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THQ prepares for the worst and confirms UFC Undisputed video game sales ‘were not up to expectations’
By Zach Arnold | June 14, 2010
Any time you see the headline THQ drastically lowers sales guidance, you know that it’s not great news. The company said that last year’s UFC video game sales were higher. A projection of 20-30 cents lost per share. Type in UFC into any search engine for the major Wall Street sites this morning and it’s not pretty. UFC 2010 upset forces THQ guidance update. Low UFC sales cause financial rethink.
Kelvin Hunt notes the obvious in talking about Chuck Liddell proving that taking time off can’t help a fighter regain his chin.
George Sotiropoulos gets some love this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In a where are they now moment, Muhsin Corbbrey is now fighting in Singapore.
PC World has a new article on the Supremacy MMA video game coming out.
I was curious how the UFC 115 event would play out in the largely politically-correct newspapers in British Columbia. Here’s a taste of some of the headlines:
- Iain Macintyre (Vancouver Sun): Fight was like an execution, except it took longer (an “end-of-the-world” type article written in long prose)
- The Vancouver Sun: Caged combatants’ show of might thrills well-behaved fans (read the article and catch the great line about BJ Penn)
- Canwest News Service (Ed Willes): Can’t deny the thrill of the fight
- CANOE (SLAM! Sports): Rory MacDonald accepts his fate
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I’m sure Iain Macintyre’s piece will get railed on by MMA bloggers, but its tough to argue what he said.
Why would they be? Everybody bought last year’s and there’s no real blowaway new fighters people are dying to play as. Like with Madden, you can see increases in sales when they have a rookie player people want to play as if they don’t have a new cool feature as the seller.
That professional martial arts marks the end of civilization? That this was like an (all-volunteer) execution? Pardon the curtness, just busy at work.
He didn’t specifically say that it “marked the end of civilization”. He stated that it was merely indicative of a decline – how civilized is watching some dude get mashed out in a steel cage? What is the real art there? How does it help us progress as a society?
He recognizes that some of these people are intelligent and wellspoken but that it is irrelevant in talking about the sport as being “good”, by whatever standards, for mankind.
He (and you apparently) are reaching.
MMA is a sport. Sports are not meant to “progress society”. They are there for fun. He didn’t even tell the truth when he wrote what happened at the end of the fight.
“Rory lay there, surrounded by handlers, officials and medics. Eventually he got up and was helped away, leaving bloodstains on the canvas.”
Rory got to his feet right away and made a beeline for Condit to congratulate him on the victory.
It’s nothing more than a fluff piece where Mr. Macyntire tries to sound “too smart and refined” for the sport that he was covering.
A better version would have been “I went to my first mma show today, it wasn’t for me”.
Of course that wouldn’t sparked debate.
Entertainment as defense is silly. Lions tearing apart Christians was once good theater.
Honestly, defending MMA as some sort of wonderful show of “controlled aggression” by society is laughable by any standard. Its guys with bad tattoos getting in a cage surrounded by women in bikinis and punching each other. That is what it is, not some sort of wonderful art that is a progression of budo in Western society. The popularity of someone like Kimbo Slice is indicative of that viewpoint among the majority of viewers.
“Action” in MMA = violence. And before someone mentions boxing – I love boxing, but saying that MMA is than boxing (or that boxing is “classier”) is like hearing a debate over the merits of pornography from the 70s versus now. In the end, its still porn.
(And honestly, who here would be really shocked to see the Dog Bros. ethos somehow break its way into a spectator sport in 20-30 years?)
I intended to say “safer or more realistic” as the qualifiers. Oops.
I am guessing that stuff was supposed to reply to Asa.
I was at the show in Vancouver and if the crowd there was indicative of our society this is a bad thing. Obviously I’m being overwrought and there’s the factor that apparently half of Surrey, BC was there (Compton/Stockton of the Canadian west coast, a true “thug life” shithole full of druggies and wannabe tough guys) – but I have never been to any sort of sporting event (including UFCs in LV) that had a bigger collection of mouth breathers in my life.
It’s a wonder Affliction couldn’t continue burning money by the barrel on their mma shows and not give a rat’s behind…the bad haircuts, tsunami of horrid tribal tattoos and HGH-steroid pouring out of people’s pores. It was certainly a sight to behold. And the amount of faux tough-guy testosterone was comical…I’ve never seen people mean mug everyone in sight and staredown/posture up at EVERY single person that remotely brushed by them. A majority of mma fans, at least in this area, are f#cking embarrassing.
My reply was a general one to everyone. The defenses of MMA are generally ridiculous. I know it is a terrible thing that destroys people. Boxing does too, and football to a lesser extent. I accept it and watch anyhow. I’d love for people to learn from past mistakes but it’ll never happen.
As for Gaijin’s experience – dude, that is every MMA crowd in every city in every state or province. If you’re oblivious to it, its because you’re part of it.
