Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and wrestling promotion AEW (All Elite Wrestling) are set to partner for a new free-to-play mobile game called AEW: Figure Fighters.

The title is being developed by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, who previously partnered with mobile game accelerator Immutable X. AEW has also previously collaborated with Crystallized Games for the title AEW Elite General Manager. The game currently has a website live, featuring the likenesses of wrestlers Jamie Hayter and Darby Allinn respectively, and is planned for an early 2024 release.

According to a press release issued to a number of wrestling news outlets including Wrestling News, the game will “feature 3D animated versions of AEW wrestlers battling it out in the ring, allowing fans to expand their fandom and love for the show. Fans will be able to collect and level up their favourite wrestlers, play in various game modes, and complete numerous challenges.”

AEW, an upstart wrestling promotion founded by entrepreneur Tony Khan and kickstarted by wrestlers Cody Rhodes and “The Young Bucks” has pursued transmedia strategy in competition with fellow wrestling promotion WWE. This includes their most well-known venture so far, AEW: Fight Forever, an answer to WWE’s long running 2K series, set to release later this month.

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AEW has often been compared to WWE, and is considered the main rival of the long-running wrestling promotion. The WWE itself also has a major hand in mobile gaming, with numerous titles such as WWE Mayhem and WWE Champions. With this title, it seems the promotion wants to put more pressure on what has, until now, been America and Europe’s best-known wrestling promotion.

The presence of sports on mobile has been a continuous one, allowing many promotions such as FIFA to push their brands into the hands of gamers across the mobile ecosystem. And although professional wrestling may not be what many think of when it comes to sports promotions, there’s no denying that these brands are known across the globe, from AEW and WWE, to foreign promotions such as NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling.)

So are sports promotions a silver bullet? Well not exactly, after all it was only last week that we sadly saw prolific sports game developer Nifty close their doors. The studio was behind titles such as NBA Clash and NFL Clash, but even these high-profile names were not enough to keep the developer afloat.