Yuke’s, the renowned Japanese developer responsible for nearly two decades of popular WWE titles, marks its return to the wrestling genre next month when AEW: Fight Forever launches on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC on June 29.
Yuke’s has been associated with wrestling since its inception in 1995, and the studio’s long association with WWE began in 2000, with the launch of WWF SmackDown. It continued to work under the WWE license until 2018’s WWE 2K19, when publisher 2K decided to hand the reins over exclusively to American Visual Concepts, who had been developing the series with Yuke since 2013. Unfortunately, Visual Concepts’ solo debut proved that so disastrous 2K took an unprecedented step skipping the annual issue of the long-running series two years in a row, returning it only in 2022.
So, with WWE 2K temporarily shutting down, wrestling fans were very intrigued when 2020 announced Yuke returns to the genre with a game for WWE rival AEW under the supervision of publisher THQ Nordic. And we’ll finally get a chance to see what the developer is up to when AEW: Fight Forever launches this June.
AEW: Fight Forever is said to take a “retro approach to design, including hand-drawn animations and a nostalgic arcade feel,” and promises a wide variety of match types. There are singles matches, tag team matches, three-way, four-way, ladder matches, Casino Battle Royale, Falls Count Anywhere, Exploding Barbed Wire Death Matches, and Unsanctioned Lights Out, which features guns and blood. There’s also a career mode, online multiplayer, and a variety of customization options that allow players to change a wrestler’s clothing and appearance, move kits, entrances, teams, and arenas.
AEW: Fight Forever will be available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC after launch on June 29.