Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

[TheRizzzle]

Let's say EA Sports came out with some hypothetical fighter DLC packs. You can buy as many as you want. Which ones are you buying?

(I know some of these guys would never allow it. That's why the packs are so expensive).

Pride Never Die ($40)
Fedor
Cro Cop (prime)
Sakuraba
Wanderlei Silva (prime)
Shogun Rua (prime)
Igor Vovchanchyn
Takanori Gomi
Josh Barnett
Mark Hunt
Ricardo Arona

Strikeforce Never Die ($30)
Overeem (prime)
Paul Daley
Frank Shamrock
Gilbert Melendez
Josh Thomson
Cung Le
Gegard Mousasi
Jake Shields
King Mo
Marloes Coenen

TUF 1 ($25)
Stephan Bonnar
Kenny Florian (prime LW)
Josh Koscheck (prime WW)
Mike Swick
Chris Leben
Nate Quarry

Former UFC Champions ($25)
Benson Henderson
Rich Franklin
Matt Serra
Jens Pulver
Pat Miletich
Nicco Montano

Former UFC HW Champions ($40)
Randy Couture
Maurice Smith
Kevin Randleman
Bas Rutten
Ricco Rodriguez
Frank Mir
Shane Carwin

All currently ranked fighters not in game ($30)
As the title suggests. Here is a link to the current UFC Rankings.

[tomitomitomi]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Charging money for fighters would be pretty unprecedented in UFC but it is very much a thing in other fighting games via season passes. However, in those games the characters are clearly more distinct and defined so charging for them is more justified since they get new animations among million other things. Moreover, those games are designed with balance in mind so theoretically you get viable characters whereas someone like Nicco Montano should obviously be pretty weak which also discourages people from buying her bundle.

I don't think they should introduce priced bundles until the base roster is more refined (=considerably more unique animations etc) but after that I wouldn't mind bundles focusing on legacy fighters assuming they have meaningful additions other than the model itself, such as animations, commentary clips and offline content. New contenders (e.g. Chandler) should still be added for free though since it is a biannual sports franchise.

[Blackman316]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

I would definitely consider the Pride/Strikeforce packages as that was the most exciting time in my personal experience as a fan. I'm sure I'm not alone here. Shelling out 30$ though: not gonna happen. You're not purchasing a WWE superstar with his own trademark taunts and moves. You're getting a skin and that's it. Only a handful have their own special move. The experience of playing with someone's likeness isn't worth much to me.



I would probably pay to get gear or arena's, though, that is: if it's interesting. So far that's a big dud.


And indeed: Nicco Montano? I saw that TUF but honestly: why would she even be in these lists? I had to sherdog her record to see if I missed something... Who wants to play as a 2-fight fighter with no legit non-UFC background? Add Gina Carano, though, and you'll get a bunch of sales in no time after her Hollywood exposure.

[TheRizzzle]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Lol. This was sort of supposed to be a fun discussion. But it is another enlightening moment why we aren't gonna be a priority anytime soon.

Also, Nicco Montano is in there because there actually aren't that many former UFC champs that today's fans might know who aren't in the game.

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[johnmangala]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Those are dramatically overpriced.

I'd pay $10 max for any of those. If they were actually unique and not cookie cutter like most DLC I might pay $15.

$40 seems reasonable if it included all those packs you listed and added some more modes, rulesets, skins, etc.

[tomitomitomi]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Lol. This was sort of supposed to be a fun discussion. But it is another enlightening moment why we aren't gonna be a priority anytime soon.

Also, Nicco Montano is in there because there actually aren't that many former UFC champs that today's fans might know who aren't in the game.

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I'm not really sure what your problem here is. So far everyone has been somewhat open to the idea with some caveats such as the pricing. Even the Nicco point is good because if you want to add priced bundles then it's worth discussing which fighters are worth paying for.

[TheRizzzle]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

I'm not really sure what your problem here is. So far everyone has been somewhat open to the idea with some caveats such as the pricing. Even the Nicco point is good because if you want to add priced bundles then it's worth discussing which fighters are worth paying for.

Apologies if that came off harsh.

Considering that all these packs include at least one licensing nightmare, I didnt think they were all that overpriced. Also the point about Montano is that she isn't the only fighter you'd get in the pack. She would be a noteworthy addition to a shallow weight class (two actually) so that's not nothing.

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[TheRizzzle]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

I just don't see EA ever prioritizing the roster unless it makes them money. The guys people seem to request in here will come at a price that EA simply doesn't deem worth their time.

If you're only willing to pay $10 for a pack, it's probably not happening since there isn't a sizeable group willing to pay anything at all.

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[johnmangala]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

I just don't see EA ever prioritizing the roster unless it makes them money. The guys people seem to request in here will come at a price that EA simply doesn't deem worth their time.

If you're only willing to pay $10 for a pack, it's probably not happening since there isn't a sizeable group willing to pay anything at all.

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If something is overpriced less people will buy it and ea most likely makes less money even tho the price is more.

