EA Sports MMA in Development
by 
Long rumored and now confirmed with the announcement at the EA press conference, EA Sports MMA is in development aiming for a release next year. The question becomes how will they produce a game for a sport that is so strongly identified with UFC? A license that is locked into an exclusive and multi-year deal with THQ. It’ll be interesting to see how they go about that. While the sport is growing most casual fans simply identify UFC as MMA.
One thing that does make sense is for EA to do alternating years with their fighting titles. One year brings MMA with the following year offering Fight Night. That would allow them to advance each title with extra development time while not cutting into sales or hype.
June 2, 2009 at 2:50 am
Pasta did you get to see the presentation and stuff of NCAA 10??
June 2, 2009 at 3:09 am
I'll get time with NCAA tomorrow. All they did for NCAA at the press conference was announce Teambuilder and how it had gone live which we already knew about.
June 2, 2009 at 5:38 am
PASTA!!! I BEG YOU TO DO ME A FAVOR!!! PLEASE PLEASE TRY AND FIND OUT THE RELEASE DATE FOR THE NCAA 10 DEMO…. PLLLLLLLEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSEEEEE
June 2, 2009 at 2:50 am
hmm intersting
idk how this is gonna work seeing that ufc has that deal with THQ
o yea first!!!
ithink
June 2, 2009 at 2:53 am
haha nope 1st is mine
June 1, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hopefully this game deals with the hardcore, because only the hardcore fans would know about bodog and the wec and such
June 2, 2009 at 3:11 am
Alright thanks i got so excited when i got up to find team builder was live haha… keep up the great blogs
June 2, 2009 at 4:23 am
wec is owned by ufc isnt it? so doubtful it'll probably be affliction
June 2, 2009 at 11:57 am
Probably Affliction. This should be interesting. I'm guessing EA is flexing their muscle to try and win over UFC's contract when it's up. Competition is always a good thing, and that just means THQ will up the ante on their next release.
June 2, 2009 at 12:35 pm
You beat me too it. I think this is a direct move to take over UFC in a couple of years.
Money aside, UFC would also benefit from the greater exposure with EA
June 2, 2009 at 12:35 pm
You beat me to it. I think this is a direct move to take over UFC in a couple of years.
Money aside, UFC would also benefit from the greater exposure with EA
June 2, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Whether you like EA or you don't, they are smart when it comes to business. The lack of UFC affiliation means that they have something planned that the current UFC game doesn't offer that will appeal to gamers. I'm going to make assumptions, but there will be online leagues (with belts) , create videos (that's a given with EA), and probably have superior graphics, customization. I just don't see EA coming into this genre without them having something up their sleeves. It's like when Skate first came out. At first people thought EA was foolish for entering a field dominated by TH. Now Skate is the dominate skating game out there and forced TH to change their baseline.
There are other fighters outside of UFC now that I really think about it…Strikeforce, Affliction and or Dream/Sengoku…so I believe there can be a large roster of fighters to add to the realism of EA MMA. If you can bring Fight Night's Physics/Graphics and presentation…then we might have something nice here. Gina Carano is also very popular in MMA, possibly bringing her and a woman's division could be an interesting move.
Some fighters not in the UFC.
Fedor
Gina Carano
Babalu
Mayhem Miller
Eddie Alvarez
Barnett
Lil Nog
Brett Rogers
Kid Yamamoto
King Mo Lawal
Kevin Randleman
Gilbert Melendez
Josh Thompson
Jeff Monson
Bob Sapp
Aoki
Alistair Overeem
Nick Diaz
Robbie Lawlor
Jake Shields
Randy Couture
Bobby Lashley
Cung Le
Frank Shamrock
Ken Shamrock
Phil Baroni
Mousasi
June 2, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I've never heard of any of those guys
June 2, 2009 at 9:32 pm
MMA is more than UFC.
June 2, 2009 at 9:33 pm
and the fact you've never heard of Randy Couture (former UFC), Shamrock (former UFC) or Fedor tells me that you're a fair weather MMA bandwagon fan.
June 3, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Couture is 50
Fedor is fat
Shamrock is WWF, and 50
They would all be rated 10's in UFC's game
June 2, 2009 at 9:14 pm
If they put Ronaldo Jacare Souza in this game I'll buy it just so I can own everybody with Jacare
June 3, 2009 at 2:09 am
They will take the Fight Night approach and fill it up with a lot of legends which would be alright by me. Gracie, Shamrock, Savern, Frye, Butterbean, Tank Abbott. Wouldn't be surprised if they filled it up with former wrestlers who are trying their hand at MMA like Lashley and Sean O'Haire so they can drag in the casual MMA fan.
June 4, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Here are the back of the box features.
2010 – New features:
Replays
Everyone is rated 90+
A guy with 99 speed and 50 speed, who cares, you can't tell the difference anyways.
Automatic backwards skating…err walking
Curve shot takedowns! Impossible to stop
Knockout guys in two shots. Fighting engine courtesy of NHL09
Last minute AI comeback. Get your robo-knockout here!
Save game
No online leagues
Featuring over 40 fighters you've never heard of
2011 – Replays removed
Vision cone fighting
Online leagues but they don't work
Save game removed
2012 – New feature: replays
First person fighting
Signature punchs
Slowed down gameplay
Who uses online leagues?
June 4, 2009 at 12:39 pm
And no face buttons for anything