One of the big surprises from E3 this year, was EA acquiring the rights to create a UFC mixed martial arts game, rights which THQ had sold them. EA is no stranger to combat games however, having produced numerous boxing games already, and one under-appreciated entry of their won into the world of MMA. And it’s those very same people behind the well-developed Fight Night games, who are going to be putting their own spin on the Octagon.
EA Sports confirmed this week that their Canada studio in Burnaby, will be working on EA Sports UFC, a provisional title as of now. With UFC now an official part of the company, EA Sports now has a “Fighting Team”, headed by creative director Brian Hayes, who was in charge of gameplay design on Fight Night 3 and Champion.
“Most of the team didn’t even know about [the new UFC game] until the announcement at E3,” Hayes said to Kotaku. “We were all watching it together and when Andrew Wilson and [UFC president] Dana White (pictured at right) took the stage, everybody starting cheering. It was great.”
As for the team that helped build the 2010 EA Sports MMA title, don’t expect too much of their influence to creep into this new foray into sweaty violence, as they’ve all been re-assigned to other, sporty games, since that title shipped.
There’s no word yet on when exactly we’ll be seeing this new MMA game from EA, but seeing as how the last fighting game that shipped from them was in 2011, don’t be too surprised if it arrives late 2013.
I’m a big fan of the EA fighting games, due primarily to the fact that control systems in them make for more intuitive learning curves, without becoming bogged down with numerous commands and inputs, one of the reasons why I never truly liked the UFC games, which were ridiculously complex in their execution.
Last Updated: July 19, 2012
