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wrestlegameslegacy · 1 year

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Marketing Methods THQ Nordic Could Employ For AEW: Fight Forever

For the last year and a half, fans have been frustrated at the silence regarding the upcoming THQ Nordic and Yukes title; AEW: Fight Forever. It has been nearly two years since it was announced, and very little information is known about what the video game contains. The publisher, THQ Nordic, has remained silent while people like myself beg for the smallest bits of information on social media. “Please Sir, can I have some more?!”

While it’s clear THQ Nordic is taking its time on its marketing campaign and will speak when they are ready, we’ll look at some unique methods THQ Nordic could use to market itself a little bit differently from the competition. This includes marketing techniques ranging from direct involvement from the fans, to cross promotion and even emulating the methods of the old THQ company. Personally, I’ve been a part of the online wrestling game community since 2009. I’ve seen over a decade of changes happen to the community, the video games, and the way they’re marketed. There has been peace, chaos, and mysterious behavior throughout the years. The question is, which one will THQ Nordic choose? At this point, it could seem like the game is shadow dropped for us without an announcement.

Create A Tie-In Dynamite Event

So far, the marketing and enthusiasm for AEW: Fight Forever on its television programs have been extremely minimal. It’s as ground-breaking as watching paint dry. Every few weeks on AEW: Dynamite, the game cover will appear in the corner of the screen with the words “Coming Soon”. This is sometimes accompanied by a commentary sound byte by Excalibur. Real followers of the game – like myself – remember that on an episode of AEW: Dark in August 2022, Excalibur claimed the game was coming in the Fall. We’re six to eight months past that deadline now.

If AEW wants their fans to be enthusiastic about their own video game – which is looking rare on social media – they’ll have to make the fans believe that they, too, are enthusiastic. One possible method for this would be to name an AEW: Dynamite special episode after the game, using the same logos. A smaller scale version of this has already been done. AEW: Fight Forever made an appearance at GamesCom in Germany and Tokyo Game Show in 2022. Select members of the AEW roster were flown out to these gaming conventions, where a pop-up wrestling venue was created on the show floor. The ring and stage were dressed in the game’s logo, making sure everyone knew what was being promoted. Back during this stage, it really seemed like THQ saw the game as something magical to invest in. They were really pulling out the big guns and hosting full wrestling matches at a video game convention. WWE 2K has never had pop-up wrestling events to promote their game, so to me this seemed like a step in the right direction. And then…CM Punk and Kenny Omega got suspended and there’s been silence ever since. That’s not to say there is a direct correlation, but the timing is suspicious.

On the AEW side, we’ve not seen much from them. Tony Khan likes to mention the game being near-complete in interviews with wrestling press, however people who only watch the product and don’t engage online could easily forget this game even exists. AEW needs to turn up the gas, and start pushing the game hard. Dynamite is no stranger to special episodes in lieu of Pay-Per-View events. Designing one influenced by their video game, main evented by a huge championship match could drive sales up just from the pure hype alone. It’s not unheard of, either. WCW hosted a Pay-Per-View event called ‘WCW: Mayhem’, the same name as their latest video game at the time. They also released a “Best of WCW” VHS with the same name, finding strength in the brand. Another poster claims that the tape was a pre-order bonus for the video game. AEW: Fight Forever has yet to reveal a pre-order bonus, but a piece of merchandise would go a long way over a digital character.

Sources have indicated to me that the game is coming much sooner than most think, and THQ’s marketing campaign could be quick and like a bullet train. If the game is hypothetically set to release in June, my selfish Canadian self nominates the June 28th edition of AEW: Dynamite from Hamilton, Ontario to be branded AEW Dynamite: Fight Forever. Canadian crowds are hungry for All Elite Wrestling, as their AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door event in Toronto sold out quickly. The Hamilton crowd will be very hot, seeing as they almost never get televised events. Hosting a championship match with Canadian star Kenny Omega in the main event whilst the video game’s logos are plastered all over would make fans feel hyped up on dopamine and impulse buy the game after the event if they haven’t already. Who doesn’t love falling into the “feeling of missing out”?

Host Competitions And Tournaments For Prizes

Despite the fact that there has been mostly silence regarding their own video game, AEW has kept a consistent foothold in the video game space with their “All Elite Arcade” Youtube and Twitch series. This channel is similar to WWE’s “UpUpDownDown”. The channel also has video game competitions between AEW wrestlers for the “All Elite Arcade Gaming Championship” belt. THQ Nordic and AEW need to heavily utilize this channel to spread the word about AEW: Fight Forever. Not only do they have to feature their own wrestlers playing the game, but they also need to get the fans engaged with the channel.

