EA Sports UFC (PS4)

MMAjunkie’s Q&A with the “EA Sports UFC” developers.



The majority of people who currently own a video game console have an Xbox 360 or PS3. Why is this game only planned for Xbox One and PS4, or are there intentions to bring it to current-generation platforms?
The day that we signed the deal there may have been discussions of where we’re going to make the game. Very shortly after that it was decided it would be a next-gen only. The investment to make a current-gen game as well wasn’t really worth it. FIFA, Madden and NHL, it’s easy for all of them to update those products. We would have been doing all that stuff for current-gen and then probably have never made another version of that ever again. It would have split our focus and we wanted to make sure we focused on this and having the team not having to split.

What is the roster going to look like? How many male and female fighters will be playable in the game?
We are still locking that down because there’s always a chance something can change and a guy can get booted off the roster, but it’s going to be in the neighborhood of 100. There’s no final number yet until we get to the point where we tell the UFC we can’t take any more guys.

What was the process in distributing fighter ratings? How do you decide who gets what statistics?
For fighter’s statistics, one of the first things we did was actually send the roster to [UFC matchmakers] Joe Silva and Sean Shelby. We gave them the roster and all the categories for each rating and they gave it a first pass. Then after that we took it and tweaked it. After the first pass everyone came back pretty much rated like 89 or higher [out of 100]. So we sent it back and told them we need a little more separation between the guys. Then after that we spread it out a little bit. It was nice to have it off our plate, because if a fighter gets mad we can just point them in their direction.

Will those fighter statistics be updated from event to event like in other sports games?
There’s not a dynamic, automated roster and statistics update system at this time. You look at games like NBA, FIFA, Madden and they have like a daily update because on any given night there might be four to 10 NBA games. For us, it’s maybe every two weeks where 20 fighters will fight. So we’ll probably be updating the stuff on our own servers as frequently as possible.

What about downloadable fighters? If a new fighter enters the UFC and makes a big impact, will fans be able to download that fighter and use them in the game?
We’re definitely looking at adding fighters to the roster if and when it’s possible. It’s part of our plan at the moment and there’s no reason why that should change.

Going off of that, a major feature people enjoyed in “EA Sports MMA” was the ability to create a fighter and share them online. Will the fighter share option be brought back for this upcoming title?
That’s something we loved as well, but we can’t do it anymore for a number of reasons. One of the big things people did on a game like “Fight Night” is making Rocky Balboa, or Floyd Mayweather or whatever. But nowadays when people can make YouTube clips and share them, there’s this whole grey area where if our game allows users to make a Rocky character that’s the intellectual property of somebody else, it causes a ton of problems. There is a “Create-A-Fighter” and you could create you own Rocky, but when we are facilitating the sharing of content, it gets very difficult.

Speaking of likeness rights when it comes to creating fighters, there was an issue that arose in “UFC Undisputed” when it came to fighter tattoos. One of Carlos Condit’s tattoo artists tried to file a lawsuit over the use of his design in the game. How do you avoid similar issues?
We’ve sent out waivers to all the fighters for them to sign contracts saying it’s OK to display those trademarks or other likenesses. Anything that’s trademarked, like Ronda Rousey’s Olympic rings for example, we had to take those out because those are trademarks we can’t get away with. We’re trying to be as authentic as we can with all the tattoos, but it does get pretty complicated.

In “UFC Undisputed 3″ there was a glitch that allowed users to create cross-division fights. People seemed to greatly enjoy having a heavyweight fight a bantamweight. Have you explored the option of cross-division fights?
When we used to makes games on the PS2, the characters looked good for then, but it was a lot easier to make something like having a flyweight fight a heavyweight cause the realisms and physical connections were not there. Now when we do it, you can’t have Roy Nelson take down Demetrious Johnson because the physics of the simulation don’t work. Perhaps some day down the road we will come up with some technical way to make it look awesome.

Right now we only have a bunch of guys in multiple weight divisions. Any guy that’s fought – or it would be realistic to fight in another weight class – we put them in multiple divisions. Daniel Cormier is heavyweight and light heavyweight. Dan Henderson is light heavyweight and middleweight. B.J. Penn is actually in three divisions now.

