Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

[TheUFCVeteran]

Reddit post I where I saw this: https://old.reddit.com/r/EASportsUFC...of_the_ea_ufc/



I imagine he left near the end of development, meaning the creative side of the game is set. Didn’t always agree with his direction, but he’s put a lot of work in for the series and other games he’s worked on. Big respect.

[Ka5eL]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

****ing incredible so much change was needed. I always knew he's a bad influence on series.. I still remember him saying a few years ago that he chose to make UFC 1, 2 and 3 in 30fps over 60fps because it looks better that way.......

[Therebelyell626]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

I always felt he was the wrong guy to spearhead a game like this. Every year the game is so online comp driven, and there is literally zero replay value for single player offline. Plus he was always super defensive. One time I asked him a legitimate question something in the park of “why are all of the EA UFC games so striking heavy? It feels like it’s a boxing game that you guys HAD to add grappling into. Are there any discussions on maybe focusing more towards the ground game for future iterations”? He just responded with “you don’t know what you’re talking about. We are all passionate about jiu jitsu….. blah blah blah”

[Yaari]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Enjoy the franchise but never liked the direction they took with any of the games. Feel like there was much more to be done, never got the feeling that the big Fight Night veterans were behind the game.


Not like this means anything for whatever happens to the franchise next, just wanted to throw it out there.



Respect for Hayes for keeping it up that long, but not a fan of his decisions in the last 10 years.

[tissues250]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Finally, we're not gonna meet that ugly fortnite CAF in online ranked.

[Pedro_Guap]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Honestly....good fking riddance. I've played thousands of hours on every iteration under this guy's terrible leadership.

He failed to even once deliver on a MMA sim. This floaty, cartoony, mess of game should have been changed long ago. Fk fortnite UFC...bring on the real deal sim.

[AggelosP]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Enjoy the franchise but never liked the direction they took with any of the games. Feel like there was much more to be done, never got the feeling that the big Fight Night veterans were behind the game.


Not like this means anything for whatever happens to the franchise next, just wanted to throw it out there.



Respect for Hayes for keeping it up that long, but not a fan of his decisions in the last 10 years.

I think the franchise was evolving pretty good until UFC 4 released. The first two games were basic enjoyable experiences and stepping stones for the next games. UFC 3 has the best striking we've ever seen in any fighting game so far with very few issues here and there. And then UFC 4 released , easily the most unbalanced and glitchiest game in the series.

[Blackman316]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

He failed to even once deliver on a MMA sim. This floaty, cartoony, mess of game should have been changed long ago. Fk fortnite UFC...bring on the real deal sim.

Take into account that he's not the final boss. EA will determine the boundaries in which he makes his game. And that might include instruction on the silly crap we ended up getting. Might not have a choice, as any sane person would've come to the conclusion to cut it. So it must've been some higher-up.


Hopefully, with EA Sports becoming its own company, we will see less of this.


And yes: EAUFC3 was in fact a very good game that evolve a LOT since the first game, but I guess this is subjective.

[Ka5eL]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Honestly....good fking riddance. I've played thousands of hours on every iteration under this guy's terrible leadership.

He failed to even once deliver on a MMA sim. This floaty, cartoony, mess of game should have been changed long ago. Fk fortnite UFC...bring on the real deal sim.

Sorry you feel that way 👋🏻 *block*

[BigSmoke]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

I always felt he was the wrong guy to spearhead a game like this. Every year the game is so online comp driven, and there is literally zero replay value for single player offline. Plus he was always super defensive. One time I asked him a legitimate question something in the park of “why are all of the EA UFC games so striking heavy? It feels like it’s a boxing game that you guys HAD to add grappling into. Are there any discussions on maybe focusing more towards the ground game for future iterations”? He just responded with “you don’t know what you’re talking about. We are all passionate about jiu jitsu….. blah blah blah”

This is probably the best thing to happen to the series, the direction he took that game was not good at all. I don’t think it was all his fault being EA and all, but I feel he is one of the main reasons UFC 4 felt so lifeless and boring. It is by far the worst game I’ve played in the series, it wasn’t even as good as UFC 1.

[martialxd]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

Brian Hayes, a promoter of 30FPS,
EA UFC games for ten years without any significant progress.
UFC Undisputed 3 is still considered the pinnacle,
and the THQ team only took five years for their third installment.

[Money99]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

The issue isn't so much people like Hayes. Every one of their sports games has a 'Brian Hayes' whom fans are upset with due to various reasons.
In the end, if you visit all boards for every EA sports game the same complaints are seen throughout.
EA's MO is to create a good looking game with online modes to pillage micro-transactions.
AI, career modes, franchise, customization, etc are at the bottom of the list because they don't make them money.
And AI is def something they don't want to waste time with as it's very time consuming and requires a lot of brain power.
Want to make the game harder for offline gamers? Just give the CPU boosts. It's so much easier to do than having to program actual good artificial intelligence.

A former co-worker of mine has a son who worked in EA. He said that EA is a STARTER position for programmers.
They use EA to buff up their resume so they can get better, more rewarding jobs for better pay and benefits.

So in the end, it doesn't matter who the producer is.
Crap rolls downhill and there's only so much a producer or programmer can do when they're getting orders from the top to focus on things that have nothing to do with making an authentic sports game.
I haven't purchased an EA hockey game in a long, long time. A series that used to be first-day purchase for me.
I've learned my lessen and I doubt I ever buy another EA game again.

[aholbert32]

Re: Brian Hayes, EA UFC creative director, departs from EA after 22 years

The issue isn't so much people like Hayes. Every one of their sports games has a 'Brian Hayes' whom fans are upset with due to various reasons.
In the end, if you visit all boards for every EA sports game the same complaints are seen throughout.
EA's MO is to create a good looking game with online modes to pillage micro-transactions.
AI, career modes, franchise, customization, etc are at the bottom of the list because they don't make them money.
And AI is def something they don't want to waste time with as it's very time consuming and requires a lot of brain power.
Want to make the game harder for offline gamers? Just give the CPU boosts. It's so much easier to do than having to program actual good artificial intelligence.

A former co-worker of mine has a son who worked in EA. He said that EA is a STARTER position for programmers.
They use EA to buff up their resume so they can get better, more rewarding jobs for better pay and benefits.

So in the end, it doesn't matter who the producer is.
Crap rolls downhill and there's only so much a producer or programmer can do when they're getting orders from the top to focus on things that have nothing to do with making an authentic sports game.
I haven't purchased an EA hockey game in a long, long time. A series that used to be first-day purchase for me.
I've learned my lessen and I doubt I ever buy another EA game again.

Much of this is true....except for AI on UFC. EA UFC has taken a ton of steps to improve AI (direct consumer input on AI types, AI type selection, sliders etc.) since its inception. Its not perfect (no sports game has AI without some holes) but Skynet and the team have done a good job in improving this aspect of the game.

.