EA Sports MMA First Look (MiddleEasy)

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by sb24

As long as it delivers and does what they claim no one will care its not the ufc. .

I dont know about that. Depends on how much Strikeforce grows and whether the top fighters in the game keep winning. If Fedor loses before release that could hurt the game severely. If Couture loses to Vera (3rd in a row) that could hurt it also. People tend to identify MMA with the UFC so EA needs these fighters to continue to raise their profile in order to get people who arent huge MMA fans to watch the fights.

[Phobia]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I dont know about that. Depends on how much Strikeforce grows and whether the top fighters in the game keep winning. If Fedor loses before release that could hurt the game severely. If Couture loses to Vera (3rd in a row) that could hurt it also. People tend to identify MMA with the UFC so EA needs these fighters to continue to raise their profile in order to get people who arent huge MMA fans to watch the fights.

Yea but EA is a marketing power house. I don't think they will have any problem selling it. Put a EA logo on it and people flock to their titles.

[sb24]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I dont know about that. Depends on how much Strikeforce grows and whether the top fighters in the game keep winning. If Fedor loses before release that could hurt the game severely. If Couture loses to Vera (3rd in a row) that could hurt it also. People tend to identify MMA with the UFC so EA needs these fighters to continue to raise their profile in order to get people who arent huge MMA fans to watch the fights.

I agree and disagree. I think there are plenty who only buy the game solely because of the ufc name. On the otherhand there are plenty of people who just want a good fighting game, kinda the way people want a generic 2k football game. Some will say they need the ufc, and some will say they want the best product. I think stickforce could fold and people would buy it(game not ppv's). Assuming all their claims will be true of course.

Basicly im not an ea guy and i really dont care about strikeforce but i still have an intrest in the game. If the game plays like they are already making us to believe, then it could be all generic fighters and i wouldnt care. All just opinion of course.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phobia

Yea but EA is a marketing power house. I don't think they will have any problem selling it. Put a EA logo on it and people flock to their titles.

Not completely true. Arena Football and College Baseball had the EA brand behind it and flopped. Knockout Kings and Fight Night 1 struggled. The game needs to be much better than UFC in order to outsell it because its hard to market fighters who know one knows. Most people outside of hardcore MMA fans never watched a Fedor fight before this past Saturday. Its hard to sell a game when no one knows who your cover athlete is. In comparison, Fight Night 4 was easy as hell to market with Ali and Tyson on the cover.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by sb24

I agree and disagree. I think there are plenty who only buy the game solely because of the ufc name. On the otherhand there are plenty of people who just want a good fighting game, kinda the way people want a generic 2k football game. Some will say they need the ufc, and some will say they want the best product. I think stickforce could fold and people would buy it(game not ppv's). Assuming all their claims will be true of course. Basicly im not an ea guy and i really dont care about strikeforce but i still have an intrest in the game. If the game plays like they are already making us to believe, then it could be all generic fighters and i wouldnt care. All just opinion of course.

Good point. The problem that EA is facing is that they are competing against a good game. UFC Undisputed isnt even close to perfect but most people felt like it was a good game. Add to that the game has the most recognizable brand in MMA and has 80-90% of the fighters that most people want. Thats a tough mountain to climb if you are EA.

I'm a MMA fan so I know pretty much every fighter in Strikeforce/Dream and I'm excited about this game. I just dont see the average consumer being excited about fighting with Scott Smith or Robbie Lawler when you have another game that features GSP and BJ Penn. Especially if both of those games are good games. If they are both good...I thinkmost people will buy the UFC game.

[Bad_Intentions]

Wow this article got me hyped up for EA MMA. I actually kinda wrote the game off, thinking that EA was just releasing an MMA game just to say they have one, but they appear to be putting alot of hard work in on it. The details seem amazing. This game may end up being everything I hoped Undisputed would be. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Undisputed and think it's a good game, but this seems to be way more fluid and authentic. One of the things that i didn't like about Undisputed is that after a while it got really stale...Fighters all played the same pretty much, not to mention how much i HATE the submission system. I really hope EA delivers on this.

[BlueNGold]

About the average consumer not buying it because of the lack of a UFC brand I think if the game is good then word of mouth will pass along to the average consumer that doesn't know Strikeforce/Dream so I don't think it will be much of an issue.