Late last year, AEW announced plans to release their own wrestling game. During the same time, the company revealed a partnership with veteran wrestling developer, Yuke’s. While details have been scarce, a recent interview confirms the absence of a GM mode.
AEW Game: Unusual Modes and Growing Roster
A General Manager mode is not new to wrestling games. However, unless you’ve been playing Fire Pro Wrestling, the mode has been absent for sometime. Smackdown vs Raw 2007 introduced the mode and arguably presented its best iteration of it. Unfortunately, by Smackdown vs Raw 2009, the mode was dropped. Still, years later the mode is beloved. Then, following the WWE 2K hiatus announcement, executive producer, Patrick Gilmore, revealed GM mode to be the most requested feature for the next game.
One week in on #WWE2K20 feedback—interesting to see the results stacking up. Have a look—you might need a magnifying glass! pic.twitter.com/k38zS9kgrX
— Patrick Gilmore (@MrEpilog) May 15, 2020
AEW and GM mode
Despite the mode’s obvious popularity, Kenny Omega of AEW confirmed the upcoming game from Yuke’s will not feature a dedicated GM mode. Instead, the mode has been delegated to their mobile platform. There was no mention if this would change in the future. This decision may seem odd, since the inclusion of GM mode is an easy win. However, Omega goes on to note, much like the company itself, he does wish for the game to compete in the same vein as WWE 2K but rather feature its own unique feel.
My plan doesn’t compete with WWE’s 2K series when it comes to AEW console games, and I have no intention of comparing them. For example, the 2K series game style has a strong aspect of reproducing in the game something similar to the game played in WWE. It’s like using motion capture to capture the movements of wrestlers.
he game’s visual style cements this as it features more stylized models over the photorealistic models. The current (as of this writing) AEW Champion goes on to list the game will have a dedicated campaign mode. In addition, it’ll feature more unusual modes. It is unclear if this is something these will be unusual for a wrestling game or unusual in the full sense of the word.
Of course, there will be a place to create and edit your own character. Given Yuke’s work with the Creation Suite in WWE games, it’s likely the AEW game will have a robust creation mode of its own.
As of now, no release date has been set. Omega explains while they aim for 2021, the game will release once quality is where it needs to be.
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