Once upon a time, about ten years ago while still under the thumb of the original THQ…@WWEGames on Twitter did massive giveaways. Almost weekly, RAW and Smackdown events had an opportunity for fans to win WWE prizes ranging from copies of the video game, new books, DVDs and sometimes even event tickets. I actually won something myself from one of these giveaways. After 2K took over the account, there were still a few odd merchandise giveaways. Now, they rarely exist beyond a digital code for the video game. Whilst it’s true these things have become expensive to maintain, it’s also true that 2K just isn’t interested in doing it. They are not mutually exclusive. The WWE Games social media has become insanely sanitized and corporate, and AEW could capitalize on this by acting the exact opposite.

First of all, THQ and AEW could host competitions on Twitter and TikTok that involve the video game. Examples of this could be replicating your favorite entrance or taunt in the game, showing off your favorite “markout moment” you’ve recorded, or even your player creations. They could also make it a popularity contest, forcing users to spread their clips in hopes of accumulating likes to win AEW merchandise. The fact of the matter is, players love being engaged with the creators of video games. 2K Sports took this luxury away from us, as the WWE Games account never acknowledges actual discussion. They only reply to tweets that help them to boost their reach. THQ and Yukes have an opportunity here to keep the game alive and growing post-launch by regularly keeping the players engaged with competitions that actually give them an incentive to join.

A second idea would be to host tournaments for players, with finals taking place on the All Elite Arcade channel. The winning player could earn a replica All Elite Arcade championship belt. One of the biggest influences for AEW: Fight Forever is the old AKI Engine wrestling games, such as WWF No Mercy and WCW/nWo: Revenge. These games are heralded as some of the best wrestling titles ever made. Most of the players from that era will tell you that multiplayer was hot and it was incredibly fun to play with friends, myself included. If AEW: Fight Forever hopes to recapture that magic of competitive play, they must encourage the players to try. I’m not a competitive gamer myself but if the environment is nurturing enough, I’d take the leap.

WWE 2K has been failing miserably in making online play fair, balanced, and reliably functional for at least the last decade. When it comes to WWE 2K online, mostly people who have a friend group play online regularly. It’s very rare a casual fan without any wider circle will jump online with random people due to the fact that the gameplay does not foster an online competitive environment. If you’ve ever had a friend group play WWE online, you probably had “House Rules” to follow to make sure nobody exploited some of the game’s native functions.

If Yukes manages to bring a smooth, balanced and fun perspective to online play to Fight Forever, hosting tournaments and filling slots with the player base should come as zero issue. We would actually look forward to competing, and it could become a mini eSport if they play their cards right. But to reiterate, it’s not going to happen without the feeling of being involved and personal with AEW, nor will we feel like we have to enter unless there is an incentive. The prize could be as minimal as an autograph from Ruby Soho, but there will be someone determined enough to win it. This could then break up into content creators hosting their own Fight Forever tournaments for their own prizes, turning it into a splinter of the fighting game community.

In summary, AEW and THQ just need to feed the fanbase regularly. It doesn’t have to be game content updates. It just needs to feel like the game wasn’t dumped to make some money and forgotten about. If the people responsible for its creation aren’t in love with the product, why should I be? Sometimes it seems like THQ just lost interest in the AEW brand. Other times it feels like they’re planning some huge marketing campaign that takes forever to prepare.

AEW Needs To Encourage Creations

It’s very unfortunate that I have to remind AEW fans every so often that they shouldn't expect Fight Forever’s creation suite to be as nearly as robust as WWE’s. But that doesn’t mean it will be unusable, nor does it mean there won’t be some insanely creative community members. Ever since Yukes’ original games like WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth, Here Comes The Pain, and Smackdown vs Raw, members of the community made incredible created wrestlers with limited technology from the early 2000s. Even though WWE 2K may have superior creation tools thanks to over a decade of legacy content, they make one brutal mistake; They don’t promote the community’s creations.

It’s fair to say that they shouldn’t promote created versions of wrestlers not currently signed to WWE, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ignore all creations. There’s nothing stopping them from encouraging people to download a Cody Rhodes Wrestlemania 39 attire creation. Does anyone else remember that back before 2K revoked control of the socials from Visual Concepts, they did occasionally drop some love to mainstream creators like Dre41? WWE 2K has an incredible amount of community creation power behind it, yet you wouldn’t know that if you just follow their Twitter and nothing else. Community Creations is never promoted by 2K, which is odd since it’s the main beef of a wrestling game for many fans.

