The numbers are in, and UFC Undisputed 2010, while not exactly a bomb, sure as heck (language, I know) didn’t do anywhere near the amount of business that last year’s version did. THQ sold some 413,000 copies of the game (221K on Xbox 360 and 192K on PS3) of the game. Contrast that with last year’s numbers, which worked out to 1.01 million across both platforms (680K for Xbox 360 and 334K for PS3). That’s a drop of around 60 percent! So what gives?
Hopefully THQ has learned that you can’t release UFC games like you would Madden. For one, there’s not enough year-over-year change in UFC to warrant a new game. The same fighters who were main-eventing last year (Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, etc.) are main-eventing this year. There’s no excitement of seeing, I don’t know, Brett Favre put on a Vikings jersey.
Others are blaming the release of Red Dead Redemption, which was aimed at the same young, male crowd.
There’s also the small fact that the game just wasn’t very good. I’ve read complaints on MMA message boards from here to next Tuesday that say the ground game in the game is wildly unfair and seems to be based on luck more than anything else. It’s very much a case of, well, if you bought the game last year, there’s no particular reason to upgrade.
In fact, the game is available for only $40 on Amazon right now. I feel sorry for the people who payed full price for the game back in May! (Don’t feel too bad, though, I bought Alpha Protocol for full price, too!)
All of this lends credence to the rumor that EA is going to offer Dona White & Co. a giant sack of money for the rights to the next UFC game, making EA Sports MMA very much a beta of sorts.
In other news, I fully expect a Shane Carwin win tomorrow.