Fedor Emelianenko held a press conference on Wednesday. There was actually some news that came out of the event. No, Fedor has not signed with UFC…yet. However, Fedor fans can take solace in the fact that he will be featured in EA Sports’ upcoming MMA video game.
EA Sports will be releasing the game in 2010 to go head to head with UFC Undisputed. The video game rivalry has gotten nasty over the last several months. The rumor is that Dana White has said that anyone involved in the EA game will never be in UFC. Considering the fact that he is negotiating with Fedor, I don’t believe that for a minute.
There have already been several names in the EA game that have been leaked. In addition to Fedor, Randy Couture is expected to be the second headliner in the game. Allegedly, Randy put this deal together when he “retired” from UFC and was attempting to work with Affliction.
[adinserter block=”1″]The roster is expected to include a ton of MMA free agents. Frank Shamrock, Tim Sylvia, Gregard Mousasi and Renato Sobral are also confirmed for the game. I would expect Nick Diaz, Andrei Arlovski, and Vitor Belfort to be included. King Mo also recently said in an interview that he will be in the game. I would also expect a lot of fictitious fighters similar to EA Sports’ Fight Night series.
I have high hopes for the game. There are a lot of things that EA just does better than anyone else. EA’s online options are second to none. EA will be unveiling an online franchise mode in Madden this year. EA’s Fight Night online mode is terrific. If there is anything better that this game could offer as opposed to UFC Undisputed, it is the online mode.
[adinserter block=”2″]The game play could also offer some different options than UFC’s game. For one thing, I’d love to see a better submission system. Mashing buttons to get out of a submission is not much fun. I would also love to see an open weight or tournament feature. EA has the advantage of going second and listening to all of the negative feedback from UFC Undisputed and capitalizing on it.
I think the UFC game will still be the king of MMA games for a few years. Madden had plenty of competition for years. In the end, Madden prevailed. This is definitely not a fight that UFC, THQ, or Dana White wants to pick. It could turn out embarrassing for UFC.
Unlike Affliction, this is a UFC enemy that won’t be going away anytime soon.
To purchase Fight Night: Round 4 Xbox 360 click here.
To purchase Fight Night: Round 4 PS3 click here.
To purchase UFC Undisputed 2009 for the Playstation 3 , click here .
To purchase UFC Undisputed 2009 for the Xbox 360, click here .
UFC 2009 Undisputed Official Strategy Guide
Can't wait for ufc 117