AEW and THQ Nordic have a chance to completely change the landscape here. We know for a fact that AEW: Fight Forever hosts multiple create modes. The game listing states “Wide range of customization modes: wrestler attire and appearance, move sets, entrances, teams, and arenas”. One example would be centered around Kenny Omega. He regularly comes out with special gear inspired by pop culture, once dressing in Ghostbusters and Undertale inspired attire. If a player created this in the game, the official AEWGames or THQNordic Twitter accounts endorsing it would make the creator feel insanely validated. THQNordic could also use the creation functions as an opportunity for cross-promotion, showing off characters or arenas influenced by their other titles such as Spongebob, Destroy All Humans and Trine.

In a more extreme example, AEW and THQ Nordic could emulate a former WWE contest. After Smackdown vs Raw 2011 was released, THQ and Mattel hosted a contest to turn your original created superstar into an action figure. The winning creation with the most likes from the community would be turned into an action figure. However, the caveat was that only the winner would receive it. So why would I vote on the best if I couldn’t buy one myself?

That contest was so messy it deserves an article of its own. The winning creation can be found in this video. However, it later created controversy across the fan base as the winner was accused of stealing the design from another creator. AEW, THQ Nordic, and Jazwares could try to repeat this contest with better results, such as turning the winning figure into an actual mass produced item in the line. Personally, I would love to own community-created action figures.

Overall, creators just want to feel acknowledged. Flattery goes a long way in creation circles, and having it come from the developers themselves would encourage community members to create more and more content to keep the game alive longer-term. Unfortunately, members of the mod community already have received confirmation that THQ Nordic and AEW won’t condone our work, but that can be remedied by promoting work made by the in-game tools.

Work With Smaller Content Creators

Despite not being a viewer of much of it myself, I have to admit the wrestling game community is in love with YouTube content. Anyone involved in the community follows some of the most popular creators such as Smacktalks. Influencers have incredibly strong reach in the wrestling game space, and there are a lot of young fans who live and breathe on their content. While I do not consider myself an influencer, I do have people who look up to me and ask me for my counsel on things when it comes to wrestling games. 2K knows this all too well, as the bulk of their marketing for the WWE 2K campaigns come from asking the YouTube community to do free labor and advertise the game for them. The slave program is called “2K NextMakers”.

However, THQ Nordic is completely new to the wrestling game space. Do they know of these influencers and how important they are to the community? Do they even know who people like Smacktalks, Vybe, ElementGames, TonyPizzaGuy, WhatsTheStatus and others are?

Even if they did, there is a major obstacle in place for THQ Nordic; the 2K Next Makers program. This is the official influencer program for the WWE 2K series, a contractual agreement to help market the game and get access to perks such as free copies of any 2K title. Almost every wrestling game creator with a very high following is a part of this program. From what I’ve heard from anonymous members inside the program, it’s very unlikely their contract would allow THQ Nordic and AEW to provide exclusive reveals or similar “official” marketing partnerships. I’ve also spoken to a few creators who are prepared to leave the program if this ends up being the case.

Though, it’s unlikely many of these creators would jeopardize their pampering to cover a smaller, non-yearly title. Despite this, THQ Nordic could utilize smaller creators and give them a chance to be seen, boost their numbers, and spread positive word of mouth to their small but loyal army of subscribers.

Considering the game is significantly smaller in scope to WWE 2K, it’s only poetic that the creators who get a chance to preview the game also be smaller. This is not to say they should entirely ditch the usual, like IGN or GameInformer. It simply means that channels below a certain milestone (perhaps, under fifteen thousand subscribers) would be able to exclusively post some small tidbit of information, such as a gameplay screenshot.

This would not only make these smaller influencers feel like their hard work has paid off, but also give off the impression that THQ does indeed care about its fanbase and the video game by pushing it through channels you wouldn’t expect. Long term benefits can be seen as the creator would develop a positive bias towards the game, get their numbers boosted by the promotion and continue creating content as long as they enjoy it leading to a longer period for word of mouth.

There are plenty of creators in the wrestling game space who have been busting their ass for years creating content, but are unable to break through the complex algorithm to be seen by major eyes. THQ Nordic and AEW offering some sort of chance to them to break through the ceiling would go a long way in public perception of AEW: Fight Forever.

Look To The Past For Advice

If you ask wrestling game fans about the current handling of the WWE Games Twitter account, you’ll get nothing but displeasure. The marketing campaign tactic nowadays compared to ten years ago with THQ is completely different. 2K opts for more of a “general overview” of the game to target casual gamers who typically do not buy a WWE title. The focus of their campaigns is star power and a spotlight on features in the game such as MyFaction and MyGM. 2K rarely flaunts the wrestling fan service part of these games, unlike THQ where their marketing campaign had wrestling fans as the focal target. Now, one could argue this is why the THQ games never popped off and sold as well as the WWE 2K series has. Though, one could rebuttal it’s simply because 2K has more money to pump into game budget and advertising. In reality, 2K probably has hours of market research to confirm their methods are better. However, there are some strings THQ Nordic can pull from the past to tug at wrestling fans’ heartstrings.

