MMAPayout.com recently sat down with Colin Mack, GM of Fighting Games at THQ, to talk the business of MMA video games in anticipation of THQ’s May 25th release date for UFC Undisputed 2010.
1.) Last year the game seemed to be a prominent component of the push to market UFC 100. How closely has THQ worked with the UFC to promote the game this year?
CM: We are always looking at new ways to work with the UFC to integrate the game with the UFC brand. We want to use the game to help promote actual events when we can, and of course associate the game with the sport and the brand as much as possible to promote sales of the game. In the end, we just want to make the game synonymous with the sport and to become a part of the UFC fans’ lives, just as some of the more successful sports games franchises have been able to do in the past.
2.) How do you see UFC Undisputed influencing the sport of MMA as a whole? Or does it? (i.e., awareness, interest, motivation to purchase PPVs or see live events, etc.)
CM: The biggest affect is simply the level of awareness. We have heard over and over from both fighters and personalities in the game that since the game came out, far more people seem to recognize them. I think the game has also helped a lot of people understand the intricacies of the sport better. Playing a video game will of course never be a substitute for actually training in a sport, but MMA is still a new sport, with a lot of new fans who are learning fast and want to learn more. We like to think that we are helping with the process by putting players in a situation where they need to at least understand the basic moves, tactics and strategies that make MMA such an exciting sport. When making the game, we took particular notice of Joe Rogan’s style of educating-while-commentating, and we hope we have achieved a similar level of educating-while-entertaining with the game. Finally, I think that the interactive, immersive nature of video games lead players to become more invested in and emotionally attached to a brand or world, and that can only have positive effects on TV viewership, PPV buys, etc.
3.) Let’s talk a little bit about the career mode. A typical trade-off with any game is one of realism vs. ease of enjoyment (although they’re by no means mutually exclusive). What has THQ done to make the career mode more authentic this year?
CM: Career Mode is where many players spend most of their time, so it received a lot of attention this year. The basic, overall structure follows that of last year: create a fighter, progress through the calendar, choose activities to manage your physical attributes and skills, and work your way up the rankings. Beyond that though, there are such wide-ranging changes that it’s hard to do them justice here. The main goal was to get the player to feel more invested in their character and career by providing more immersion into the UFC experience, and a deeper connection to the life of a training fighter. For example, although we don’t have a Story Mode per se, we have worked in much more presentation value, with cut scenes showing your fighter interacting with trainers, personalities, Dana White, etc., at important points in your career. We also have your pro career start off in the WFA, another promotion owned by the UFC, to add in a feeling of having to work your way up through a smaller promotion before getting your shot at the “big leagues,” aka the UFC. There are many touches like these that we feel help the player feel more immersed in the UFC brand and the life of a fighter.
In terms of the actual Career Mode gameplay, we have added many new elements with the goal of making players feel more attached to their character and his road to the championship. While there are many elements to this, two of my favorites are what we call “The Game is Watching You” and the new, fully customized approach this year for acquiring new fighting techniques.
The Game is Watching You system is just that: the game watches everything you do and customizes the gameplay experience in response to that. This covers the spectrum from reactions to explicit on-screen choices, e.g., choosing to respect or disrespect your opponent in your post-fight comments with Joe Rogan, to more indirect effects, like commentary and opponent strategies changing over time in response to how your fighting style and career are developing. A fighter who constantly disrespects opponents will get treated differently from someone who behaves respectfully or plays to the fans a lot. In the Octagon, once your fighter gets a reputation for, say, finishing off opponents with his powerful left high kick, opponents will catch on, and it’s going to get a lot harder to catch people off guard with that kick—you’re going to have to expand your skill set to stay competitive. You won’t be building an entire career out of one favorite technique or combo in this Career Mode.
This brings us to the system for acquiring new techniques in this year’s game. Last year you started your fighter out by choosing one of three striking styles and one of three grappling styles. New techniques within your two chosen styles would become available as you gained experience, but you would be limited to development within those two styles. This year, while you can pick a style “template” to start out with, you are not restricted to stay within any predefined fighting style or template. As you progress in your career, you learn and acquire exactly the techniques you want your fighter to have by using the Camp Invite system to visit specific real-world training camps to learn these techniques. For example, as a GSP fan, one of the first things I do with a new fighter is send him down to Greg Jackson’s camp to learn the “GSP Left High Kick.” Later on, as my ground game is progressing, I might head off to Hawaii to visit Team Penn and learn BJ Penn’s signature arm-trap rear naked choke. Eventually you wind up with a fighting style tuned exactly the way you want it. In addition to making all the techniques from last year’s fighting styles available to learn independently, we have added in techniques from three new disciplines—Sambo, Karate and Greco-Roman Wrestling—to better represent the full range of techniques seen in the UFC. As you can see, there’s a lot more depth and variety to Career Mode this year.
4.) Has THQ yet considered incorporating money into the career mode? If not, do you foresee that ever coming about, given how tight-lipped the UFC has been about fighter pay in the past?
CM: It has been considered, but money is a sensitive issue in any professional field, especially an individual sport like MMA. Simply put, we don’t see enough benefit to the game to make up for all the issues that would be raised by trying to implement a money-based progression mechanic. For the foreseeable future we’ll be sticking with non-monetary measures of success and experience in Career Mode.
5.) How are sponsorships used in the game this year, relative to 2009?
CM: Our primary purpose with sponsorships in the game is to keep the game “as real as it gets.” To that end, we try to get all the sponsors you associate with the UFC, fighting-specific brands and otherwise, incorporated into the game. While we have dramatically improved the systems in the game related to putting sponsor logos on your shorts and so on, their basic role in the game remains similar: helping to immerse the player in the life of a UFC fighter with as much realism as possible. That said, of course it obviously is a benefit for a UFC-related sponsor to have their logo in front of four million MMA fans around the world as they play for tens or hundreds of hours.
6.) How have those companies responded to being included in the game? Can you elaborate, at all, as to the nature of that partnership?
CM: Most everyone we have contacted recognizes the benefits of having such extended exposure to such a high number of UFC fans, and they are enthusiastic about participating in the game. As with all our business relationships though, we can’t really divulge details of the business arrangements.
Nice interview