DFW not banning EA game fighters
UFC President Dana White revealed that he is backing off earlier threats to ban any fighter who appears in EA’s game…
UFC President Dana White revealed that he is backing off earlier threats to ban any fighter who appears in EA’s game from the UFC. “Nah, some people have crossed over. But believe me this is still going to continue to be a battle. …they’re the me-toos. The UFC game is the original game.”
“Let’s see how they do now. Their earnings reports just came out and they suck. This company that used to control the whole video game world and were these big fucking giants, we’ll see where they are in the next two years. And as as far as the MMA space goes, we’ll kick the living shit out of them.”
“I talked to EA Sports about doing a Mixed Martial Arts game. They told us it’s not a real sport. First of all, they wouldn’t even take a meeting with us. They told us they would never do a game and now they’re coming out with a fucking game. Johnny come latelys. Me-toos.”
“If there’s anybody out there who is a UFC fan, you’re fucking nuts if you buy the EA game.”
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Lorenzo Fertitta commenting on the issue in 2009:
There is no such thing as banned, but this is something that does get under my skin and Dana’s skin because when we had the opportunity to go out and build a video game who do you think the first people we called was? EA Sports… We sat in the room with them and I would have cut a worse deal just to be with EA Sports. I wanted them so bad.
They looked at them and they told us they didn’t think MMA was a sport. This was three years ago. They said the UFC was irrelevant and that we were wasting their time. So we went down the street and did a deal with THQ and they thought MMA was a sport. So we stick with the guys who stick with us.
Now the UFC video game has been a massive success with three million copies sold. And guess what EA wants to do? They want to do an MMA game now… If you are young fighter coming up, it just makes sense to stay under the umbrella of UFC companies, sponsors and marketing to ensure yourself a cut of the action for the rest of your life.