Mixed Martial Arts is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, and this success is largely down to the success of the UFC. Founded in 1993, the organization found moderate success in providing fans with brutal fights that pitted the biggest, strongest and baddest men around against one another. However, the sport was considered by most to be too extreme and was nearly completely wiped out by politics in the late 90s.. In 2000, the sport was near extinction when Zuffa, LLC stepped in and purchased the failing UFC company, turning it around in an impressive fashion.
Since then, the sport has grown massively where many fighters are household names, raking in millions of dollars and selling out some of the biggest arenas around the globe. Success has been found in the arenas; on the TV thanks the UFC’s deal with Fox back in 2011; and is now branching out onto the internet with the newly-introduced Fight Pass. However, one avenue that has always alluded the sport, and it’s largest promotion, is video games. While a number of MMA games have been released over the years, few, if any, can truly claim to be a success. However, with EA Sports UFC’s Spring release looming, might that finally change?
If you were asked the question, “how many MMA video games have been released?”, you’d be forgiven for answering with a mere three or four. In reality however, there have been well over a dozen MMA games released in the last 15 or so years, with a handful of other fighting/wrestling games having smaller MMA-modes within them. The issue here is that, save the few hardcore fans, most people, even MMA and video game fans, would fail to name them all. You’d be lucky if they could name half of them.
While a solid game, UFC Undisputed 3 failed to deliver in sales.
The most well known of these MMA games have to be THQ’s UFC Undisputed series. The three games, released in 2009, 2010 and 2012, found moderate success and received above-average ratings from many publications. UFC 2009 Undisputed, the first in the series, managed to sell an impressive 1.72 million units on PS3 and a further 2.03 million on Xbox 360, according to vgcharts.com. It’s successor, UFC Undisputed 2010, failed to match these sails figures; pulling in 1.36 million and 1.27 million units on PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. After a two year hiatus, the third installment, UFC Undisputed 3, was released in 2012. While the game was arguably the best in the series, sales faltered, with only 0.92 and 0.89 million units sold on the PS3 and Xbox 360. With THQ’s impending bankruptcy, the series was essentially doomed to die out, unless someone else could step in to save the day. That’s where EA comes in.
During THQ’s moderately successful run of MMA games, EA Sports attempted to compete by releasing a game of their own. In late 2010, EA Sports MMA was released, and offered players an entirely different experience. With a button scheme similar to EA’s Fight Night series, EA Sports MMA focused on using the thumbsticks to control the striking aspects of the game, while used button-mashing sequences to control the submissions. This was in stark contrast to THQ’s games, where thumbsticks were limited to submissions, and striking was controlled by button-mashing. The game was again solid, and could have provided genuine competition to the Undisputed, if it weren’t for one fatal flaw. Because of the UFC’s dealings with THQ, EA Sports MMA had no access to the UFC’s roster of fighters, save Randy Couture, and struggled massively as a result. With only a handful of recognizable names, EA Sports MMA struggled to keep players engaged; as avid fans wanted to pit the likes of Jon Jones against Anderson Silva, not two no-name fighters outside of the UFC. This, coupled with far inferior sales figures, again looked like the end of another MMA franchise.
EA Sports MMA lacked a depth of recognizable faces in MMA.
However, all that might be set to change as the release of EA Sports UFC draws nearer. Revealed at E3 2013, EA Sports UFC looks to blend together the successful aspects of both franchises, and build a superior one in the process. The fluidity of the EA Sports MMA’s mechanics, coupled with the faces offered by the UFC, has the potential to finally make an MMA series to last. Thanks in part to an ever-expanding fan base, and in part due to a strong and smart social media presence, EA Sports UFC has already gathered significant traction in the run-up to it’s release in the next few months. If sales prove to be as successful as early indications may suggest, then EA might have themselves a new franchise; and MMA its long-awaited foothold in video games.
What are your thoughts? Do you think EA Sports UFC can become an annual series like FIFA or Madden? Or do you think history is destined to repeat itself? Let us know in the comments.