ultimate-fighting-championship
Latest
UFC 3 failed to break even at 2 million units, report claims
UFC Undisputed 3 failed to break even – which triggered the sale of the UFC license to Electronic Arts – THQ representatives allegedly said during an E3 investor meeting. "THQ sought to exit its UFC contract as the most recent iteration fell short of its ≈2 million unit break-even point," a Wedbush Securities report claims. THQ has yet to confirm the report.EA Sports executive VP Andrew Wilson recently revealed that THQ approached EA to first initiate talks on the deal.In related news, a quick search shows that a number of recently laid off THQ San Diego employees have listed work on "UFC 4" on their LinkedIn profiles. THQ's UFC series originally appeared to be annual with its first two games before the company planned an extra year to develop the latest game.We've reached out to THQ for confirmation on this information, and will update as soon as we learn anything new.
UFC suing Ubisoft over Fighters Uncaged catchphrase
We thought that Ubisoft would be the recipient of a lawsuit over its Kinect-equipped fighting game, Fighters Uncaged, but we'd assumed said suit would have something to do with the game's near-lethal terribleness. As it turns out, the Ultimate Fighting Championship took umbrage with the game for another reason: The organization is claiming that the game's on-the-box catchphrase of "Become the Ultimate Fighting Weapon" too closely mirrors the group's name, and may cause shoppers to think they're actually purchasing an officially licensed UFC game. The group is seeking unspecified damages from Ubisoft, as well as a ceasing of sales of the game until the offending phrase is removed from its packaging. Man, first "It's On Like Donkey Kong," and now this -- is nothing sacred anymore? We can't count the number of times we refer to ourselves in conversation as the "Ultimate Fighting Machines" or "The Kings of Ultimate Fighting." We're talking like, dozens of times per day.
UFC pay-per-view comes to the Roku Player
The Roku Player's beefed-up Netflix channel was certainly a nice addition, but the company's latest partner is a little more fierce: pay-per-view UFC is coming to the little streaming media player, starting with Rampage vs. Evans on May 29th. Fight pricing hasn't been announced yet, but users will also have access to archived fights, as well as live access to pre-fight events and post-fight press conferences. Full PR after the break.
UFC Undisputed's Chuck Liddell tells us what it takes
Admittedly, Chuck Liddell is our second favorite "Iceman" -- Bobby Drake's mutant powers and frosty quips make him slightly more endearing to video game nerds like us. But the UFC fighter has his charms as well. Not only is he the winning coach on this season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, but here he is in a promo video for the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2010 game, schooling all of us pushovers on what it takes to win in the Octagon. [Spoiler: You have to get real angry and beat up that seemingly no-good Ortiz character.]
Brock Lesnar makes the cover of UFC Undisputed 2010
We knew the Ultimate Fighting Championship was open to all forms of combatants, but we think professional brawler Brock Lesnar's admittance to the league is just a little unfair. Our attention was turned to Lesnar by the recently revealed cover of UFC Undisputed 2010 (the full version of which is posted after the jump), which features his countenance. See, we don't have anything against Lesnar -- we just think it's a little one-sided to pit human fighters up against shaved kodiak bears. We can't wait to scare the living crap out of all the other game cases on our shelf by placing this one near them when UFC Undisputed 2010 releases May 25.
UFC president confirms war with EA, blacklisting fighters
UFC President Dana White threw off the gloves at Saturday's UFC 100 event, making heated comments about Electronic Arts and its upcoming title, MMA. White stated that he was literally "at war" with the game company and confirmed the rumored plan to ban/blacklist fighters from UFC if they choose to make appearances in EA's new game.White's anger toward EA stems from accusations that the gaming giant was originally "disgusted" with the thought of making a mixed martial arts title. Said White to MMAJunkie.com: "EA Sports told us, you're not a real sport. We wouldn't touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this." According to White, EA's reversal and attempt at an MMA game is a huge slap in his face and to the fans. "You know what the difference is?" White rhetorically asked. "I'm in the mixed martial arts business. EA isn't. EA doesn't give a [expletive] about mixed martial arts. They made that very clear." It sounds to us like UFC 101 will get an extra match on the card. EA's John Riccitiello versus UFC's Dana White. We'd pay top dollar for that.[Via Kotaku]
New UFC game confirmed by company President?
Over at the MMA.tv boards, a member by the name of "Kneeblock" asked Dana White about the future installments of Ultimate Fighting Championship games, and pointed out his opinion that added fighters to the same game four times over isn't innovation. Much to everyone's surprise, Dana White actually responded saying that THQ would be taking the helm of the next UFC game and promised that it will set a new standard for the series. Unfortunately, the thread has since been removed, but that just adds fuel to the proverbial fire, right? So, THQFC (phonetically a portmanteau) sounds pretty promising, considering the last time we played a UFC title was on an Official Dreamcast Magazine demo disc. What do you think about it, though?[Thanks, un1qu3 n3wy0rk]
THQ sees future in UFC license
THQ has reached a deal with Ultimate Fighting Championship to secure the video game rights to the mixed martial arts brand through 2011. Both Crave Entertainment and TDK Mediactive have published UFC titles in the past (all of those games received mixed to poor reviews).The agreement will span all console and portable systems, in addition to the PC platform and certain mobile content. The UFC partnership comes amidst a deteriorating relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which sued THQ back in October 2004, alleging bribes were used to obtain the wrastlin' organization's license, and then sued the publisher again this past October, accusing THQ of improper sales in Asia.
