With a launch in the coming months still possible, the AEW Fight Forever publisher has now been quietly confirmed.
We've got all the details on how the AEW Fight Forever news was revealed and what the involvement of this longtime WWE Games name could mean.
AEW Fight Forever publisher confirmed by Kenny Omega
It looks like we're going to remain in the current landscape of AEW Fight Forever details being given out as breadcrumbs, but the latest is at least a bigger piece than usual.
Former AEW World Champion Kenny Omega has been out due to injury for quite some time, and during that absence he's been able to become heavily involved in the development of AEW Fight Forever.
Just a few short days ago, Kenny Omega quietly mentioned in an interview that current WWE superstar Cody Rhodes will still make it into the AEW Fight Forever roster.
Now his nonchalant confirmations continue as Omega was in a Street Fighter V stream with CEOGaming when a viewer asked about the AEW Fight Forever publisher.
Without missing a beat, Kenny Omega and the host both confirmed that THQ Nordic is indeed the publisher for AEW Fight Forever.
The news had previously been reported by Fightful Select in early May, but they'd not yet been able to confirm this detail.
Fightful Select further reported that their involvement had been relatively minimal, and a brief look at their history makes that seem very likely.
THQ Nordic brings longtime WWE Games name back to wrestling
Any longtime wrestling fans who played a single WWE core series title from WWF SmackDown! in 2000 to WWE '13 in 2012 may recognize the THQ name.
THQ was the primary publisher for WWE Games for well over a decade, but financial troubles forced the company to file for bankruptcy in late 2012.
Publishing rights for the WWE series were acquired by Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of 2K, but another move was made after most of their assets had been liquidated.
In June of 2014, Nordic Games announced they'd acquired the THQ trademark for publishing use, and they rebranded as THQ Nordic in 2016.
THQ Nordic has handled publishing and distribution for dozens of games across multiple platforms since the Austrian company was founded in 2011.
Some of their multiple titles included Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, MX vs. ATV: Supercross, Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown, This Is The Police, Black Mirror, Wreckfest, Halo Wars 2, Destroy All Humans!, Biomutant, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated, and Monster Jam: Steel Titans 2.
We've known for some time that AEW Games is largely self-funding AEW Fight Forever and working directly with developer Yuke's, so it looks like THQ Nordic may have a presence more focused on name recognition and direct distribution.
Official confirmations and announcements about AEW Fight Forever are still expected in the coming months, but for now we may continue to receive nuggets of information via Kenny Omega.