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EA SPORTS MMA Press Conference Report

August 15, 2009

San Jose, California

The press conference opened when the very tired President of EA Sports, Peter Moore, and to the surprise of no one, Randy Couture entered the room for brief statements and 20 minutes of questions. The press conference was scheduled to announce Couture's inclusion in the game. However, with that fact having come out a long time ago it was more of a general Q & A session with much more discussion about Dana White and UFC then the impending MMA video game from EA. Probably the most interesting things to come out of the press conference were the things not said, but first to cover what was talked about.

Moore opened with a brief statement starting with the obvious, that Couture will be part of the EA SPORTS MMA roster. The EA executive then gave a few quick hits on the success of other EA sports titles. Moore said that early reports indicate that Madden NFL 10 has sold 1 million copies in roughly its first 24 hours on store shelves. He also noted that he was very tired having just flown in from England after spending the last few days promoting EA's upcoming FIFA title in conjunction with the start of the English Premiere League season. (The exhausted Moore finished the press conference by telling journalists if they have any more questions he is flying to Germany for Gamescom tonight and will be available for interviews there.) The President of EA Sports then turned the floor over to Couture for a brief statement.

Couture talked about being glad to be involved with EA. He joked about not playing many video games or being very good at them. Couture did work in a Golden Eye reference here to show his age. That was the highlight of the press conference and made everyone smile. (Even the elderly gentleman to my right, who did not get the joke.) The most important things Couture said were that he has not done any scans or motion capture work for the game, yet. He is slated to do that work in September. That means this game is a long way from being finished. Couture and Moore also made it clear that the Hall of Fame mixed-martial-artist is locked up to an exclusive video game deal with Electronic Arts for a very long time. That means Couture's EA deal probably extends well past the end of his UFC contract to make him part of EA SPORTS MMA 2 and possibly 3.

Couture was later asked about how his deal to be in the game came about. The Hall of Famer said that he signed to be in the Command and Conquer video game for EA while he was away from the UFC and then was approached about this game. It was not a package agreement signed at the same time.

After Couture's statement came the questions from the press. To start things off Loretta Hunt asked Moore about the meeting between UFC and EA. Moore came prepared with a joke to answer this expected question, but was not pleased to get it as an opener. Moore said he has no direct knowledge of the meeting. He believes it was 3 years ago, more then 1 year before he got to EA. Moore has no idea what was said at that meeting. He further explained that everyone who sat in on that meeting from EA was wished well in their future endeavors a very long time ago. Moore then patiently laid out the time frame of UFC signing to do their video game with THQ, and how EA SPORTS MMA was in its second year of development. He also noted how he had been working on an MMA game over 9 years ago while he was still with Sega to show he is not a newcomer to MMA.

Moore would later be asked about UFC saying they would not sign mixed-martial-artists who had signed to be in the EA game. He said that EA was going to sign the best talent in the world and not worry about anything else.

Then someone asked how EA would overcome the fact that people think MMA is UFC. Moore was getting perturbed by this point. He said that UFC is not the sport of MMA. Moore talked about their plan to market the game globally and use it to help popularize the sport. In here, Moore was asked about whether the game would use a ring or a cage. He said no decision has been made on that. Moore specifically noted wanting to respect the Japanese tradition of using a ring, but how many Western fans were used to a cage. That answer sounds like both a ring and cage will end up in the game.

Moore's reference to Japan also hints at future announcements. With UFC a non-entity in Japan, EA appears poised to sign the top MMA stars in Japan and Korea to their game and go hard after that market.

At this point, someone asked the same question Hunt had asked 10 minutes earlier about the meeting between EA and UFC. Moore kept it together and told the questioner he had already answered the question, and then gave a shorter version of the answer he had given Hunt. The same questioner then asked if EA was going to make a game about the NBA D-League. Moore had to think this was a rib at this point. However, he politely explained that EA was focused on improving the quality of their NBA franchise and had no plans to include the D-League in the game. Moore said they would do that if there was a public demand for that feature to be added, but there is no demand for it at this time.

Moore was very careful not to criticize UFC throughout all of these exchanges. It appears likely that EA is going to try to acquire the UFC license when their contract with THQ expires. Considering EA's deep pockets, THQ should be very nervous, especially if EA is able to deliver a quality game, even if it is a commercial failure. EA's money and the ability to potentially make a superior game could leave THQ with out its prized license in a few years.

At this point Moore made some very interesting announcements. He announced that EA SPORTS MMA will come out every other year. The plan is to alternate release years with EA's MMA game and boxing game, Fight Night. That means Moore just confirmed Fight Night Round 5 with a launch date sometime in 2011. It also means the probable end of EA's attempt to resurrect arcade boxing with FaceBreaker. The game received abysmal reviews and sold poorly making its demise somewhat expected.

EA SPORTS MMA is not going to use the engine used for Fight Night Round 4. However, EA Canada who developed Fight Night Round 4 is sharing all of their technology with EA Tiburon to help develop EA SPORTS MMA. Using that technology there is already an early build of the game playable at the Florida studio. Unfortunately, it stayed in Florida and did not make the trip out to San Jose to be shown off to the press today. According to EA's public relations department after the press conference, EA is holding off showing the game publicly, because they are not satisfied with the lighting effects in the current build.

The head of EA Sports that there is no specific launch window for this game in 2010. However, with the launch of UFC 2010 Undisputed coming in May it would make sense to keep this game away from that. In addition, EA is going to be rolling out major sports titles in every month starting in July. However, they are lacking a major November sports release. Since this game seems a long way from finished and EA could use a November sports game, expect to see EA SPORTS MMA on store shelves in November of next year.

Moore then made a welcome statement, that EA SPORTS MMA is not necessarily the final name of the game. Someone asked if they were going to name the game after Couture, like the NFL game is named after John Madden. Moore said no and that Madden was a special case. He did tell people to proceed with the idea that EA SPORTS MMA is the final title until they hear different.

The final question of the event went to f4wonline.com's own Todd Martin. He asked about the claims by Fedor Emelianenko's management team that the Russian had been named the cover athlete for the game. Moore said that EA will not even begin discussing internally what to do with the cover of the game for a few more months and that it certainly has not been reserved for Emelianenko. It seems that was actually the first time Moore had heard that Emelianenko had been reported to be the cover athlete for the game.

Moore concluded by telling everyone Jay Hieron would also be in the game and telling to enjoy tonight's Strikeforce show.

Sincerely,

Jereme Warneck

number1contender.net

Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for f4wonline.com

Hidden Valley Lake, CA

I can be reached for feedback and comments at ZurRoadie@aol.com or as JeremeW on XBOX Live. I read everything.