The Life & Death of 'EA Sports MMA' (RETROSPECTIVE)

The year is 2010, the sport of mixed martial arts is absolutely BOOMING. The UFC's strides in the pay per view market are matched only by their newest endeavor: a brand new series of video games. UFC Undisputed 2009 sold more than 2,000,000 units in its first year on the market, a success that sent shockwaves through the world of video games. EA Sports, the elite in terms of sports simulation video games, decided to enter the cage as well.

But even with a stacked roster, very positive review scores, two of the biggest names in the history of the sport featured right on the game's cover art, unique game modes and more... EA Sports MMA was a colossal failure in the end. How? This isn't some tiny game developer we're talking about here, this is EA Sports! These aren't generic jabronis on the roster, these are famous, Hall Of Fame fighters! Let's answer all these questions and more, DanDans. This is 'The Life & Death of EA Sports MMA.' Enjoy it!

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[NotVance]

EA Sports MMA was massively underrated. I know that the later UFC games took on some of the stuff this game got right the first time but just didn't feel the same. The Linkin Park intro to the game still hypes me like no other. Thanks for the brilliant video retrospective!!

[jakebrandon]

I remember buying this game for $20 at Wal-Mart and had so much fun with the career and online modes.

[jamestobin]

Dont ever be discouraged man. Not all the content on the channel is for me but the stuff i do dig is top class. Dont listen to the haters. The Resident Evil videos are amazing. I also like the personal stories you tell about how you experienced games when you were younger. Its a nice touch. Wishing you and those close to you a happy new year.

[Frsttimer]

This really pulled on my heart strings. I can't believe nearly an hour passed while watching this. I remember playing this game in the cold during the 2010 freeze and blasting through the career mode and reading all the blogs the in game journalist would post. I was THAT deep into this game and you unlocked so many memories for me. You've done it again, DanDan! I love to see it.

[redjed]

As a former wrestling fan whose big passion was 2017-2018 NXT, Mauro Ranallo’s commentary is so great to hear.

[BlackLabelMark]

I just wanted to say how much your channel has kept my spirits up lately… I was just diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure and things have been pretty tough lately. Watching your videos has helped take my mind off of everything. Keep up the amazing work, Ian.

[alec]

I am very excited to see this! Ever since your retrospective of Fight Night, I’ve been more curious for MMA/UFC content on your channel and it is fantastic! Can’t wait for the premiere!

[alec]

This is hands down one of your all time greatest videos ever made! The amount of stuff I learned with this video and all of your personal stories, is truly a reminder of why I love you and your content so much. You are so relatable to many of us as gamers and that is why we love and respect you so much. Thank you for this one, Ian, and I can’t wait for that Dead Island video, hell yeah!

[Bear-pwnu]

Your videos OOOOZ with passion man. It’s like chopping it up with an old pal talking about the video games of my childhood. Thank you for the great content.

[laingbang]

Thanks for this.
Myself and the team put a lot of literal blood, sweat and tears on this game. I consider it one of the best productions of my career. I would have, without hesitation, worked on this game forever if I could have.
A few trivia tidbits if you are interested.
1. The buttons - We loved our controls and didn't want to have buttons at all - ultimately it was an accessibility issue that didn't get fully tested - games are hard.
2. Respectfully disagree on career mode - MMA is about matchups and game plans - if you are going up against a grappler you need to be trained and ready for the take down, or get better at your hold-up jab. Decisions, decisions... Also, I'm surprised at a report of 5x against the same opponent - I recall "no fights past a trilogy" as part of the career mode matchmaker...
3. Online only trophies - This was the early days of "people who play multiplayer games play more so make players play multiplayer modes" philosophy. Largely we didn't believe that but this was the early days understanding player motivation. Every new game, especially those trying new things, have experimentation in them. FWIW, I learned my lesson.
4. Double XP, 10xXP and live event's - We loved that game and it manifested as love with the community - I was at and spoke/appeared/chatted at every live event. (Late nights for team on East coast doing a show on West coast time)
5. Low sales - this game came out in 2010 at the end of the financial crisis that started in 2008, discretionary spending was still at an all time low. When working with demand planning we were in uncharted waters. Don't discount timing as an element of success folks!
6. Internal team mission - Combat sports is important to me. The UFC was the big dog - We didn't want to crush them, we wanted to make a game so good they couldn't deny they wanted to be part of it - Mission Accomplished!
7. Both myself and the creative director, Jason Banes had one kid when we kicked off that project and one when it shipped - it was the longest game cycle I had ever worked on.
8. The team and especially the animators wanted to learn more about MMA so I held clinics and demos on mindset and a few techniques. After a few weeks of that some folks from the team (with no prior martial arts experience) said they wanted to train BJJ - and a few weeks later they asked to train for a Submission Only, no time limit grappling tournament, in 3 months. I worked with and trained them and each fighter landed in the tournament. Gold, Silver, Bronze. That's a good animation team to have working on your game about fighting!
9. My youtube profile pic, unchanged since 2009, is a photo of me in a mocap suit when I volunteered for a few additional grappling animations with one of our designers. Most of it was done by professionals of course.
Again, Thanks - I am still in contact with people from this team and we still talk about the "lightning in a jar" of making that game. I honestly choked up watching this.

[escribe]

Man you are great at making retrospectives, I barley know about most of these games and you make me want to get up and go get some of these games.
One Love

[TheTwsa]

Great, love the video, very unique!!!

Love to see Supremacy MMA getting evaluated by your competent evaluation too, thanks.

[despitewisdom]

Thank You Ian for covering this title. It was one of my best friends all time favorite PS3 games. He would've loved your coverage of it but sadly he passed away a few months ago.

[H-MAN-ynok]

This video was practically 40mins but i wish it went on for hours. I love the passion you described this game with. My older brother a few years back handed me down one of his ps3s and a few games which included ea mma and i loved it and was so disappointed to learn that there was never a second one. This game and UFC undisputed 3 will always have a special place on my shelf, great video bro, i loved learning about all the stuff that went on surrounding this game, wish i could've experienced what you did with my friends, that sounds amazing. Great job bro

[angelagwen]

I absolutely loved this. Every time you branch out and do a passion project you knock it out of the park. I never played this game and won’t ever care about MMA, but you had me pulled right in. It’s always a pleasure listening to you pitch something you love

[RFNOFFICIAL]

Among all my friend who were all into MMA like crazy from 2008-2014ish I was the only one to get this game, they only ever wanted to play UFC, I loved everything here more but it just did not pull enough people :(

Thanks for another great retrospective.

[jamesregina]

Couldn’t be more excited for this video. So glad you’re finally touching on MMA video games.

[tomw]

Great video, man. This game was good and mma was booming at the time. Had a lot of fun with this game and your video brought back a lot of fun memories. Went and got my game out of storage.

[KamikazeXero]

You did some great work on this video! I was one of the few that bought this game at launch, and to me it was well worth it. The analog strikes took some getting used to, but I got pretty good with them to the point that I could probably pick it up today and still be able to manage to beat the CPU with relative ease. I played one online match and won, then quit afterwards. I remember the fight, the other player just kept spamming strikes as I blocked, and once he was out of stamina, I just hit him with a huge punch and knocked him out. I'm undefeated at 1-0, and they can never take it away from me!

[hankhell]

Dude this channel fucking rules so hard. Me and my buddies get together and watch it or share the videos all the time. That’s the special thing about this channel. We identify you as one of us. You’re like one of the fellas.

That’s appreciated dude.