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Much like today, professional wrestling video games were a huge deal back in the '90s, too. It will not be exaggerated if said that wrestling games were even a bigger deal than what it is today. Despite older graphics and limited gameplay, the fans of the time enjoyed the wrestling games a lot, and it can also be said that they enjoyed the wrestling games more than today.
The most famous wrestling game publisher was THQ, which was previously a partner of WCW, and the company produced some amazing WCW games like WCW/NWO Revenge and WCW vs. NWO: World Tour. These games are still remembered as some of the best professional wrestling video games, and the credit goes to THQ.
Eric Bischoff discusses WCW ditching THQ for EA
But in 1999, WCW decided to ditch THQ, and they gave the video gaming rights to Electronic Arts, which is also famously known as EA, which was known to be a bigger video game company. Eric Bischoff remembered this incident recently and explained why such a decision was made. On his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff explained the following;
Eric Bischoff was one of the key figures of WCW
“I can give you 5 million reasons why we made that decision. [chuckles] Because the CEO of EA — I think it was the CEO or the president at that time — came to an event and presented me with a really cool EA Sports jacket. And in fact, similarly, a facsimile $5 million check representing the advance against royalties, which was a real high watermark for WCW.
THQ is often considered one of the best wrestling video game makers of all time
"I’m sure WWE had done many deals at that level. But again, their licensing and merchandising division was so much more mature than ours. And they had had so many years of success previous to us finally cracking through and getting a company like EA Sports interested in us.” said Eric Bischoff, the former boss of WCW.
As a result, the WCW video game went downhill, and Electronic Arts also produced one of the worst wrestling video games ever, which was WCW Backstage Assault. THQ, on the other hand teamed with WWE and produced some world class wrestling video games like WWF SmackDown series, and also WWF No Mercy, which is widely considered the best professional wrestling video game ever made.
