EA Sports UFC: Improvements for Future Installments

EA Sports did quite well with its first foray into the global MMA juggernaut, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, with EA Sports UFC. Finally, EA Sports partnered with the UFC to make a proper MMA game. EA Sports arrogantly believed it could go its own way with EA Sports MMA. The game was all right, but it did not contain enough depth that fans had come to expect. Overall, EA Sports UFC appeared to be a success. The game has sold over a million copies. Over the last several months, EA Sports did a good job of strengthening the roster with free content updates that added numerous UFC fighters to the roster. EA Sports recently announced that the seventh content update for EA Sports UFC will be the last one for the game, and the company will focus on the future of the franchise next. Here are some improvements I would like to see in future EA Sports UFC games.

First, the number one thing that EA Sports needs to improve on is its roster depth. The roster depth for EA Sports UFC was not there at launch. In fact, the game contained a smaller roster than the previous UFC game, THQ’s UFC Undisputed 3, had at launch. EA Sports UFC fixed this by giving players a hefty amount of free fighters. However, to build upon the franchise, the roster for the next game needs to be much larger at launch. When I spoke with EA Sports developers at E3, they said the reason the roster was smaller than UFC Undisputed 3 was because that was a third game in a series, and EA Sports UFC was the first in a new one. That means there is no excuse for a smaller roster in the next game.

Second, EA Sports needs to incorporate the women’s strawweight division for the next game. This aspect is not really a flaw in the new game. The women’s strawweight division is a fairly recent development that UFC debuted last month. However, now that there is a 10th title and division in the UFC, EA Sports should incorporate it. The women MMA fighters are some of the most exciting fighters in the UFC, and they deserve more spotlight.

I am not sure if this aspect will change much, but I would ideally like to see a grappling overhaul for the franchise. Most of the modern UFC games have had pretty good striking systems, but the grappling has still been off. I would like to see the grappling system a bit more streamlined and less cumbersome.

I will give props to EA Sports with the franchise in that the company opted to develop the franchise strictly for the next-gen consoles. No extra time and money was wasted in developing downgraded versions of the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The visuals and animation for the game were amazing. The character models looked fantastic and spot on; and they possessed visual depth that not even 2K Games and Visual Concepts could achieve with WWE 2K15. I would like to see the high standard of the visuals and fighter models continue for the next game. Overall, EA Sports did a good job. Hopefully, their new leaf that started with EA Sports UFC will continue with EA Sports UFC 2.