We have an update on rumors about EA’s plans to bring back Fight Night.
Mike Straw of Insider Gaming shared this update on Twitter:
“I reached out to a couple sources at EA and here’s what I got back:
– Things around the series return picked up after UFC 5, which was to be expected
– Though possible, no one I spoke with expected anything major to be shown this year, if at all.
– IF ANYTHING gets show, it’s “likely to be similar to when EA announce college football is back”.
The game is still coming, just wouldn’t expect to see much of anything until 2025. If earlier, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
For those wondering, EA’s college football video game franchise starts all the way back in 1993, and for most of its lifetime, it was known as the NCAA video game franchise. EA stopped making these games in 2013, because of a lawsuit involving the collegiate athletes in these video games being unpaid for their likenesses being used. Fortunately for them, things eventually got settled that EA announced they would be bringing the franchise back, as the game now known as EA Sports College Football 25.
Fight Night doesn’t have as dramatic a story behind it. Quite simply, it was one of many franchises that were popular in the 6th and 7th generation of consoles, but progressively stopped selling that it just didn’t become worth it to make these games. The last game in the franchise, Fight Night Champion, released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
With that 13 year gap, it’s clear that newer gamers are just not going to have any prior experience for Fight Night. It may also no longer resemble the Fight Night of old, as EA’s sports games have veered towards being more simulation than arcade style.
As for the UFC connection, earlier rumors claimed that EA Vancouver is working on this Fight Night reboot, but their work hadn’t started yet or was slightly deferred because they were making EA Sports UFC 5. That game released last October, and has that simulation gameplay style we had mentioned earlier.
While some fans definitely want to see a return to arcade gameplay for sports games like this, that is running against the conventional wisdom that game companies like EA have now. Simulations are more popular, because gamers will spend more time playing these games to master them, as opposed to the pick up and play aspect of arcade style games.
But maybe EA could surprise us this time. In any case, the boxing landscape itself has changed dramatically in the last 13 years, so we’re more likely to see young blood like Tyson Fury and Naoya Inoue topbill this new game, over the talent from the last time this franchise was around, like rivals Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. At the very least, the prospect of fresh blood will draw the old fans back in.
