AEW Fight Forever Developer Reveals Major Reasons Behind the Games Failure

While speaking on Mic Check, Justin Leeper, a developer for AEW Fight Forever, revealed why the game failed in the end. Leeper explained that working on AEW Fight Forever was different from his earlier WWE projects. AEW, acting as the licenser, was very hands-on, and he worked directly with Kenny Omega, who served as the creative liaison.

Leeper praised Omegas collaborative leadership, comparing him to gaming legend Hideo Kojima. Omega had a clear creative vision but also valued input from others and deferred when necessary, making the process cooperative and open.

However, developing the game wasnt easy at all. Leeper described it as chaotic, saying that shipping a good game often feels like a miracle. Unlike the SmackDown vs. Raw series, AEW lacked a major publisher like THQ or 2K to oversee production.

This created challenges around decision-making, budgeting, and long-term planning. With only 10 months to write and implement the story mode on a tight budget, Leeper even performed motion capture himself and learned to create cutscenes in Unreal Engine.

The project felt almost like an indie game. Although he is proud of the final product, Leeper admitted AEW Fight Forever didnt receive the same high scores as his WWE work. Limited resources and some early decisions meant the game didnt have the depth or replayability that many players expect from a $60 release and it ultimately failed.

It is to be noted that AEW had been looking for anew partner for their upcoming video game projectsand would likely part ways with Yukes. On top of that,Tony Khan also confirmed more AEW video games will be on the wayin the future. So only time will tell if fans will get a proper AEW video game again that will be better than AEW Fight Forever.

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