EA's Peter Moore Speaks on MMA Game
June 6, 2009
MMA fans were excited this week with the news of EA Sports making a foray into the MMA video game market. The announcement was made at the annual E3 summit, where new product offerings are often unveiled. EA Sports president Peter Moore spoke with The Sporting News and gave some thoughts on the necessity of the UFC license, growing the MMA pie, and THQ’s UFC game:
CL: The first thing I want to talk about is the announcement of a new franchise, EA Sports MMA. And I wanted to clear something up before I get into questions: THQ’s license with UFC is exclusive through 2011, right?
PM: I don’t know what the terms of their deal are, and we obviously respect that, but there’s a huge opportunity in a fast growing sport. We can bring the EA Sports style we have proven with things like Fight Night; we can focus on quality, investing in physics engines and getting the style and gameplay right. We recognize how important the UFC license, but it’s not a barrier for entering long term. This is a long term commitment
CL: So what kind of complications does that create when you’ve got a league that’s almost synonymous with the sport in the way people say Coke instead of soda or Kleenex instead of tissue?
PM: For years, Konami challenged us with Pro Evo Soccer, with no licenses in some countries and a mix of generic and semi-licensed product and did it on gameplay. We’ve come back hard and started to dominate soccer. I don’t see any reason why we can’t build a challenger to the UFC license game. I recently attended a Strike Force card in San Jose — 14,000 people, Showtime covering it live. UFC is an important part of the overall MMA scene, but there’s room for a company like ourselves to come in and grow the overall pie. THQ probably would relish some competition because it would put even more spotlight on the sport.
CL: Have you guys taken a look at the THQ game to try and get a sense of what you can improve upon and get a leg up on the competition?
PM: This is the latest in a number of UFC games. Our team that has been assembled that is working on this is made up of MMA fans. They get the sport, they’re inside the culture, a number of them on the team train for it. We’ve also worked retroactively on the game. And yes, of course when the game shipped from THQ, we got the game, tore it apart to find what it should be and finding where we can make a difference. It won’t work shipping our own version of Undisputed.
EA seems to be focused on product differentiation as a key in combating the built in advantages of a UFC license. This may be an area for traction. While the UFC game has been highly praised, one item that has been noted as a negative point is the game’s steep learning curve, especially in respect to submissions. A game that has a higher degree of “pick up and play” ability may be an area that will win it converts and new followers. Some in the community are dismissing the EA game just for the mere fact that they don’t have the UFC license, which shows ignorance more than anything else. EA has the game developers to put together a quality game and the marketing muscle to make it a player, UFC license or no.
Hat Tip to The Savage Science for the find.
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