make the best wrestling games ever. With masterminds like Geta and the incredible team at Yuke’s, we are well on the path to deliver a fresh, vastly superior gaming experience that our fans deserve.”
With these new announcements now out in the wild, check out the 5 Things We Want to See in an AEW Video Game.
