“There is definitely going to be an EA Sports MMA 2.” That’s the big news coming out of yesterday’s Figure Four Daily interview with EA Sports MMA producer Jeff Ecker, who said that it’s not “if” but “when” there will be a sequel. So, hooray!

The interview touched on a number of things, including the game’s low sales (Ecker referred the hosts to the game’s marketing department if they wanted to discuss sales numbers), what it was like to work with all the different fighters (Bas Rutten is specifically praised for being awesome to work with), how fighters were selected (basically, they wanted to get the biggest names worldwide that they could), and what Paul Heyman brought to the game’s promotion (Ecker was amazed by Heyman’s creativity).

But yeah, by far the biggest news is that Ecker did, in fact, confirm that there will be a sequel.

That probably goes against conventional wisdom. We all know the game didn’t sell too well (which, again, speaks to the fact that Joe Public has no interest in MMA itself, but is only interested in UFC and its recognizable fighters; rabid MMA fans on Sherdog are not indicative of the average sports fan, for better or worse), so this should be a relief to the game’s fans.

I actually got the game this past week, during one of Amazon’s crazy Black Friday deals ($29.99!), and yeah, it’s quite good, at least on the surface. I can’t speak too much to the gameplay, but I would like to see next year the option of full ring entrances (who are Mayhem Miller and King Mo without their elaborate entrances?). Nothing annoyed me more in WWF No Mercy 10 years ago (yes, I hold grudges) than the shortened ring entrances—the entrance is part of the entire experience! Well, that and there was some pretty gnarly slowdown at times.

It also stinks that Sakuraba isn’t in the game, but that’s because of a licensing dispute. Unfortunate!

The interview itself is behind a paywall, so unless you’re willing to cough up $10 to hear it you’re out of luck.

EA Sports MMA went on sale last week. The first week’s sales? Not too good, which furthers the idea that it’s not mixed martial arts (MMA) that’s hot right not, but rather it’s UFC that’s hot right now. A Cowen & Company analyst has called the game’s sales “more or less DOA at retail.” Ouch.

It’s a shame because the game isn’t too bad. Not that I’ve bought it, mind you, but the demo was fun and the reviews aren’t bad. I didn’t like how it bills Alistair Overeem as being from England (yeah, he was born there, we all know that he’s Dutch), but what are you gonna do?

The problem, nearest I can tell, is that EA got behind the idea that an MMA game, regardless of which fighters or promotions it featured, which sell well.

Clearly that hasn’t happened so far (and you wonder how well that other MMA game will do).

And given that THQ has wrapped up the UFC license for several more years, it looks like EA is going to have to hope and pray that Strikeforce miraculously becomes popular real quick.

It’s too bad because Strikeforce has a bunch of good guys, and EA Sports MMA was probably its biggest chance to get some exposure. (Hardly anybody watches its Showtime shows, and there’s no new CBS show in the works, owing to that brawl last April.)

Not to say I told you so, but, yeah: I told you so.

On the left, Fedor Emelianenko, probably the greatest mixed martial artist to ever live. I don’t want to hear any arguments on that point, either. On the right, Randy Couture, the UFC star who appears in the game courtesy of a short lived dispute with UFC brass. Throw in some Alistair Overeem, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Fabricio Werdum, and Nick Diaz (and more, of course) and you have EA Sports MMA, EA’s response to the incredible sales of THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2009. (UFC Undisputed 2010 didn’t sell too well, and now THQ has moved it from a yearly release to a once-per-18-months release. THQ now has the UFC license through 2018, by the way.) But, given that it’s very much “UFC” that’s hot at the moment and not necessarily “MMA,” will EA find an audience with a game the predominantly features Strikeforce fighters?

Paul Heyman will certainly try.

Wrestling fans will recognize the name Paul Heyman from his days as ECW’s head booker, as well as head pretty much everything else. When ECW folded, he went to WWE and eventually became the SmackDown head writer. That’s when SmackDown was worth watching, you’ll recall. During this time he grew close to current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

And now he’s involved in MMA, despite TNA Wrestling’s half-hearted attempts to secure his services a few months ago.

Heyman’s new company, Looking 4 Larry, has produced various spots for EA Sports MMA. Here’s one starring MMA legend Frank Shamrock:

And here’s one featuring Fabricio Werdum, who shocked the world in June by tapping Fedor:

(UFC President Dana White was all smiles following the loss of the previously undefeated (and Strikeforce’s biggest name) Fedor.)

