EA Sports MMA One and Done?

[econoodle]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Totally disagree. This isnt a fighting game....its a sports game. Sports games sell because of the licenses and players. Thats why Backbreaker sold very few copies and any NFL license game sells well. Same thing here. I talked to a ton of casual MMA fans this wknd because of the Lesnar fight and very few of them knew who Fedor was. The only reason they know Couture is because he is a UFC fighter. Thats a problem when those are the two biggest fighters in the game. Also EA advertised plenty. I saw an ad for this game during yesterday's NFL game, during the UFC prelims, UFC 120 and all this week on Spike. There was plenty of advertising.

The only reason I know him is because of Scorpion King 2: Rise of A Warrior.
Sad, really, I know.


good discussion in here for sure.

[DaveDQ]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Totally disagree. This isnt a fighting game....its a sports game. Sports games sell because of the licenses and players. Thats why Backbreaker sold very few copies and any NFL license game sells well. Same thing here. I talked to a ton of casual MMA fans this wknd because of the Lesnar fight and very few of them knew who Fedor was. The only reason they know Couture is because he is a UFC fighter. Thats a problem when those are the two biggest fighters in the game. Also EA advertised plenty. I saw an ad for this game during yesterday's NFL game, during the UFC prelims, UFC 120 and all this week on Spike. There was plenty of advertising.

I think this is it. We have to realize that a good brand goes a very long way when selling video games. UFC is a big name brand for MMA and EA doesn't have it. That hurts sales for the game before it gets burned to disc. APF, Backbreaker etc. may offer things pleasing to the eye but we all know it's the branding of the NFL that furthers a football game's sales.

I think something that also hurt this game was how generic it sounds. EA MMA just sounds kind of blah. For me though, I could care less. I love the fact that we have various rule sets. I thoroughly enjoy the game and the only reason I would care about sales is so that the guys that made the game get to stick around and be rewarded in continuing to work on the game for future iterations.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Quote:

EA MMA just sounds kind of blah

That was done on purpose really. You can't call it Strikeforce, because if you did you would be force to use Strikeforce rules only. Then would be forced to use fighters that is signed with Strikeforce. All the fighters on this game aren't signed by Strikeforce.

But I like you would rather have the variety of rules sets then a brand name of one league only. I mean soccer kicks and head stomps are the shiznit.

[TheWorldIsYours]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

That was done on purpose really. You can't call it Strikeforce, because if you did you would be force to use Strikeforce rules only. Then would be forced to use fighters that is signed with Strikeforce. All the fighters on this game aren't signed by Strikeforce. But I like you would rather have the variety of rules sets then a brand name of one league only. I mean soccer kicks and head stomps are the shiznit.

My thoughts too. Its not a game strictly for one organization so why dont make it have a more Global Name.

[Indiedog]

The most appropriate example we have in this regards (IMO) is when EA overpaid for the WCW license in 1998. At that time, the WWF (now WWE) was on the rise with the more widely known stars like Stone Cold, The Rock, ManKind/Mick Foley. While it can be argued that the WWE games at the time were better (due to being developed by AKI Corp), the argument made from EA's side was that the license didn't matter. Also keep in mind that the TV ratings for WWF vs WCW were about 4 to 1 so it was even close when comraing which was the more popular promotion. It was WWF, duh. WWF is synonymous with pro wrestling as UFC is with MMA. As Coke is to cola beverages. As Levi's are to blue jeans. As Ford is to pickup trucks.

Is there a minority of the total number of gamers who follow all MMA and will greatly appreciate what EA has done? Absolutely. And they should. EA has done a pretty decent job.

But to say that the UFC license doesn't matter if EA's game is good enough is pretty naive. Maybe that's how individuals on O/S feel and they're projecting their own judgement of "preferring a better game over the license, any day!"

But yeah, there is NO WAY the EA Sports MMA game will ever outsell it's UFC counterpart unless there is a significant price difference.

And IMO, MMA is more analogous to a sports game rather than a fighting game. MMA games trade on the rosters, the logos, and the licenses. That's what the publishers pay for.

[Trevelyan]

I think the biggest mistake they made was the release date. There was no reason to release it now, in a year where october/november is ultra packed with quality titles. They could have easily waited until march or april, or some other time when a lot of games aren't flooding onto store shelves, and been more of a featured title.

[CaptainZombie]

To me its the release date..........if this came out in September or even late August, would have been perfect timing.

Then my #2 beef has to do with the name of the game. EA MMA is cool and all, but centralizing this around say a promotion like Strikeforce would have been better even though Strikeforce is not as known by the casuals. Give us all the Strikeforce branding as the main part of the game.....but still keep Brazil and Japan in there as is. Place Couture and Shamrock on the cover....two guys known in the MMA community. If some of the Strikeforce women were in here too, it would have helped a bit giving this game something different.

I played the full game tonight as my brother was renting it from gamefly.........I am sold and this is going to be an instant purchase for me.

Hopefully EA releases another game in 2 years, yet continues to update this one with patches and also giving us DLC content for fighters that leave or are fired from UFC or anyone else they might not had been able to sign.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

EA MMA suffers from one thing and one thing only that matters and that is bad release timing. It came out at the same time of Fallout: New Vegas and too close to the COD: Black Ops release date. Being the masses was going to buy Fallout, they weren't going to turn and buy EA MMA when they knew COD: Black Ops was on the horizon. And it is also true that the poor demo drove the casual consumer away. Ads were plentiful.......But to say unrecognized fighters....I don't know about that. Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, Bas, Tim Silvia, Jeff Monson, Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Frank Trigg, Arlowski, Dan Henderson, and one other fighter who I forget his name....ALL came from the UFC. So unless you just started watching UFC in the past 2 years then yeah you might not have known all those fighters started off in the UFC. Plus people got to keep in mind this is a global market, not just a USA market. Average american might not know a lot of MMA fighters, but as long as this game sales well in Europe and the rest of the world, it will continue to be supported by EA. It is the same thing as FIFA. FIFA never sell well in the USA, but in Europe, it goes platinum every year. So in theory, it can be 2 MMA games at the same time. Stranger things have happened. People thought the Wii wouldn't last in the generation of uber HD graphics, but the Wii is selling strong.

All of the fighters you named havent been relevent in the past 4 yrs. I'd argue that the golden years of MMA started around 4-5 yrs ago when Liddell was dominant. Thats when the sport went mainstream and mainstream sites like ESPN and Yahoo started covering it. With the exception of Arlovski and Henderson, every fighter on that list was either losing, out of the UFC, or retired 4 yrs ago.

Also none of those fighters will sell games. Thats like me saying people will buy the UFC game because of Chris Lytle. Yes, UFC fans should know who he is but fans arent buying the game because Chris is in it.

The FIFA comparison doesnt work because soccer is much more popular in the rest of the world. I think MMA's popularity in the US is on par with it in Japan right now. The game may sell well in Japan though because of the named fighters like Aoki and others.