EA Sports UFC

EA Sports UFC

EA Sports UFC PlayStation 4 Cover
Developer(s) EA Canada
SkyBox Labs
Publisher(s) EA Sports
Engine Ignite
Platform(s) PlayStation 4
Xbox One
iOS
Android
Release date(s) PlayStation 4 & Xbox One
June 17, 2014
iOS & Android
April 21, 2015[1]
Genre(s) Fighting, Sports

EA Sports UFC is a mixed martial arts fighting video game developed by Electronic Arts and SkyBox Labs[2] for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand and was released on June 17, 2014. A playable demo was released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Marketplace on June 3, 2014, with Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson as playable fighters. It is the first UFC game since THQ sold the license to Electronic Arts.[3][4][5]

Gameplay

The game's artificial intelligence accommodates for changes in player strategies mid-game to make the gaming experience more realistic than in previous UFC games.[6] The game also simulates "full body deformation" to connect players with their player-character. The Ultimate Fighter is featured at the start of Career Mode. Also included are perks unlocked throughout career to boost gameplans.

Development

Conflict originally arose between UFC president Dana White and Electronic Arts, when the UFC approached EA Sports to develop a UFC video game and EA refused. The UFC then turned to developer THQ to develop UFC titles. THQ's UFC 2009 Undisputed shipped approximately 2 million copies. With the success of the series, THQ quickly began working on a sequel, UFC Undisputed 2010, and followed this release with UFC Undisputed 3 in 2012.[7]

With the growing popularity of MMA (the UFC banner particularly) and THQ's success, Electronic Arts began working on EA Sports MMA, featuring UFC's then promotional rival, Strikeforce. After the closing of THQ, Electronic Arts announced a "multi-year, multi-product" partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012.[6][8] THQ[9] reported that the publishing rights were purchased by EA Sports for an "undisclosed cash payment".[8] The first gameplay for the game was shown at the Xbox One reveal event in a trailer by EA Sports. The game is one of the first to run Electronic Arts's Ignite engine.[6][9] Electronic Arts put its Fight Night boxing franchise on hold while developing EA Sports UFC.[10] The company said that the decision was based primarily on its perception that the UFC has greater international prominence, although EA Sports did offer that the boxing series could potentially return.[10] The Fight Night team (EA Canada) became the UFC team.[7][10]

Roster

The roster was gradually revealed by EA Sports in batches.[11][12][13][14][15] The final roster consists of 97 UFC fighters (not including DLC additions).[16] UFC legend Royce Gracie[17] and late martial arts icon Bruce Lee[18] are both featured in the game as bonus unlockable fighters. Gracie is playable in the middleweight division, and Lee is playable in bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight. A free content update was released for download on July 22, 2014, adding T.J. Dillashaw, Tyron Woodley and Takeya Mizugaki to the roster.[19] On August 26, 2014, EA released another patch that included heavyweight Stipe Miocic as well as welterweights Matt Brown and Mike Pyle. On October 2, EA released their third patch including Tim Kennedy and Gunnar Nelson, and also making Nick Diaz able to switch to the middleweight division. On October 29, EA released their fourth patch including Hector Lombard, Diego Sanchez and Michael Chiesa, and also making Gegard Mousasi able to switch to the middleweight division. On November 19, EA released a fifth patch, this one including Myles Jury, Andrei Arlovski, and Yoel Romero. On December 10, EA released a legends pack, which included Mark Coleman, Matt Hughes, Quinton Jackson and Brock Lesnar. On January 21, EA released a seventh patch, this one including Eddie Alvarez, Holly Holm, Rafael dos Anjos and Anthony Johnson. This was said to be the last major update as they will now focus on the future.

Heavyweight
United States Cain VelasquezCC
Brazil Fabrício Werdum
Brazil Junior dos Santos
United States Travis Browne
United States Stipe MiocicDLC
New Zealand Mark Hunt
Belarus Andrei ArlovskiDLC
Brazil Antonio Silva
United States Roy Nelson
Netherlands Alistair Overeem
United States Frank Mir
United States Pat Barry
United States Mark ColemanDLC
United States Brock LesnarDLC
Brazil Minotauro Nogueira

Light heavyweight
United States Jon Jones
United States Anthony JohnsonDLC
Sweden Alexander Gustafsson
United States Daniel Cormier[HW]
United States Rashad Evans
United States Ryan Bader
Brazil Glover Teixeira
United States Phil Davis
Brazil Maurício Rua
Brazil Antônio Rogério Nogueira
United States Dan Henderson[MW]
United States Forrest Griffin
United States Quinton JacksonDLC
United States Chuck Liddell
Brazil Wanderlei Silva[MW]
United States Chael Sonnen[MW]

