Undisputed 2009 wins VGA Award, 2010 debuts
Video Games | Spike TV VGAs 2009 | UFC Undisputed 2010 Exclusive Debut Trailer HD Sure, BJ Penn was dismantling…
Video Games | Spike TV VGAs 2009 | UFC Undisputed 2010 Exclusive Debut Trailer HD
Sure, BJ Penn was dismantling Diego Sanchez. Sure, Frank Mir was making Cheick Kongo black out quicker than local coverage of a Jacksonville Jaguars game. Sure, Kenny Florian was choking out Clay Guida. Those were all great things for the UFC. But they weren’t the only great things going on.
Earlier in the evening on Spike TV, The 2009 Video Game Awards (VGA’s) were taking place. It’s a fairly entertaining show for the fastest growing entertainment medium in the world. The plight of gamers and MMA fans are very similar. Both are growing in popularity and very profitable, but are still fighting for seats at the table in the mainstream. The UFC took another small step towards that on Saturday night.
To start, they had good presence at the event. Kimbo Slice was there to present the trailer for UFC Undisputed 2010″ which is featured above what you are reading now. He received a very good reaction from the crowd and was instantly recognizable. Forrest Griffen was also in attendance as UFC Undisputed 2009″ was up for Best Individual Sports Game. There was stiff competition from some very established franchises. Tiger Woods PGA Tour by gaming juggernaut EA was nominated. EA also had Fight Night Round 4″ (draw your own MMA vs Boxing parallels here) nominated while Nintendo offered the wildly popular Wii Sports Resort.
Keep in mind this was the very first Undisputed title and really the first all encompassing MMA game of it’s kind. It ended up winning the category. This is a much larger deal than most people realize. The gaming universe is very stratified. Sports gamers are usually a very different breed than your traditional nerd gamer. It is very rare when one game can motivate both to make a purchase. Madden has that. Modern Warfare seems to have it. Undisputed looks to be following in that mold.
You don’t have to be a geeky gamer or mixed martial arts fan to be drawn to the game’s deceptive simplicity. You want to button mash your opponent to death? Ok, you can do that. Say you are a more seasoned fan and you want to try your hand at the takedowns and submissions? You can do that too. The key is Undisputed harkens back to the golden years of Street Fighter 2″ and Mortal Kombat. It has something that those games didn’t have though. Credibility with sports fans.
Guys that just but Madden, NBA 2K and Tiger Woods are more likely to give Undisputed a try than, lets say Dragon Age. Nerdy gamers don’t have to be put off by their aversion sports sims though because of the similarities the UFC game has to Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom or Soul Caliber. It’s a tremendous opportunity to bridge the gap between the two factions of gamers and it could be a very profitable bridge that THQ and the UFC have built. Video game developers and Zuffa are going after the same demographics in potential fans and customers. It’s good to see they appear to be aware of that and are working together.