All Elite Wrestling’s first foray into the video game market was released this week in the form of AEW: Fight Forever. The critical reception for the game has been somewhat mixed, currently sitting on a 65 on Metacritic, yet my experience with the game has been largely positive. Giving Fight Forever a 7.5 in my review, I only had a handful of true criticisms, but without a doubt, the biggest was the overall lack of content.
A roster of 53 playable fighters is alright, but the bare-bones creation suite and lack of user-generated content lock you into those 53 wrestlers. The nine match types feature some bangers, like the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match and Casino Battle Royale, but it’s missing AEW staples like trios tag matches and Blood and Guts. Unlike the annually-released WWE games, Fight Forever is expected to receive long-term support, so all of this can be rectified with updates and DLC, right?
Well, if the game’s first season pass is anything to go by, you’ll need to win that Casino Battle Royale if you plan on buying any of the post-release content.
AEW: Fight Forever – Season Pass 2023 is available to purchase now and consists of three separate DLC packs, assumedly between now and the end of the year. This pass will include six playable wrestlers: Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler (FTR), The Bunny, Kieth Lee, Danhausen and HOOK. It will also include four new minigames in JoinUs, Deth Race-X, MJF Car and Sloth Sling. And for these six wrestlers and four minigames, you’ll be expected to pay $44.95.
For just shy of half of the game’s asking price, you’ll get access to six extra wrestlers, two of which are the current AEW Tag Team Champions and should’ve been included in the base game and one of which is a manager that wrestles only once in a blue moon. Sure, you’ll get a few extra minigames, but that’s hardly what people are booting up the game to play.
Doing some quick math, each wrestler within the season pass will cost you roughly $7.50 each, which seems steep on its own, but it’s when you compare it to WWE 2K23’s DLC that things seem outrageous. Running you $59.95, 2K23’s season pass features 25 additional wrestlers alongside a few other odds and sods. Grabbing my trusty calculator again, that shakes out to be roughly $2.40 per wrestler.
Not only is this season pass obscenely expensive, but it also ignores the game’s roster diversity issue. In my review, I lamented that only 13 of the 53 playable wrestlers are female, yet I held out hope that updates and DLC would fix this balance. From the minuscule six fighters coming in the season pass, only a single one is female. This is just an insult after injury, considering the game doesn’t even feature the updated version of the Women’s World Championship.
Just to really hammer home the point, Matt Hardy (Broken and otherwise) was included as a pre-order bonus. Didn’t pre-order the game? Don’t worry, you can buy his pack separately for $7.55. Oh, you got the season pass? Sorry, he’s not actually included, so we’ll grab that extra seven bucks from you whenever you like.
Are you playing AEW: Fight Forever? What are your thoughts on the pricing of the DLC? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