Middleweight
United States Chris WeidmanCC
Brazil Anderson Silva[LHW]
Brazil Ronaldo Souza
Brazil Lyoto Machida[LHW]
Brazil Vitor Belfort[LHW]
United States Luke Rockhold
Cuba Yoel RomeroDLC
Netherlands Gegard Mousasi[LHW]
United States Tim KennedyDLC
United Kingdom Michael Bisping[LHW]
Cyprus Costas Philippou
Philippines Mark Muñoz
France Francis Carmont
United States Rich Franklin[LHW]
Brazil Royce Gracie
South Vietnam Cung Le

Welterweight
United States Robbie LawlerCC [MW]
United States Johny Hendricks
Canada Rory MacDonald
United States Tyron WoodleyDLC
United States Carlos Condit
Cuba Hector LombardDLC
United States Matt BrownDLC
Brazil Demian Maia[MW]
Belgium Tarec Saffiedine
United States Jake Ellenberger
Iceland Gunnar NelsonDLC
United States Nick Diaz[MW]
United States Matt HughesDLC
Denmark Martin Kampmann
United States Josh Koscheck
Germany Pascal Krauss
United States Mike PyleDLC
Canada Georges St-Pierre

Lightweight
Brazil Rafael dos AnjosCC
United States Anthony PettisDLC
Russia Khabib Nurmagomedov
United States Donald Cerrone
United States Gilbert Melendez
United States Benson Henderson
United States Josh Thomson
United States Myles JuryDLC
United States Eddie AlvarezDLC
United States Nate Diaz[WW]
United States Michael ChiesaDLC
Canada TJ Grant
United States Joe Lauzon
United States Gray Maynard
United States Jim Miller
United Kingdom Ross Pearson
United States Diego SanchezDLC

Featherweight
Brazil José AldoCC [LW]
United States Frankie Edgar[LW]
United States Chad Mendes
Republic of Ireland Conor McGregor[LW]
United States Ricardo Lamas
United States Cub Swanson
United States Dustin Poirier
United States Clay Guida[LW]
Germany Dennis Siver
South Korea Chan Sung Jung[LW]
United States B.J. Penn[LW][WW]

Bantamweight
United States T.J. DillashawCC DLC
Brazil Renan Barão
United States Dominick Cruz[FW]
United States Urijah Faber[FW]
United States Michael McDonald
United States Eddie Wineland
Japan Takeya MizugakiDLC
Mexico Erik Perez
United States Brian Bowles
United States Mike Easton
United States Bruce Lee[FW][LW][WW]
United Kingdom Brad Pickett

Flyweight
United States Demetrious JohnsonCC [BW]
United States John Dodson
United States Joseph Benavidez
United States Ian McCall
United States Tim Elliott
United States Scott Jorgensen
United States Louis Gaudinot
United States Darren Uyenoyama

Women's Bantamweight
United States Ronda RouseyCC
United States Cat Zingano
United States Miesha Tate
United States Sara McMann
Canada Alexis Davis
Canada Sarah Kaufman
United States Liz Carmouche
United States Holly HolmDLC

Legend
CC Current Champion
HW Fighter can switch to heavyweight
LHW Fighter can switch to light heavyweight
MW Fighter can switch to middleweight
WW Fighter can switch to welterweight
LW Fighter can switch to lightweight
FW Fighter can switch to featherweight
BW Fighter can switch to bantamweight
DLC Downloadable content

Downloadable content (DLC)

1.02

United States T.J. Dillashaw
Japan Takeya Mizugaki
United States Tyron Woodley

1.03

United States Stipe Miocic
United States Mike Pyle
United States Matt Brown

1.04

United States Tim Kennedy
Iceland Gunnar Nelson

1.05

United States Diego Sanchez
Cuba Hector Lombard
United States Michael Chiesa

1.06

Cuba Yoel Romero
Belarus Andrei Arlovski
United States Myles Jury

1.07

United States Mark Coleman
United States Matt Hughes
United States Quinton Jackson
United States Brock Lesnar

1.08

United States Eddie Alvarez
United States Holly Holm
Brazil Rafael dos Anjos
United States Anthony Johnson

Soundtrack

[20]