Can a fighter’s attire be changed from fight to fight? And if so, how much freedom is there to toggle what your favorite athlete wears inside the octagon?
We might look at attire updates. There’s a challenge with fighter sponsorships and all that stuff. With all the new technologies like game DVR, the ability to share videos and all that make for some crazy challenges. If someone puts Jon Jones in something that’s not Nike and makes a video of it, that can’t be done. We pretty much have to lock them to their brands and that’ll be it.

Will illegal blows be included in the game? Can you poke an opponent in the eye, kick them in the groin, or possibly even grab the fence to avoid a takedown?
We knew if we were going to put that in, we’d all need some kind of penalty. It’s similar to “Fight Night” when we used to have illegal blows. You could punch a guy in the nuts or head-butt him, and we had a really elaborate penalty system. There are no low blows in this game. Physics might make it look like something strays low, but there’s none of that in this game. No eye pokes. Nobody is going to have to deal with it or have a fight stopped because of it.


What about cut stoppages? In “UFC Undisputed” there were very rarely stoppages due to cuts, but occasionally the referee would at least break of the action and call the doctor to check on a cut. Where does the new game stand when it comes to cut stoppages?
Cuts can get visually very bad, but we don’t have any cut stoppages. In the future, especially for cut stoppages, until we can make it so the players has the ability to stop cuts, we don’t want people to lose because of them. Maybe in the future we’ll have a mini-game like they used to do for “Fight Night.”

What kind of venues will be available in the game? Part of what makes the UFC so unique is the fact they travel all across the globe, so how have you incorporated that into the game in terms of fight environments?
Including the gym environment, we have about 12 or 13. For some places it’s easy to get the licensing because we have relationships with arenas from the past for other sports titles. But ones that we don’t have pre-existing relationships with it has proven to be a bit of a challenge. I won’t get into specifics, but there have been a couple where it was months of back and forth and because of some legal mumbo-jumbo we weren’t able to get it done. We were able to swap in for another venue. We went through the list of venues with the UFC and we went after those as our priority. Staples Center is in there, the Honda Center, Bell Centre in Montreal, Air Canada Centre in Toronto, the Rio Arena in Brazil and the MGM Grand in Vegas. We’ve got a good range.”

What is the process of building commentary for the game? With the UFC having multiple broadcast teams and more popping up as events increase, will we see more than one team in the game?
The one commentary team (of Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan) is all we could handle from a bandwidth standpoint, but adding a second commentary team is something we might look at in the future. We pulled stuff from the live broadcasts and had them come in and do some voiceover work. Joe Rogan is a really busy guy, so it was really challenging to get time with him. But we did get time with him and Goldberg, and then we were able to take samples from UFC broadcasts and all that.

Credit MMA Junkie
 
Also very much looking forward to this, finally a game I can can trade that god awful football game in for and a reason to turn the PS4 on. I am sure the striking will be good as I think its the fight night guys making it, the ground game worries me a bit though. That side of MMA seems like it will be very hard to translate into an enjoyable and challenging gaming mechanic. How has it been in previous games?
 
From what I've read the ground game will be solid. It was pretty good in undisputed 3 so I would expect them to build on that. Shame that Pride mode is out. Gonna miss the head stomps, soccer kicks, and knees to the head.

Couple of new screens

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More news from EA. Added some screenshots as well. I hope the mystery character is Bruce Lee.

Precision Movement

The first step to putting you in control of realistic, world-class fighters is creating believable movement.

Partnering with the EA SPORTS FIFA team and leveraging all new EA SPORTS IGNITE technology, EA SPORTS UFC has created a locomotion system that eliminates sliding and skating around the canvas and instead emulates the complex footwork of a real fighter.

“This new locomotion system creates the sense that when someone throws an overhand right, they’re really planting their foot, transferring the power up through their leg, into their arm, and ultimately into their opponent’s face,” explained Creative Director Brian Hayes. “It sounds like a really simple thing, but it wasn’t something we had really done before.”

