| Onyxmeth said: America is likely the singlest biggest market for a game in this genre. The success of this title hinges on America giving a crap about it, since it's still mostly based on an American brand in Strikeforce. So who makes MMA ranking then, the enemies of MMA? Something is telling me they come from people that watch a lot of different promotions and come to a conclusion, like you know how a fan might. Whether you have any stock in websites like Sherdog is irrelevent. MMA rankings are very popular, and discounting them as meaningless is the equivalent of shutting out the opinion of ESPN in traditional sports. So lets go by your figure and say half of the best fighters are in the UFC. That's half, under one promotion, fighting eachother. Sounds like a lot of talent that won't be in this MMA game. Note there's also nothing stopping UFC and THQ from including other promotions in the next UFC game either. It's their choice to make. They just know they don't have to. Randy Couture was great, and now he's nearing the end. He's still competitive to a degree, but at this point, marketing him for this game is like Sega making Joe Montana Football after Montana joined the Kansas City Chiefs. We also don't know how long this deal is for. If it's a single game, he won't be returning in the MMA sequel, if there ever is one. Not to mention that the promotion of Couture in this game just shines more light on the UFC since that's where he fights. Strikeforce doesn't have the big name talent. That's the problem. They'll be wrung out to dry the moment they can't produce decent ratings, and there's only so many times Fedor Imelianenko can highlight every event for them. What is he under contract for again? Three fights? Let's see the four million when he's not headlining, since he's the only guy they seem to be trying to market. Got anyone else in mind that can pull in those ratings? Not that those ratings are great, mind you. They're not. Kimbo Slice pulled in 6.51 in that Elite XC fight CBS did last year. UFC didn't fail to get a network deal. They chose not to go with one because they didn't like the terms. Do you really think Strikeforce is what CBS wanted, or what they settled for? I'm choosing the latter. The moment UFC wants a network deal and/or a paid subscription deal, there isn't a network that would turn them down. They probably just want a far better deal than whatever Strikeforce has with CBS. This game is going to have the same problems that Pro Evo and All Pro Football have had, because of the actions of EA and their licensing. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Without the license that people really want from EA, they just won't flock to the stores to buy it. It's not like THQ makes a bad UFC game. Far from it. The UFC gets more top talent every year, and the promotion is flourishing where other promotions are not. THQ has access to the UFC, WEC and whatever assets they own from Pride FC since Zuffa owns all of that. EA is just fighting a battle they cannot hope to win. I see this game flopping in comparison to the UFC series, and I plan to put my own money in the more successful of the two, since that will generate a community of players.
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I agree with almost everything you said, except two things.
1.) Randy Couture, despite being old and in the last legs of his career, and even if he loses 5 fights in a row, is still the most popular fighter in the world. Just having him on the cover is going to move a hell of a lot of copies.
2.) Strikeforce is already showing that it has the muscle to compete with the UFC. It got 4 million viewers on CBS as mentioned. The highest PPV number that the UFC has ever gotten is 1 million plus (much less since of course, Strikeforce was on free TV while UFC is on PPV). Of course, the UFC definitely has more fans. All I'm saying is that people now understand that MMA is not equal to just UFC. 4 million people, at least, know this already, and they just got a glimpse of Fedor Emelianenko destroy a guy who's 4 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier with one punch. It can only grow from there.
EA won't sell as many as THQ simply because of the UFC license. But they're gonna sell a pretty good number (a million at least, i think), and as MMA continues to grow outside the UFC (which is definitely happening), we can potentially see a power shift in the future.
