Report Says AEW Lost At Least $30 Million On Fight Forever Video Game

[Slate Kev]

A new report from the Mike Straw Media YouTube channel claims AEW took a massive financial hit on its 2023 video game Fight Forever, losing at least 30 million dollars that the company had to mark down internally. According to the report the losses stemmed largely from repeated development delays, with the game originally slated for a 2022 release before finally launching in the summer of 2023.

The sales numbers apparently made things worse rather than better once the game did finally ship. Straw says AEW sold only about half of what internal projections expected, which combined with the extended development time to produce a genuinely rough outcome for what was supposed to be the promotion's big entry into the gaming space.

Despite that rocky history, Straw's sources indicate AEW is still interested in revisiting Fight Forever or the franchise more broadly at some point, though nothing concrete is currently in motion. There had also been rumblings of a potential third party licensing conversation, but when Straw reached out directly to AEW sources about it they simply said they had no knowledge of any such talks happening.

AEW Games as a whole has been a bit of a slow burn project since Tony Khan first announced ambitions in that space, and this report is a pretty blunt reminder of how much harder it is to translate a successful wrestling promotion into a successful video game business. Development delays and inflated internal sales expectations are a familiar combination in licensed wrestling games specifically, going back well before AEW even existed as a company.

Whether this changes AEW's appetite for a sequel or a fresh licensing deal down the line remains genuinely unclear given how quiet the company is being about its own future plans here

REPORT: Details About AEW's Video Game Futurewww.fightful.com