Cody Rhodes Gives the Latest Update on the AEW Video Game

AEW executive vice president Cody Rhodes hosted a fan Q&A session with Bleacher Report on Wednesday, and was asked if he had any updates regarding a possible AEW video game. Rumors of a game have been spreading for nearly a year between comments made by Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, with the four going so far as to hint it would have the same AKI engine that powered some of the greatest wrestling games of all time like WWF No Mercy and WCW vs. NWO Revenge and World Tour.

“I’ll give the honest update: the AEW video game will be something all fans know about as we begin the process and as we move forward,” Rhodes said (h/t Pro Wrestling Sheet for transcript). “If we were to make a very good game, which is our intention, it’s going to take time. Game development is arduous, it’s a very creative space, and we want to do it right.

“We will keep people updated, it won’t come as a surprise, we want them to take the journey with us. Be extra patient so we can deliver,” he added.

In an interview with ComicBook earlier this year Kenny Omega discussed what modern wrestling games lack that the classic games had.

“For me it’s a feeling of actually performing a match,” Omega said. “It’s a feeling of impact with each maneuver. I also feel that, a big thing with No Mercy was that when you did a maneuver by a particular wrestler, the way it was performed and the way it the opponent received the move looked perfect in every single animation. That’s because the artists back then, they weren’t using green screens, they weren’t using MoCap they were actually manipulating joints frame by frame by frame by frame while watching tape of said performer doing that maneuver to an actual opponent.

“There’s a big difference,” he added. “I know there’s a lot of good athletes out there and I’m sure that there are a lot of people that do and can do a V-Trigger, but if it doesn’t quite look like the way I do mine the way that I did the Kotaro Crusher, when I do the One Winged Angel it shows. Even if it’s similar, it still doesn’t feel the same. It doesn’t feel right. I think that is what’s missing in games, you just don’t actually feel like you are the superstar, that you’ve chosen to control.”