At lower prices the demand will be higher and more people may buy and theyll probably make more money even tho the price is less.

The actual price point would be determined by the execs depending on their analytics. Most people spend $20 for big expansions like skyrim had or such, $5-10 is the usual for character packs. $40 is outrageous for a pack of 5-10 cookie cutter fighters.

[TheRizzzle]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

If something is overpriced less people will buy it and ea most likely makes less money even tho the price is more.



At lower prices the demand will be higher and more people may buy and theyll probably make more money even tho the price is less.



The actual price point would be determined by the execs depending on their analytics. Most people spend $20 for big expansions like skyrim had or such, $5-10 is the usual for character packs. $40 is outrageous for a pack of 5-10 cookie cutter fighters.

I'll admit I don't know that much about the pricing so I'm sure I'm off.

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[Blackman316]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

They can test the waters. I assume the best thing is to start off harsh, like OP suggests, and then offer sales where others can get them for a fraction of the price. Not sure why they've never tried it: they had a "fighter store" since EA UFC 2, but it only offered Bruce Lee (I think), who you could unlock upon completing career. I'm assuming here that the number of people who 'purchased' him this way is extremely limited, as clearing career takes only a couple of hours if you rush it. Plus if that's too much of a hassle, I'm not sure why you're getting this game... Maybe they are afraid of backlash like in their Star Wars lootbox game, but the obvious difference is that it's all P2W there. As long as there's a better 'free' fighter in every weight class then the DLC, there's absolutely no problem here. There hasn't been any backlash to the UT mode as there's alternative online modes that people play. They did parade it around the main menu but you could ignore it if you wanted. The fact that it was crappy kinda helped with that.

People can hate this model all they want, it's simply the one that gets the most money imo (for a non-mobile platform). First you get the motivated players and the ones with lots of cash, several months later you can get the other interested players to buy it for 5/10$.

[aholbert32]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

If something is overpriced less people will buy it and ea most likely makes less money even tho the price is more.

At lower prices the demand will be higher and more people may buy and theyll probably make more money even tho the price is less.

The actual price point would be determined by the execs depending on their analytics. Most people spend $20 for big expansions like skyrim had or such, $5-10 is the usual for character packs. $40 is outrageous for a pack of 5-10 cookie cutter fighters.

Comparing this to Skyrim is tough because the user base for that game is alot bigger.

There isnt alot of money in this for EA. One, this only works if all of these fighters are signed under UFC contracts with likeness clauses. Almost half of the Pride pack and Strikeforce packs have never been under UFC contracts so you have to negotiate new deals with them.....which is expensive

Some will say "Ok, well negotiate new deals with them and base their pay on the number of DLC sold". Well no fighter with an agent would agree to that. Say Fedor thinks his likeness is worth $500k. He isnt going to sign a deal that doesnt guarantee him $500k. He isnt going to allow EA to exploit his image/likeness without guaranteeing what he wants.

So EA is going to be in the hole before the DLC is released with no guarantee that the audience is there to make a profit.

The whole reason that EA is all in on UFC is because its controlled cost. They know that they have the ability to use 400-500 fighters and the large majority of those costs are included in the license.

Two, the number of fighters that the average player uses is small. Ridiculously small for a game with 200 plus fighters. I dont remember the exact number but I believe its under 20 for people who play regularly online. Why would we expect a community that doesnt play with alot of fighters to PAY for additional fighters?

Three, EA is gunshy about fighter packs ever since FNC. Those sold poorly at much cheaper prices and that turned them off ever selling them for UFC. Now that was decades ago but that was the answer I got from them as recently as 3 yrs ago.

Anyway, I know these are just hypotheticals so I dont want to kill the fun but I just wanted to chime in on the comments where people were theorizing that this could actually happen.

[TheRizzzle]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Comparing this to Skyrim is tough because the user base for that game is alot bigger.



There isnt alot of money in this for EA. One, this only works if all of these fighters are signed under UFC contracts with likeness clauses. Almost half of the Pride pack and Strikeforce packs have never been under UFC contracts so you have to negotiate new deals with them.....which is expensive



Some will say "Ok, well negotiate new deals with them and base their pay on the number of DLC sold". Well no fighter with an agent would agree to that. Say Fedor thinks his likeness is worth $500k. He isnt going to sign a deal that doesnt guarantee him $500k. He isnt going to allow EA to exploit his image/likeness without guaranteeing what he wants.



So EA is going to be in the hole before the DLC is released with no guarantee that the audience is there to make a profit.



The whole reason that EA is all in on UFC is because its controlled cost. They know that they have the ability to use 400-500 fighters and the large majority of those costs are included in the license.



Two, the number of fighters that the average player uses is small. Ridiculously small for a game with 200 plus fighters. I dont remember the exact number but I believe its under 20 for people who play regularly online. Why would we expect a community that doesnt play with alot of fighters to PAY for additional fighters?



