Rockstar Almost Developed An ECW Video Game

Rockstar Games was close to making a video game with hardcore promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling, prior to the company striking an agreement with Acclaim instead. 

Speaking on a video posted by the YouTube channel Hard4Games, former ECW star and office worker Tommy Dreamer discussed the bidding process and why they ultimately went with Acclaim.

"It was an amazing time in the wrestling industry. 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 Kevin Gill, who worked there, he was a big ECW fan".

Gill - who worked in production for Rockstar Games - told a similar story during an interview with the True Heel Heat Wrestling podcast earlier this year.

H/T Video Games Chronicle