Group/Artist Song
3Ball MTY ft. Belinda "Desesperada"1
AFI "Wild"
Akrobatik "Built To Last"
Avenged Sevenfold "Shepherd of Fire"
AWOLNATION "Sail (LED Remix)"
Band of Skulls "Asleep At The Wheel"
Beware of Darkness "Be My Exorcist"
Bring Me the Horizon "Can You Feel My Heart"
Diddy - Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey "Coming Home"
DMX "Ain’t No Sunshine"
Dog Blood "Shred or Die"
Emmure "E"
Flosstradamus ft. Travis Porter "Drop Top"
Imagine Dragons ft. Kendrick Lamar "Radioactive"
J. Roddy Walston & The Business "Sweat Shock"
Kid Ink "The Movement"
Linkin Park ft. Rakim "Guilty All the Same"
Miles Kane “Give Up”
Rick Ross ft. Future "No Games"
Royal Blood “Out of the Black”
Run the Jewels “No Come Down”
ScHoolboy Q "Break the Bank"
Smoke Serpent “Jiu Jitsu”
Spiderbait “Reach For the Sky”
Tinie Tempah "5 Minutes"
Trivium “Strife”
Yo Gotti ft. T.I. “King Sh*t”

1Only featured in the Latin American release of the game

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(XONE) 71.00%[21]
(PS4) 69.23%[22]
Metacritic(XONE) 71/100[23]
(PS4) 69/100[24]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Eurogamer7/10 [25]
Game Informer8/10 [26]
GameSpot5/10 [27]
GamesRadar [28]
IGN6.8/10 [29]
Joystiq [30]
Official Xbox Magazine7/10 [31]
Polygon5/10 [29]

EA Sports UFC received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating scores Metacritic and GameRankings gave the Xbox One version a 71/100 and 71.00% respectively, and the PS4 version 69/100 and 69.23%.

References

  1. Makuch, Eddie (April 22, 2015). "EA Sports UFC Comes to Mobile, Promises "HD-Quality" Graphics". GameSpot. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  2. "EA Sports Co-developer: SkyBox Labs". Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  3. "EA Sports announces Madden, FIFA, UFC, and NBA games for Xbox One". GamesBeat.
  4. "First wave of Xbox One games includes 'FIFA 14,' 'Forza 5,' 'Call of Duty: Ghosts,' and 'Madden NFL 25'". The Verge.
  5. "EA Sports at Xbox One Reveal: UFC Video Game Will Be Available in "Next 12 Months" (video)". Yahoo! Sports.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Corriea, Alexa Ray (June 10, 2013). "EA Sports UFC launching next spring for PS4 and Xbox One". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Sarkar, Samit (May 20, 2013). "EA Sports unveiling UFC game May 21, same day of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox reveal". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Pitcher, Jenna (May 8, 2013). "EA will not release Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15, UFC fighting game before April 2014". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Sarkar, Samit (May 21, 2013). "Next-gen EA Sports titles running on Ignite engine at Xbox One reveal". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 10, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sarkar, Samit (May 24, 2013). "Fight Night series on hold for EA Sports UFC, says EA Sports boss". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  11. "'EA Sports UFC Roster Reveal Part 1'". January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  12. "'EA Sports UFC Roster Reveal Part 2'". February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  13. "'EA Sports UFC Roster Reveal Part 3'". April 4, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  14. "'EA Sports UFC Roster Reveal Part 4'". June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
  15. "'EA Sports UFC Roster Reveal Part 5'". June 16, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
  16. "'EA Sports UFC to offer around 100 fighters at launch'".
  17. "'Roll as Royce Gracie'". April 23, 2014. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  18. "'Bruce Lee'". April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
  19. "'EA Sports UFC - Free content update 1'". July 31, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  20. http://www.ea.com/news/ea-sports-ufc-soundtrack
  21. "EA Sports UFC for Xbox One". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  22. "EA Sports UFC for PlayStation 4". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  23. "EA Sports UFC for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Electronic Arts. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  24. "EA Sports UFC for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Electronic Arts. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  25. "EA Sports UFC Review". Eurogamer. 17 June 2014.
  26. "EA Sports UFC Review". GamesInformer. 17 June 2014.
  27. "EA Sports UFC Review". Gamespot. 17 June 2014.
  28. "EA Sports UFC Review". Gamesrader. 17 June 2014.
  29. 29.0 29.1 "EA Sports UFC Review: Toothless Aggression". IGN. 17 June 2014.
  30. "EA Sports UFC Review: Jon 'Barebones' Jones". Joystiq. 17 June 2014.
  31. "EA Sports UFC Review". Official Xbox Magazine. 17 June 2014.

See also