Fight Night and MMA to alternate News

Sounds reasonable, maybe they should stick Tiger Woods into that rotation too, or into a seperate rotation with their tennis game.

Competition is good.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.

Excellent idea. 2 year lifecycles usually gives the developers ample time to produce pretty good games.

I'm all for competition and playability is king but how well will a MMA game far without the UFC license? Affliction are on shaky grounds at best, WEC is Zuffa owned so that is out. Strikeforce are good but not as popular as the UFC. Dream and Sengoku hardly have a great following in the west. I wonder how EA will cope with this. They will be the Pro Evo compared to THQ's FIFA which is an unfamiliar position for them.

This is something most devs should adpot

Im looking at you activision.

What happens after "Round 12"

Thats surprisingly good. I would have expected them to milk it for all its worth.

Malkotheslick: I totally agree, personally i think with the talent of EA, they could make a game better than the recent UFC (which i enjoy, but i think it has problems), and being a huge MMA fan i will appreciate a game with none-UFC fighters in it, i think outside the UFC they just need the rights from the fighters themselves rather than go with a company, thats why for example Arlovski fights in Affliction & Strikeforce, and others go over to Dream for the tournaments etc, or i certainly hope this is what they will do so there will be a big and varied roster.

But more that anything, it just surprised me that EA would even try and compete in a sport where they can't have the biggest license, i can't even remember a time when EA made a sports game that didn't have the biggest name possible attached too it, even back on the Mega Drive it was Fifa, NHL, Madden etc, i presume they think they can make a much better game and compete that way, but UFC dominate the MMA market to the casual MMA fan so much, there is no way they will outsell there game just on how good it is (unfortunately). But THQ only hold the UFC license until 2011 at this current moment. Would it be enough to make a better game in that time and then splash the cash on the UFC license as soon as possible? It wouldn't surprise me.

And yes, i like the 2 year life cycle idea aswell, but i can tell you for sure it won't be happening on there biggest titles like Fifa or Madden, when they can sell so many titles each year, there not going to stop that and make it bi-annually instead. And in a way i don't want them too, it's the money from these games that is seeing EA (finally!) branch out into some original titles, last year Dead Space & Mirror's Edge, this year i can think of Dante's Inferno off the top of my head, probably more, so people keep buying your yearly updates so i can play great new games :-D

But is THQ's contract with the UFC for Zuffa franchises or the UFC brand? If it's the latter then EA probably wont have any problems aecuring rights to WEC branded games. The only problem with these kinds of things is getting the rights to individual fighters' names and likeness...es(?)

I hope EA pull off a decent MMA game though I do love UFC Undisputed and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Barry, while I do agree getting each fighter would be a pain to actively negotiate. I mean it is fine and well personally securing Randy Couture's right and Fedor's but going round each guy and trying to negotiate personally would be unwieldly. I have no idea how they are gonna pull this off.

UFC was solid but flawed, and ea's game could definitly improve in a lot of areas.

The online play was a bit crap- a lot of luck involved, and it's total bullshit that you go down a level and lose points with losses- that negates everything you have done and earned. Not to mention the flawed lobby system- why can't I chose to face people on my level, instead of facing level 50's when I am on a paltry five? Bit one sided.

Not to mention submissions- subs in ufc were horrible and near impossible to pull off. Need a better way of dealing with that.

CountFapula - I'm having no trouble pulling off submissions even on expert. All you have to do is block 5 or 6 transition attempts, lay in to them a little bit inbetween and then slap on the submission.

Online play isn't really anything to do with luck. Learning to hit the reversals rather than transition block is the key to beating anyone, no matter their stats. That requires skill. The only real instance of luck is when a Flash KO comes out of nowhere, because you can't time that. The rest is skill and patience.