Three, EA is gunshy about fighter packs ever since FNC. Those sold poorly at much cheaper prices and that turned them off ever selling them for UFC. Now that was decades ago but that was the answer I got from them as recently as 3 yrs ago.



Anyway, I know these are just hypotheticals so I dont want to kill the fun but I just wanted to chime in on the comments where people were theorizing that this could actually happen.

Yeah agree on all of that.

My idea was more what if EA said "f*** it, let's do it" but still had all the real world hurdles of licensing.

That's what drove the price of the packs up. I'm no expert on if those price points are realistic but they are intentionally high to guage enthusiasm from our OS audience.

The responses were mostly what I expected which is this would be a useless exercise for EA to partake in and is never gonna happen.

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[tomitomitomi]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

If something is overpriced less people will buy it and ea most likely makes less money even tho the price is more.

At lower prices the demand will be higher and more people may buy and theyll probably make more money even tho the price is less.

The actual price point would be determined by the execs depending on their analytics. Most people spend $20 for big expansions like skyrim had or such, $5-10 is the usual for character packs. $40 is outrageous for a pack of 5-10 cookie cutter fighters.

The Skyrim comparison is really inappropriate when there are numerous fighting games that already charge money for new content, including fighters. Street Fighter 5 is soon launching their 5th season pass (among other stuff, but the characters are clearly the main selling point) that comes with 5 characters and it's quadruple that of your $5-10 price evaluation. Your pricing is more reasonable if they are similar quality to what the new characters are now.

Two, the number of fighters that the average player uses is small. Ridiculously small for a game with 200 plus fighters. I dont remember the exact number but I believe its under 20 for people who play regularly online. Why would we expect a community that doesnt play with alot of fighters to PAY for additional fighters?

Three, EA is gunshy about fighter packs ever since FNC. Those sold poorly at much cheaper prices and that turned them off ever selling them for UFC. Now that was decades ago but that was the answer I got from them as recently as 3 yrs ago.

I know you're just being the messenger here so don't take this as me coming at you.

1) The online character base sounds about right. If they believe that online players would be their main DLC customer base (despite offline players being the majority. I assume they prefer CAFs) then it sounds reasonable that they would buy the characters if they are good enough to use competitively. Although, this is also entering pay-to-win territory.

2) The FNC DLC came out 10 years ago when microtransactions (MTX) were not as prevalent as they were today. Gaming in general is a rapidly evolving business for better or worse so using MTX data from 10 years ago is flawed IMO.

3) Their FNC DLC was wack. They didn't exactly pick modern fan favorites as their characters. The new Brock/old Conor additions could have been good tests to see if there's demand for it though they did give them for free if you redeemed them early enough.

[johnmangala]

Re: Hypothetical Fighter DLC Packs

Comparing this to Skyrim is tough because the user base for that game is alot bigger.

There isnt alot of money in this for EA. One, this only works if all of these fighters are signed under UFC contracts with likeness clauses. Almost half of the Pride pack and Strikeforce packs have never been under UFC contracts so you have to negotiate new deals with them.....which is expensive

Some will say "Ok, well negotiate new deals with them and base their pay on the number of DLC sold". Well no fighter with an agent would agree to that. Say Fedor thinks his likeness is worth $500k. He isnt going to sign a deal that doesnt guarantee him $500k. He isnt going to allow EA to exploit his image/likeness without guaranteeing what he wants.

So EA is going to be in the hole before the DLC is released with no guarantee that the audience is there to make a profit.

The whole reason that EA is all in on UFC is because its controlled cost. They know that they have the ability to use 400-500 fighters and the large majority of those costs are included in the license.

Two, the number of fighters that the average player uses is small. Ridiculously small for a game with 200 plus fighters. I dont remember the exact number but I believe its under 20 for people who play regularly online. Why would we expect a community that doesnt play with alot of fighters to PAY for additional fighters?

Three, EA is gunshy about fighter packs ever since FNC. Those sold poorly at much cheaper prices and that turned them off ever selling them for UFC. Now that was decades ago but that was the answer I got from them as recently as 3 yrs ago.

Anyway, I know these are just hypotheticals so I dont want to kill the fun but I just wanted to chime in on the comments where people were theorizing that this could actually happen.

Yeah exactly, I dont see it happening.

$40 is not gonna sell when FNC couldn't even get much from way cheaper packs.

The Skyrim comparison is really inappropriate when there are numerous fighting games that already charge money for new content, including fighters. Street Fighter 5 is soon launching their 5th season pass (among other stuff, but the characters are clearly the main selling point) that comes with 5 characters and it's quadruple that of your $5-10 price evaluation. Your pricing is more reasonable if they are similar quality to what the new characters are now.

Street fighter is way more popular than any MMA game.

Those fighters from street fighter are way more unique not like what we get from EA ufc games.

Barely anyone is gonna spend $40 on that for a ufc game especially if they cookie cutter.

And like you said street fighter DLC came with other stuff. $40 would be reasonable for all those packs plus other content like arenas, skins, etc. Like I said earlier