Cung Le’s promo is particularly compelling:

A video featuring Nick Diaz has also been produced, and we’re awaiting the fifth and final video to appear. I should hope it features Jason Miller. If there were ever a guy that screams “SHOULD BE ON TV, ALWAYS,” it’s Miller.

I haven’t bought the game yet since I have entirely too much on my plate right now (Fallout: New Vegas, bugs and all, will take some time to finish), but I did play my fair share of the demo. Seeing Overeem billed from England annoyed me, but the presentation is otherwise spot-on. And it looks great, too, particularly considering the age of the Xbox 360 hardware.

The game has a unique feature called EA Sports Live Broadcast, and it lets you, the player, have your fight broadcast online complete with live commentary. You will have to be “recruited” to have your fight broadcast, but it’s at least a tangible goal to keep in mind: gotta keep playing till I’m selected.

So the game certainly looks like it has a lot going for it, but I wonder if today’s casual UFC fan will give it a chance.

The demo for EA’s upcoming EA Sports MMA will be released on September 28 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. There will be four fighters to choose from, one of which was badly exposed at the most recent Strikeforce event and another of which isn’t even a part of Strikeforce anymore. Banging on all cylinders, I see.

The fighters included in the demo will be:

• Alistair Overeem, the current Strikeforce heavyweight champion (who has a great, ongoing documentary on his Web site)

• Bobby Lashley, the former WWE Superstar who was pretty much embarrassed at Strikeforce Houston a few weeks ago

• Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who’s actually pretty good and has a great entrance (when Strikeforce actually lets its fighters have entrances)

• Jake Shields, who has recently signed with UFC

Judging by the press release, Randy Couture, probably the biggest “name” in the game (besides Fedor and Overeem), has to be unlocked by “sharing the demo with friends.” I don’t know what that means.

Incidentally, Overeem won’t be fighting in Strikeforce for the next few months seeing as though he’s committed himself to fighting in the K-1 tournament this autumn.

The game will be released on October 19 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and you really do wonder how many copies EA plans to sell. UFC is big in this country, not MMA, and considering that the latest UFC game sold just about 18 copies, well, I can’t see EA Sports MMA exactly lighting up the sales charts.

Which, of course, backs up what I said several months ago, that EA Sports MMA is merely a tech demo for EA while it waits to purchase the UFC license.

Strikeforce, the mixed martial arts promotion that’s the focus of the upcoming EA Sports MMA video game, has an event tonight headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum. Normally I wouldn’t mention that here on CG, but there’s a fairly neat tech angle that’s worth mentioning. Not only is there an Internet pay-per-view option at $24.95 (the event otherwise airs on Showtime here in the U.S.), which, in and of itself isn’t exactly breaking news (WWE, the world’s most technophobic company, has been running Internet pay-per-views for some time now, and even smaller promotions like Ring of Honor have jumped aboard the iPPV bandwagon), but there’s a clever “choose you own camera angle” gimmick that may interest you.

Throughout the event, iPPV viewers will able to choose the camera angle from which to view the action. There’s the standard camera angle that viewers on Showtime see, as chosen by the fancy-pants director in the production studio, but there’s also camera angles from each fighter’s corner, an overhead camera, a roaming camera, and something called CageCam. I believe that’s the referee-mounted camera: what he sees you see. Very much reminds me of PRIDE FC… those were the days.

How nice it is to see major sports promotions (if you’ll allow me to call Strikeforce a major sports promotion) actually embrace the Internet, rather than fighting it like Grim Death. Give people the option to view something like a Fedor fight, which are increasingly rare these days, nice and legally, and maybe they’ll bite—though my gut tells me that the $24.95 asking price is about $10 too high for what amounts to a one-fight (well, two-fight, if you include the Cyborg bout) show.

And if you’re feeling bold, bookmaker.com has Fabricio Werdum at +400 tonight, which means if you bet the maximum amount ($2,000) and Werdum wins you’ll have won yourself a hell of a vacation—plus, think of all the Steam games you could buy!

Then again, you could be out two-large, so whatever.

UPDATE~! Well, Fedor lost. Hope you took advantage of that +400 while you had the chance!

Word on the street (Wall Street, that is) is that UFC Undisputed 2010 didn’t sell nearly as well as the previous game. There could be a few reasons for that, chief among them that people already had their UFC thirst quenched, so to speak: it was genuinely exciting to play a game with the modern roster (the last game before UFC Undisputed 2009 came out in 2004). The question now becomes, is the world ready for yet another MMA game? I speak not of EA Sports MMA but of Supremacy MMA, a game being developed for the Xbox 360 and PS3 by Kung Fu Factory, published by 505 Games.

