All Elite Wrestling introduced like, I dunno, three video games directly a few years in the past. All of them sounded horrible and we have not posted about them (additionally as a result of a bunch of them aren’t on PC). AEW: Struggle Ceaselessly, nonetheless formally Coming Quickly, is their first crack at a sweaty graps sim to rival WWE’s sequence, and right now it was confirmed the writer is THQ Nordic. This not solely signifies that we’ll see extra gameplay at subsequent week’s THQ Nordic showcase, per a tiny teaser, however it provides one other horse to the complicated carousel of firms which have labored on wrestling sims.
Bear with me right here, however the WWE video games was once made by Yuke’s, and had been revealed by THQ till THQ liquidated within the 2010s. The WWE license handed to Take-Two Interactive and the video games had been revealed below 2K Sports activities, however nonetheless made by Yuke’s till improvement was taken over by 2K’s studio Visible Ideas from WWE 2K20 onwards.
This freed Yuke’s as much as turn out to be the developer of AEW: Struggle Ceaselessly. In the meantime, Nordic Video games received maintain of the THQ trademark (amongst different issues) in THQ’s nice property firesale, and thus began calling themselves THQ Nordic in 2016. To be clear, THQ Nordic are usually not the identical as THQ, however it’s fascinating to see that AEW have nearly type of set themselves up with the unique wrestledev staff – or not less than have the identical logos, anyway.
A press launch tells me that Kenny Omega, a person who has strikes named after Ultimate Fantasy characters, had an Undertale-themed promo, and as soon as got here to a match dressed as Sans, mentioned “one of many first issues I did after signing with AEW was to ask Tony Khan to let me assist assemble the very best gaming staff on the planet, to make the very best wrestling recreation ever.” The factor is, the newest WWE video games have not set the world alight. 2K22 has been higher recieved, however 2K20 was panned to a “cease, cease, he is already lifeless!” stage, so Struggle Ceaselessly would not even must hit greatest ever standing. If it will possibly handle to be barely much less janky than the competitors, AEW could possibly be on to a winner. Heck, Yuke’s would possibly be capable to mud off some outdated property as properly. They’ve certainly received a CM Punk and a Chris Jericho knocking round.
It is really a pleasant mirror of how AEW’s existence has invigorated pro-wrestling a bit. Whether or not you want or hate both firm, WWE subsuming all rivals and having no competitors for years was very boring (and I am not even going to get into the present shenanigans happening over there, good lord). At a base stage, consolidation is dangerous for customers and competitors is sweet. Maybe a rival recreation sequence will spur Visible Ideas to larger heights as properly.
Personally, I am simply happy that we’ll get extra press releases the place PRs must work in pro-wrestling phrases like “push” or describe rights offers because the “tag-team occasion of the century”. Look out for extra Struggle Ceaselessly on the THQ Nordic digital showcase on August 12 (that is subsequent Friday).