It’s amazing what you’ll see these days by following people on twitter. For example, EA Sports confirmed that there will be a demo version of their upcoming UFC videogame by replying to two fans.
Now you’re probably asking yourself why is this news worthy of the Sportsnet website? Well it’s because EA Sports has never produced a UFC game before, and right now no one knows if their work will be any good. This demo means gamers will now have a chance to see if EA Sports UFC will be worth their money before they spend it. More importantly, it’s our first chance to see if EA Sports can go toe to toe with THQ in the UFC videogame development market.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF UFC VIDEOGAMES
It all started about 7 years ago when EA Sports did not take Dana White seriously during the fledgling days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In the past, Mr. White has publicly quoted the exact response he received from EA Sports in those days and they apparently said, “You’re not a real sport. We wouldn’t touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this.”
After that, White ended up taking the project to the smaller THQ company and having them produce 3 critically acclaimed UFC games (UFC Undisputed 2009, UFC Undisputed 2010, and UFC Undisputed 3), before THQ started to fall apart in 2012. THQ also made a UFC personal trainer game that required Microsoft’s Kinect camera to act as the controller, but that game was not as highly regarded and no one really talks about it anymore.
On June 4th 2012, THQ ended up signing the license for all future UFC games over to EA Sports for an undisclosed amount of cash. THQ would then completely fall apart in December of 2012 when they failed to sell themselves to Clearlake Capital Group by filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
To the credit of EA Sports, they have made mix martial arts games before. After UFC Undisputed 2009 by THQ became a hit, EA Sports created EA SPORTS MMA for release in 2010. It lacked the big UFC name, so instead the developers focused on licensing individual fighters. Many of these fighters came from the now defunct Strikeforce MMA.