Not only will a fighter’s movement create a more believable athletic performance, but the design team also took special care to give the user as much control over that movement as possible, drawing a line between regular locomotion and fight-specific maneuvering.

“We could have just mo-capped a guy moving around like Frankie Edgar, bobbing, weaving, slipping jabs – and all you had to do was move around the left stick to make that happen. But you probably wouldn’t feel like you had that much control and he’d be doing all that stuff on this own,” he continued. “We had to put the onus to be defensive on the user. If you want to slip, move, and bob your head like Frankie Edgar you won’t be able to do that just using the left stick. You’re going to have to flick the left stick to dodge left or right or backwards, or use the left trigger and the left stick, to slip punches while just standing in place.”

Full-Body Deformation

One of the toughest features to realize, but also one that best represents the realism that next-gen tech offers, Full-Body deformation will be the exclamation point on every strike and submission battle. Full-Body Deformation allows a fighter’s flesh to react as it would in reality, displacing or rippling when met with the impact of a blow or the pressure of an opponent’s submission attempt.

“MMA is unique in the sense that we only have two fighters facing each other at a given time as opposed to 10 basketball players on a court, or 22 soccer players on a pitch,” pointed out Hayes. “So we wanted to take the opportunity and ask, what are some things we can do with two human characters that aren’t wearing jerseys, pads, or helmets? We wanted something to show that we were really pushing the boundaries with this new technology.”

Real Damage

Forget always looking up at the HUD. Damage in EA SPORTS UFC will look better than ever and give gamers the perfect ammunition for trash-talking their opponents during a fight.

“If someone’s laying into your legs, you’ll be able to see the really painful looking contusions on your fighter’s legs. Same with the body – you’ll see a lot of bruising there. And of course on the face we have a variety of cuts and swelling. It’s all there and it looks better than it ever has before,” said Hayes. “The blood is also physics-based, so if a fighter gets cut on the bottom of some ground and pound, you don’t just see random blood appear on the ground – it actually flies out of a fighter’s cut, lands on the mat and you can watch it the whole way. “

No matter how much damage a fighter absorbs, gamers can rest assured they’ll always be able to go the distance, so long as they manage to stay conscious.

“We decided not to have any doctor stoppages in EA SPORTS UFC. People will have different opinions on this, but we ultimately didn’t want to rob the user of the chance to make it to the end of a fight or score a wicked comeback because the AI of an Octagon-side physician decided they couldn’t continue,” he added. “You’ll recoup right away after your fight, so if you’re playing in an online tournament, you won’t carry that damage over to your next bout.”

Exertion

A staple of any great fighting game, exertion will be a lot more intuitive in EA SPORTS UFC and like Real Damage, provide you with the visual cues to know your fighter is expending a lot of energy without having to glance up at the HUD.

“Aside from being a lot more intuitive, we’ve also made it specific to fighters,” added Hayes. “At the end of a five-round fight that had an incredible pace, you’ll still see veins bulging out on Frankie Edgar, but you won’t see him sucking wind. Hector Lombard on the other hand might have to take some time off here and there otherwise he’ll be pretty tired by the end.”

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What did Condit do to offend these guys?

My excitement has been taken down a few notches reading that the FIFA guys are helping them with foot planting.
 
Watched it through fully now. Hmmm


People playing are dicks just constantly going for flash KOs.
Hit detection is shite
Has that fight night issue where someone gets smashed in the face, but doesn't react at all.
Also what happens a lot is both of them are throwing combos and hitting each other but neither reacts to the other.
Very fast/arcadey - stamina turned off?
Warping like a PS2 game when doing moves by the cage or when knocked down/slammed into the cage
 
Animations are surprisingly iffy, character models are very good but weird animations, and why not mocap Bruce Buffer? His animations/poor lipsync really are glaringly bad compared to everything else.
 
I had the misfortune to play EA's MMA game, it seems to me from that video a lot of the animations have been lifted from that game into this one.
 
