In the spirit of the holidays, I would like to share some great deals for MMA and video game fans who have held off buying any titles until the holiday deals to save a couple of bucks. I will also discuss the recent EA Sports MMA and UFC Undisputed 2010 iPhone/iPad releases along with overall sale figures.
Best Buy Link:
http://www.bestbuy.com/doorbusters
GameStop Link:
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/weeklyad/current/112610US/default.aspx
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EA Sports MMA and UFC Undisputed 2010 Updates:
UFC Undisputed 2010 was released on the iPad and iPhone by THQ Wireless on Nov 12, 2010 (selling for $6.99) just a few weeks after EA Sports MMA was released by EA Mobile (selling for $4.99) on the same platforms on October 20, 2010. As of today, EA Sports MMA has had 405 customers review the app, while UFC Undisputed 2010 has only had 17 customers review the app.
Both games have received good customer feedback, but it appears that after 12 days of being available on the Apple Store, UFC Undisputed has not taken off with the fans. It is currently not in to the top 50 most popular apps or in the top grossing apps, where EA Sports MMA was ranked in the top 35 most popular paid apps and ranked as the 12th most grossing app for apple a week after it was released. Not exactly sure why Undisputed has not taken off on the iPhone/iPad yet considering the good reviews so far, but the $2 dollar pricing difference between the games could be impacting the sales, along with THQ releasing the mobile version of the game months after the console version was already released.
On the console side, EA Sports MMA has sold roughly 45,000 copies in its first month of release according to GameIndustry.biz. On the other hand, UFC Undisputed 2010 roughly sold 413,000 copies in its first mont of sales, which was considered disappointing due to the lofty expectations Undisputed 2009 created for THQ.
The year has been a tough one for MMA video game releases, where analysts attributed the weaker than expected sales due to releasing the games around the same dates blockbusters like Red Dead Redemption (over 1.5 million copies sold worldwide) and Fallout: New Vegas (over 5 million copies shipped worldwide) were set to also release. GameSpot reports that “… a number of analysts–Wilson included–circulated notes to investors offering their takes on what did and didn’t live up to expectations. While NBA 2K11 and Fallout: New Vegas both exceeded Wilson’s expectations, many of the month’s other high-profile games did not. In particular, Wilson called NBA Jam for the Wii and EA MMA “dismal failures so far.”
THQ’s bottom line was heavily impacted this year due to lower than expected game sales, which include the UFC Undisputed 2010 sales, as the company saw their shares sharply drop from $8.29/share to $5.01/share as it currently stands this year. In response, THQ has pushed out their release cycle from 12 months to 18 months, hoping to get better results on their next release. EA Sports, who reportedly lost over $200 million last quarter, originally announced to release EA Sports MMA every other year alternating with a Fight Night release. At the moment, EA has said that it is too early to make any decisions on a future EA Sports MMA title, as they will wait and analyze the sale numbers throughout the holiday season.
The article is a bit confusing as it states “The game sold just 45,000 units in its release month”. It’s release month was October, so it only includes sales from October 19th to the end of the month. The article then goes on to reference “first month” sales for UFC. Anyway, I assume that VG Chartz is considered somewhat accurate as it is used within the industry for sales numbers. If true, to date EA MMA has sold 160 thousand copies.
The bottom line was that the UFC game was much more successful than the EA MMA game in the much more lucrative console video game market, while EA MMA beat out UFC Undisputed in the much less lucrative mobile app market. I doubt EA will continue the franchise with such lackluster sales results, which is unfortunate because EA MMA was the superior game. It just proves that any MMA video game will struggle to be successful without the notoriety of the UFC license.