Fight, Fight, Fight! All you UFC fans out there were probably worrying about the future of your beloved franchise’s video games when you heard about THQ’s unfortunate economic troubles. Well calm your fears as EA Sports has confirmed that the award winning Fight Night team are going to be developing the next UFC game so you can expect some juicy new things to be added to the game.
After leading gameplay design on Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion, Brian Hayes is now the Creative Director for the Fighting Team at EA SPORTS and had this to say when asked about leading the development team for EA SPORTS UFC:
“When we found out that EA and the UFC would be working together, the team was excited. Most of the team didn’t even know about it until the announcement at E3. We were all watching it together and when Andrew Wilson and Dana White took the stage, everybody starting cheering. It was great.”
“For me personally, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is something that I grew up with. I remember watching the first Ultimate Fighting Championship events when I was a teenager and it’s amazing to see how they have evolved and flourished. Ultimately, we’re huge fans, we think we have a great team and we are really excited to be taking on this new challenge. We look forward to bringing the video game experience to new heights.”
As i mentioned, this new partnership should be giving us new features within the game, so what does the Fight Night dev team bring to the table for future Ultimate Fighting Championship games? Here are the Top 3 things you should know:
1. The Fight Night team has won numerous awards since the release of Fight Night Round 3 including 11 ‘Best Sports/Fighting Game of the Year’ Awards
2. The Fight Night team is one that is known for innovation within the genre and the industry:
· Fight Night 2004 revolutionized fighting gameplay with ‘Total Punch Control’, an innovative control scheme which made use of the right analog stick and changed the way you play fighting games forever.
· Fight Night Round 4 introduced real-world physics to the sports videogame category.
3. Fight Night Round 3 was a launch title for the X360 and showed the world what a next-gen sports game was capable of. The lead gameplay designer from FNR3 is heading up gameplay design for EA SPORTS UFC.