Bruce Buffer and the commentary in general is very forced. They don't seem that excited to be there, it would grate on me after a bit.

As others have said, hit detection, stiff animations, lack of punishment for mashing buttons and in general the lifelessness of the fighters.

Cancelled my preorder.
 
Rosters and Arenas list

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Ronda Rousey
Sarah McMann
Sarah Kaufman
Alexis Davis
Liz Carmouche
Cat Zingano
Miesha Tate

FLYWEIGHT
Demetrious Johnson
Louise Gaudinot
John Dodson
Joseph Benevidez
Darren Uyenoyama
Ian McCall
Tim Elliot
Scott Jorgenson

BANTAMWEIGHT
Renan Barao
Eddie Wineland
Brad Pickett
Eric Perez
Michael Macdonald
Bruce Lee
Demetrious Johnson
Urijah Faber
Mike Easton
Dominick Cruz
Brian Bowles

FEATHERWEIGHT
Jose Aldo
Cub Swanson
Dennis Siver
Dustin Porier
BJ Penn
Chad Mendes
Conor McGregor
Bruce Lee
Ricardo Lamas
Korean Zombie
Clay Guida
Urijah Faber
Frankie Edgar

LIGHTWEIGHT
Anthony Pettis
Benson Henderson
TJ Grant
Joe Lauzon
Josh Thompson
Korean Zombie
Bruce Lee
Gray Maynard
Conor McGregor
Gilbert Melendez
Jim Miller
Khabib Nurmegomedov
Ross Pearson
BJ Penn
Jose Aldo
Donald Cerrone
Nate Diaz

WELTERWEIGHT
Johny Hendricks
Jake Ellenberger
Nick Diaz
Nate Diaz
Carlos Condit
Georges St. Pierre
Tarec Saffadine
BJ Penn
Demien Maia
Rory Macdonald
Bruce Lee
Robbie Lawler
Pascal Kraus
Josh Koscheck
Martin Kampmann

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Chris Weidman
Ronaldo Jacare Souza
Chael Sonnen
Wanderlei Silva
Anderson Silva
Luke Rockhold
Costas Phillipou
Mark Munoz
Demien Maia
Lyoto Machida
Cung Le
Robbie Lawler
Dan Henderson
Royce Gracie
Rich Franklin
Francis Carmont
Michael Bisping
Vitor Belfort

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Jon Jones
Dan Henderson
Alexander Gustafsson
Forrest Griffin
Rich Franklin
Rashad Evans
Phil Davis
Daniel Cormier
Michael Bisping
Vitor Belfort
Ryan Bader
Glover Teixeira
Chael Sonnen
Wanderlei Silva
Anderson Silva
Shogun Rua
Antonio “Rogerio” Nogueira
Gegard Mousasi
Lyoto Machida
Chuck Liddell

HEAVYWEIGHT
Cain Velasquez
Bigfoot Silva
Alistair Overeem
Antonio Nogueira
Roy Nelson
Frank Mir
Mark Hunt
Junior Dos Santos
Daniel Cormier
Travis Browne
Pat Barry
Fabricio Werdum

ARENA
MGM Grand
Staples Center
Honda Center
Prudential Center
Toyota Center
Madison Square Garden
Air Canada Centre
Bell Center
Rio Arena
Chicago Arena
 
After that last video my excitement is gone.I was hoping for more believable animations. In this vid it looks like 2 girls are fighting without hair pulling.
Where did the reactions to specific strikes gone from previous vids?! I hope this was a different arcadey setting.
 
Nobleknight said:
After that last video my excitement is gone.I was hoping for more believable animations. In this vid it looks like 2 girls are fighting without hair pulling.

Where did the reactions to specific strikes gone from previous vids?! I hope this was a different arcadey setting.
Click to expand...


Really? I find the punch and kick animations to be superb. Hopefully they adjust the stamina system so you get penalized for trying to throw a ton of punches and kicks in a short amount of time. The sound effects are really good. I've never done MMA but I have sparred with some guys and the sound effects are almost dead on.
 
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