AEW Fight Forever Gets Its Official ESRB Rating

AEW Fight Forever, All Elite Wrestling's first console video game, has officially received an ESRB rating of T for Teen. Reports emerged last month via WrestleZone that the game, developed by Yuke's, had been running into some difficulty landing the T rating due to its more violent aspects, which was causing a delay in the game's release. The ESRB's official rating listed Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco and Violence as its reasons for the rating. 

Per the ESRB, "This is a wrestling game in which players compete in matches with wrestlers from the AEW roster. Players use punches, kicks, and grappling maneuvers to drain their opponents' health. In some match types (e.g., Barbed Wire, Stadium Stampede, Unsanctioned) players can use barbed wired, baseball bats, metal chairs, and Molotov cocktails against opponents, eventually resulting in submission and/or knock outs. Blood-splatter effects can occur during matches, staining the mats; video footage of real matches also depicts blood on wrestlers' faces and bodies. The game contains some mildly suggestive material: female wrestlers in revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage, bunny outfits, partially exposed buttocks); wrestlers performing taunting gestures (e.g., crotch chop, slapping buttocks). Real footage sometimes depicts wrestlers drinking alcohol and smoking. The word 's—' is heard in the game."

AEW Fight Forever Post-Launch Support

Evil Uno, one of AEW's wrestlers who has been helping with the game's development, discussed the post-launch support the game will have. He also confirmed fans shouldn't expect annual releases like WWE's WWE 2K franchise.

"What I can give you; I can give you the tidbits that I was allowed to announce. There will be over fifty characters at launch. The plan is for it to evolve over time. So we have a huge roster," Uno told Fightful last year. "Of course, it hasn't been said, but I'm sure we want release more of that roster in due time. There will be more game modes than originally is at release. It's called AEW Fight Forever for several reasons. One being that this is likely going to be a forever game that evolves over time."

"They'll have years where GM Mode's there. Some years it's not. So, yeah. I'm always of the mind that if a game can evolve over time, like — okay, I'm going to drop some gaming stuff here. Deep Rock Galactic, No Man's Sky, games that initially were good, but now two years later are fantastic because they have so much crazy content," he added.