Note that, despite looking high and low, I could not find the game at E3. Maybe I’m blind or maybe I was too busy waiting in line to see Dusty Rhodes, but I could not find the booth. So this isn’t a reaction to the game, but more of a reaction to the idea of the game.

You figure the average MMA fan is merely a UFC fan. To the people who watch pay-per-views with their friends once a month, MMA = UFC. Other leagues like Strikeforce or Dream don’t exist to these people. It’d be like expecting people to be familiar with some indy football league in addition to the NFL. Or, to make a fun science comparison: the UFC is like the Sun in the daytime sky: it’s so damn bright, so damn big, and so damn close to Earth that it blocks out all other starlight.

If EA Sports MMA does well it’s because EA, the largest video game publisher on the planet, will spend an incredible amount of money promoting the game. (It helps that the game isn’t half bad, either.) EA Sports MMA isn’t going to fly off the shelves because people are dying to re-create Overeem v. Rogers. Go into your local sports bar and mention the name Alistair Overeem and you’ll find people asking you if he plays for the Team USA soccer team. Go into that same bar and say the name Brock Lesnar and people will instantly know who you’re talking about.

Never mind the rumor that refuses to die, that EA will throw Dana White & Co. a giant sack of money for the UFC license in the coming year.

I guess all I’m trying to say is: to the average gamer out there, is there enough general interest in MMA to warrant three games when the latest game based on the biggest license didn’t even sell?

I would be shocked if that’s the case.

As for Spuremacy MMA, well, I see, judging by the teaser trailer, that it’s shooting for a more “aggressive” feel, which I patently have zero time for. I much prefer to treat my MMA consumption like a chess match between two well-trained athletes rather than OOO HEAVY METAL MUSIC FAST CARS GIRLS BLAAAH. That type of mentality will only hold the sport back, methinks.

Good luck to everyone involved, of course, but it seems unlikely that there are enough MMA fans to support three games at the same time.

We’ll see.

You wouldn’t know it, but Strikeforce, TNA to UFC’s WWE, has a big show this weekend, and it marks the first time that Alistair Overeem has fought in the U.S. for some three years. This is relevant to us here because EA has revealed that Overeem will, indeed, be in its upcoming EA Sports MMA. That’s him on the right. I thought that would have been a given, given that he’s the current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, but here we are, treating this like it’s news. (Overoids, amirite?!)

Right, so EA has added eight more fighters to the game’s roster, which already includes Fedor Emelianeko and Randy Couture. The just-announced additions are:

• Andre Arlovski

• Lyle Beerbohm

• Roger Gracie

• Alistair Overeem

• Kevin Randleman

• Vitor Ribeiro

• Murilo “Ninja” Rua (Shogun’s older brother)

• Fabricio Werdum

I can honestly say I’ve heard of five of those guys, but I can understand how casual Spike TV viewers will be like “what?”

Meanwhile, if Strikeforce gets thrown off CBS because of last month’s shenanigans, I really can’t see there being an EA Sports MMA 2(011).

Please recognize that my Overeem barbs are jokes. I have nothing but respect for the man, and was quite upset when he didn’t win the K-1 World Grand Prix last year. Then again, Badr Hair is good too. Oh, everyone’s great!

Man, two new trailers in the same day. Our cup runneth over, and so forth! Anyhow, here’s the newest trailer of EA Sports MMA, which should hit stores “late 2010.” That’s all in-game footage, too, so no smoke and mirrors nonsense.

Featured prominently are Bobby Lashely, Brett Rogers,Cune Le, and Nick Diaz (!). Where’s Fedor? You’d think he’d be one of the main guys in the trailer. Hmm…

Considering I much prefer a proper ring, à la PRIDE or DREAM, to a cage, well, I’m happy to see proper rings make an appearance. Remember: EA Sports MMA will feature Strikeforce as its main promotion, which is a pretty big deal for Scott Coker & Co. Nothing wrong with having a giant like EA in your corner.

Strikeforce will air, for free, an MMA fight on the EA Sports MMA Web site this Saturday. It’s Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs, which is just one fight that’s part of a much larger card, one headlined by Nick Diaz vs. Marius Žaromskis. Presumably Mr. Diaz has put down his pipe long enough to pass the required tests.