“I’ve never seen people mean mug everyone in sight and staredown/posture up at EVERY single person that remotely brushed by them. A majority of mma fans, at least in this area, are f#cking embarrassing.”
From what I’ve seen at the 4 events I’ve been to, this is spot on. The other group I despise are the drunk guys who continuously try to talk shit to the fighters for the entire event. Like “you pussy why don’t you stand up” and other crap of that nature. I feel embarrassed as hell whenever I am sitting close to one of them.
Come to think about the, the smaller shows I went to (UWC) weren’t half bad. Probably because it’d be mostly hardcores in the audience?.
Well I’ve been to a couple of Vegas shows that were nowhere near as bad…maybe the fact that these tickets ended up being cheaper to come by from secondary sources?
This crowd was something else…it was frighteningly hilarious.
On an unrelated note, huge amount of Cro Cop fans…for a guy who has performed so poorly it’s really surprising he’s kept a large and dogged fanbase.
I wouldn’t agree that martial sports aren’t as helpful to society as other sports. I believe they can help our species come to truly understand and control our animal drives. Repressing aggression will not help as much as confronting it and learning to control and respect it can. But I understand both of your perspectives and how strange mine may be to you.
I personally found his reaction more barbaric than the match he was watching. Apes aggressively(passive-aggression in the writing and framing) reacting to blood, aggression and the domination of other apes – even if they were wiling participants – is barbaric and childish. Not taking the thoughts of the participants into consideration is disrespectful and dehumanizing.
I realize this is the natural reaction for many people much like many people react to minor frustration with abusive aggression. Not things I like, but human things. The sport has a long road ahead.
PS – I keep getting “carny” as my word for some reason
I suspect there’s a middle ground between not moving society forward and being a symptom of its decline.
And then there’s this:
“The next thing will be weapons in MMA.”
CYA credibility!
Yea JRN there were multiple examples of little
“backhanded” comments like that in the article. It’s pretty obvious that the writer wasn’t knowledgable at all on the subject.
Well I am not surprised by the lower UFC game sales than last year.
1. UFC 2009 was a new game for years which caught the imagination of the UFC fans and fighting game fans.
2. UFC 2010 has had mixed reviews. While solid its not to different from 2009.
3. EA have there own MMA coming and gamers know this. I laughed when people said EA would not be able to compete with out the UFC licence. EA is a juggernaught do not the UFC licence to have a successful MMA game sales wise. EA are a trusted publisher who will get a huge marketing campaign behind there game and as long as the reviews are solid the game will do really well. The same people that bought Fight Night will buy EA’s game.
THQ and the UFC need to make a big decision now. Continue with releasing a game every year which means less development time to get in the required changes which constitutes as a ‘new game’ or do they do what EA does and release a game on a 2 year cycle?
The likes of Madden, Fifa, NBA Live, NBA2K series can be released every year as those involve sports which have new rosters and new franchises with fans who want those new things represented in a game. MMA and boxing games dont have this luxury and a game being released every year is not the way to go!!
UFC 2010 is a horrible game. They took 2009 and made it worse. Also the one-time online play code included in new copies of the game pissed gamers off. No one wants to buy a new game that they can’t sell later. This is a sign that they should discontinue that practice.
“3. EA have there own MMA coming and gamers know this. I laughed when people said EA would not be able to compete with out the UFC licence. EA is a juggernaught do not the UFC licence to have a successful MMA game sales wise. EA are a trusted publisher who will get a huge marketing campaign behind there game and as long as the reviews are solid the game will do really well. The same people that bought Fight Night will buy EA’s game.”
You could not be more wrong and the fact that that second Undisputed game isn’t a selling great is basically the nail in the coffin for the EA game. No one is going to buy a game where you don’t know who most of the fighters are and looks half as good as the UFC game does. If the UFC can’t sell an mma game to the masses, EA might as well cut their losses now because their game is going to bomb worse than a crappy hollywood blockbuster this summer.
The EA MMA game has nothing to do with sales of UFC Undisputed 2010. The gaming industry has seen poor results all year long. This isn’t just a UFC/THQ issue. Plus, everybody bought the first year which means some would not be repeat buyers.
As long as it sells decent (forget about expectations) that’s all that matters. I enjoy the game. It not the best but it’s fun to play as fighters and mimic cards.
Certainly not decent for THQ shareholders.
Totally minor point, but the tv ads for Undisputed 2009 were way better than the ones for Undisputed 2010. Probably the LL Cool J song had something to do with it.
I think it was down to simply not advertising enough. I’ve seen one or two commercials for 2010, but when 2009 was coming out you couldn’t turn around without seeing an ad for it. I haven’t had a chance to play 2010 yet, but most of the reviews I’ve seen said that it was a marked improvement over the first. Pre-orders for 2010 were higher than last year, which is interesting to note.
Overall 2010 has been pretty crappy as far as sales go but, then again, the economy is pretty crappy now too. Go figure.