Drama over EA MMA game continues with Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta

More drama over EA’s upcoming sports game, simply titled “MMA,” was recently perpetuated by Mr. Dana White himself, saying the following in an interview when asked about the news of EA making their own game. White states that the UFC initially approached EA to create this game a few years ago when they first wanted to start working on it and EA decided they did not want to make the game, allegedly saying that MMA was not a real sport and they did not want to associate with it.

“I’m not tap-dancing around this thing or whatever, I’m telling you straight-up, I’m at war with [EA] right now. That’s how I look at it. “EA doesn’t give a [expletive] about mixed martial arts. They made that very clear.”

THQ is the current producer of the UFC video game and a big rival of EA. It should also be noted that THQ was in some serious financial trouble and alot of their survival was pinned on the hopes the UFC game, which has surpassed most expectations in sales and for fans.

Peter Moore of EA Sports responded with this statement. (thanks to kotaku.com)
“I know there has been some recent discussion about EA SPORTS bringing a challenger to this sport. I love mixed martial arts, and we’ve been working on a game concept since I came to (sic) two years ago. I have great respect for the organizations and individuals that have invested in the sport’s growth over the past decade – so this is one that is near and dear to me and I’m excited to see such good progress to date. I trace my MMA video game roots back to my support of Crave’s UFC title on the Dreamcast in 2000, and have been a fan ever since. Our title will bring both innovation and further authenticity to mixed martial arts, not to mention a strong global publishing network that will help spread the sport’s popularity around the world.”

As we know from a previous article, word is that White has now banned any fighters that appear in EA’s MMA game, and mud is being slung on both sides. Stepping out of the shadows, Lorenzo Fertitta had a response to this recent criticism and words from Peter Moore in an interview with The Las Vegas Sun.

Q. If a fighter signs with EA Sports, will they be banned from the UFC?

Fertitta: “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.”

So the truth must lie somewhere in between all the talk, but until this game is out we will not even know what sort of impact it will. Can an MMA game that does not have the UFC logo on it survive in todays market? We will continue to follow the story as the game is developed and hopefully we will start to see if this ban is legit.