We can all see clearly that THQ Nordic’s main tactic for their catalog is nostalgia. After purchasing the THQ name post-bankruptcy, they also worked on collecting former titles like Thanos and the Infinity Stones. One could speculate this was the main reason THQ decided to publish the next Yukes wrestling game in AEW: Fight Forever. So, if nostalgia is their brand, they need to target that nostalgia hard during marketing. Cut and dry standard advertising is not going to make this game a success.

One of the more favorable methods that THQ employed was weekly entrance videos. There is no doubt at all that wrestling game fans lose their minds over well done entrances in video games. Releasing the entrances of nearly every superstar before launch was a staple of THQ marketing and kept fans engaged long-term. 2K on the other hand, only opts to release the entrance videos of superstars who may go viral, such as Cody Rhodes. Someone with some knowledge of the situation once told me that “2K doesn’t see any value in constant entrance videos”.

Personally, I do not believe the fact that AEW: Fight Forever’s shorter entrance cutscenes are even an issue. The scenes seem to be reminiscent of WWE All-Stars and TNA iMPACT, with them being 15-20 second clips. AEW and THQ Nordic could release 5-10 a week to showcase and keep people engaged long term. Even though they are not full cinematic cutscenes like WWE 2K, they still strive to replicate the television entrances in the best way they can. I fully believe that utilizing regular entrance releases will tap the nostalgia inside fans hearts. They can also be accompanied by raw gameplay finisher animation reveal videos, a tactic also employed by THQ. This would show more transparency to the fanbase, as 2K releases finishers with edits and fake camera work.

One other tactic to gain trust with wrestling fans and tap into nostalgia is to do a developer Q&A. You can watch a sample version for WWE ‘13 featuring Bryan Williams, one of the early creative driving forces on Fight Forever. Whilst the community trusts Bryan Williams, he unfortunately left Yukes last year to return to the WWE 2K franchise. His first title – WWE 2K23 – released in March 2023, still before Fight Forever. It is unknown if Yukes has any English speaking “talking heads” to take on this endeavor. One option would be to host a live-stream with the No Mercy director – Hideyuki Iwashita AKA “Geta” – to talk about how much influence he had on the product. Or, perhaps, the “visionary” behind the game – AEW Wrestler Kenny Omega.

The reason the fans romanticize the THQ era is simple. THQ believed in being honest and transparent as best they could when it came to development. Sure, there were things they couldn’t talk about like WWE’s requests and restrictions. If something was a design choice though, they’d tell you that directly. It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Community Managers such as Marcus Stephenson and Aubrey Sitterson came and went, all of them having different ways of engaging the fanbase. In the end though, answers were always found. It even came down to technical things like Marcus explaining why PS3 had less Create-A-Superstar layer limit than Xbox. If THQ Nordic wants to win over the wrestling game fan base, they have to not only be as transparent as the water in Bikini Bottom, but also use someone who knows what they’re talking about directly from the development team.

TL;DR?

Over the last decade of 2K’s reign as the license holder of WWE, fans have increasingly felt neglected more and more as the years go by. I don’t even look forward to their reveals anymore. The social media handles are becoming more corporate and sterilized by the day. Bugs are not even acknowledged to even exist by the official WWE 2K accounts. AEW and THQ need to tap into that part of the niche that has felt like they are the reason for their parents’ divorce.

Kenny Omega has a huge opportunity here to herald in a golden era of casual wrestling gaming again, regardless of how polished the game is. Word of mouth is a strong, viable method to help sell this game over the long term when it comes to holiday sales and negotiating for a sequel or more content updates. Consistent patches to fix issues are key to the game’s long term survivability, even without something like Community Creations.

THQ and AEW seem to have a strained relationship to the outside world. People will instantly forget about the mess of waiting for information and constant delays if they work together to put on the best campaign they can for the game. A Dynamite tie-in event featuring big matches would get the entire AEW fan base worldwide interested and engaged. Hosting regular tournaments and giveaways would give people an incentive to buy the game and play more as well as practice competitively. Highlighting the creations made by the players would encourage hard work and repeat usage of the creation suite, even without a Community Creations feature. Smaller content creators would fall in love with THQ Nordic or AEW Games if they got a chance to have their ‘big break’. And as we just mentioned, the old THQ knew how to really break things down for the wrestling crowd, so take a few notes from them.

AEW: Fight Forever has yet to start a marketing campaign, so let’s hope they ponder some of the points I made.

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