The move is being done, as if I even need to mention this, to promote the upcoming video game, scheduled for release sometime this year.

The show, Strikeforce: Miami, also features former WWE pro wrestler (and current TNA pro wrestler, but he’s barely there anymore) Bobby Lashely. It airs on live on the cable channel Showtime.

Hey, it’s not Apple news, right?

via Wrestling Observer

Here’s a conspiracy theory for you (someone call Jesse Ventura): is EA Sports MMA intentionally going to stink in order for EA Sports to lose the Strikeforce license and later acquire the UFC license? Let’s see.

So here’s the gist of it, as I just read in this week’s Wrestling Observer: EA Sports doesn’t like to be number two in anything. There’s a feeling that, no matter how “good” EA Sports MMA is, it’s not going to outsell UFC Undisputed 2009 or the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2010, which will debut at the Spike TV Video Game Awards on December 12. (Rival publisher THQ is responsible for the Undisputed games.)

Why won’t EA Sports MMA outsell UFC Undisputed? I can think of a few reasons. One, in a lot of people’s minds, MMA = UFC. An MMA promotion other than UFC will be seen by these people as second-rate. So why buy a second-rate game?

But that’s out of EA’s hands. What is in EA’s hands is things like fighter selection, and apparently the people in charge of fighter selection are “hardcore” MMA fans, which is fine if that’s what you’re trying to do: appease hardcore MMA fans. The thing is, how many hardcore MMA fans are there versus the average guy who’ll watch a UFC show once a month with his friends while killing some beer and pizza? You can’t outsell an established franchise like UFC Undisputed if you’re purposely leaving out gigantic names like Gina Carano (there’s a no female fighter policy in effect for EA Sports MMA).

Put someone like Carano on the cover and it’ll sell many copies. Fact.

So here’s where the conspiracy comes into play. Maybe EA knows this. Maybe it knows that there’s no way in hell EA Sports MMA is going to outsell UFC Undisputed, and it’s cool with that. Why? THQ’s license agreement with UFC runs out next year (I guess it was for two games). EA, which has a tremendous amount of money at its disposal, could then go to UFC and say, “Look, we’re EA. We’re big time. Undisputed did well, but with our muscle at your disposal, we’ll make a UFC game so incredibly huge that you’d be a fool to stick with THQ. Also, here’s several truckloads of money to help sweeten the deal.”

And then EA has for itself what could be the biggest, most lucrative sports license in the coming years.

This all depends on the EA-UFC dynamic, of course. We all know that UFC approached EA several years ago, before the creation of Undisputed, and that EA basically told UFC to take a hike because UFC wasn’t a “real” sport.

A hit TV show and several successful pay-per-views later, and EA is all, “Hey, UFC. Let’s do lunch.”

I’m over here watching the Strikeforce show on CBS and there’s ads for EA Sports MMA all over the place. So I’m like, “hmm, maybe EA Sports has posted the trailer to its Web site yet?”

Yes. Yes it has.

Let the record show that I beat Sherdog and all the gaming sites I usually visit to this news. Go me~!

Strikeforce (UFC’s closest competitor here in the U.S.) promotes one of the bigger fights of the year tomorrow in Fedor vs. Brett Rogers. It takes place in Chicago, which explains why EA Sports just held a press conference there to reveal more details of its upcoming MMA game, entitled EA Sports MMA. EA Sports says that Strikeforce will be the “premier” mixed martial arts league in the game, and that well-known referee “Big” John McCarthy will be in the game.

The game, which is due out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year, will, as such, feature Brett Rogers and other Strikeforce fighters.

In-game commentary will be provided by Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo. I haven’t played an EA Sports game in three years, so I have no idea who good the commentary is these days.

Other fighters confirmed to be in the game include current UFC star Randy Couture, Gegard Mousasi, Renato Sobral, and Cung Le. (Check Wikipediafor the full list of confirmed and rumored fighters. Hopefully Alistair Overeem makes the cut. You’d think he would, being that he’s the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, even if he hasn’t defended the belt in two years.)

Presumably EA Sports MMA will now be colloquially referred to as “the Strikeforce game.” Hopefully EA can work in plenty of Dream fighters, as well as the Dream arenas.

Oh, the first trailer of the game will debut during tomorrow night’s Strikeforce show that airs on CBS at 9pm. And if you’re interested in a little backstory, check out Showtime’s 30-minute documentary on both Fedor and Rogers. Fun stuff.