Rockstar almost made an ECW wrestling game in 2000
Rockstar Games was once set to develop a wrestling game based on ‘hardcore’ wrestling promotion ECW, it’s been revealed.
YouTube channel Hard4Games recently posted a video showcasing an early pre-alpha prototype of Acclaim’s 2000 game ECW Hardcore Revolution.
The video also included an interview with wrestler Tommy Dreamer, who was one of ECW’s top talents and also worked in a number of behind-the-scenes roles at the company.
ECW was at the peak of its popularity at the turn of the millennium, and Dreamer revealed that before doing a deal with Acclaim in 1999 to make an ECW game, it already had an agreement in place with Rockstar to make a game with it instead.
“It was an amazing time in the wrestling industry,” Dreamer recalled. “Video games were key for your success as a wrestling company, and we had a lot of companies bidding for that game. And I’m going to tell you an interesting fact that I have said, but I don’t know if a lot of people realise this.
“There was a fan, who worked for this company, and they were like ‘man, we want this ECW game to be our number two behind this other game, and it’s revolutionary, it’s a perfect fit for ECW.
“And they met [us], they all came to an ECW Arena show and this one guy was such a big fan, and all this stuff was supposed to happen. They [went], ‘we just need our one game to hit, and if that game hits you will be our next game’.
“And we couldn’t wait due to financial reasons, because Acclaim had lost its licence for WWE, so now they offered us money on the back end as opposed to the front end.
“But that other game, that if it hit we were going to take off – that game and that franchise was Grand Theft Auto. And you think about how ECW would have fit that whole genre, and that guy was
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