"It's easy to sit on the other side of the table and judge me on how I react to stuff like this," White said. "But let me tell you what – I've been in the trenches for almost 10 years, and I've been dealing with all these businesses, and EA was one of them."

EA Sports holds the publishing rights for several of the market's most successful sports-related video games, including the Madden NFL, FIFA, NASCAR and Tiger Woods PGA series. White said the UFC had hoped to join the ranks of those titles, but the California-based EA Sports declined to discuss the possibility.

"EA Sports told us, 'You're not a real sport,'" White said. "'We wouldn't touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this.'"

With EA Sports passing on the rights to the UFC's video game license, rival software company THQ elected to partner with mixed martial arts' biggest promotion. The company's first effort, "UFC Undisputed 2009," has shipped approximately 2 million units since its May release according to White, and the fiery exec is upset that EA Sports is now changing their tune with the recent announcement of a forthcoming "EA Sports MMA" title.

"We put our asses on the line, THQ and the UFC, to make a video-game deal in the worst economy in the world," White said. "We go out there and do this thing, and it's successful, and now [expletive] EA Sports wants to do a video game. Really? That's not what you told us a year-and-a-half ago.

"You told us you'd never be in business with us. They wouldn't even take a meeting because mixed martial arts disgusted them. This wasn't a real sport. Boy, they got over that real quick, didn't they?"


Entire article after the link

http://mmajunkie.com/news/15490/ufc-president-dana-white-says-ea-sports-responsible-for-current-mma-video-game-war.mma

daaaaaaaaaaaammmnnn, dude is pissed, but i guess he has good right, this isn't the first time EA has done some **** like this.... one of the worst companies in the world.

Dana White is right, but he is also no saint either. He's done his share of telling people where to put it.

dana is a hypocrite as much as the next guy(the guy has literally bounced over the fence hundreds of times regarding fedor. With that said I don't doubt EA may have messed with him though it may have been before peter moore started EA in their current direction.

so what... I'm not a fan of EA at all, but I don't see this as newsworthy whatsoever. This is simply business 101. The sport is super successful now, and to not have a videogame adaption of it, doesn't make any sense for EA. Of course they have to get a MMA game out. Sure, they look pretty silly, because I don't doubt for a second that EA dissed the UFC in the past, but now they have to deal with reality, and deal with the fact that they have shareholders, and the shareholders want a return on that investment. If that means trying to come out with your own MMA game to get a little piece of the pie, then thats what they have to do. Frankly, I don't think their MMA game will sell very well regardless, so consider it karma

I can't think of a worse idea than making an MMA game that is based on Affliction or another league.

MONEY

DOWN

THE

DRAIN

meh.... WEC > UFC.... IMO.

the UFC is turning into the same drama and BS that plagued "professional" wrestling.... at the end of the day, WEC is more exciting to watch.

WEC will be in a UFC game before they'll be in EA's game.

EA isn't signing any leagues they're signing athletes that aren't locked into merchendising contracts with the UFC, which is indeed a huge swath of the MMA talent pool. Here's a list someone compiled of all the potential and confirmed athleets EA can have in their game if they are in fact spending a lot fo the budget on getting key liknesses:
HW
1 Fedor Emelianenko (confimirmed)
2 Josh Barnett
3 Andrei Arlovski
4 Randy Couture (confirmed)
5 Alistair Overeem
6 Tim Sylvia (confirmed)
7 Jeff Monson
8 Brett Rogers
9 Aleksander Emelianenko
10 Antonio Silva
11 Dan Severn
12 Gilbert Yvel
13 Tank Abbott
14 Pedro Rizzo
15 Kazuyuki Fujita
16 Oleg Taktarov
17 Don Fry
18 Bas Rutten

LHW
1 Renato Sobral
2 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
3 Muhammed Lawal "King Mo"
4 Tito Ortiz
5 Vladimir Matyushenko
6 Mike Whitehead
7 Jeremy Horn
8 Emanuel Newton
9 Kevin Randleman
10 Mike Kyle
11 Travis Wiuff
12 Hidehiko Yoshida
13 Ken Shamrock
14 Sokoudjou
15 Ricardo Arona
16 Melvin Manhoef
17 Ian Freeman
18 Aaron Rosa

MW
1 Jorge Santiago
2 Kazushi Sakuraba
3 Ikuhisa Minowa
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Hector Lombard
6 Scott Smith
7 Riki Fukuda
8 Renzo Gracie
9 Ronaldo Souza
10 Jason Miller
11 Gegard Mousasi (confirmed)
12 Benji Radach
13 Matt Lindland
14 Murilo Rua
15 Joey Villasenor
16 Frank Shamrock
17 Phil Baroni
18 Rickson Gracie

WW
1 Hayato Sakurai
2 Royce Gracie
3 Jay Hieron
4 Jake Shields
5 Paul Daley
6 Nick Diaz
7 Joe Riggs
8 Carlos Newton
9 Pat Miletich
10 Nick Thompson
11 Akira Kikuchi
12 Thomas Denny
13 Lyman Good
14 Omar de la Cruz
15 Jason High
16 John Alessio
17 Luigi Fioravanti
18 Yuya Shirai

LW
1 Shinya Aoki
2 Yves Edwards
3 KJ Noons
4 Charles Bennett
5 Satoru Kitaoka
6 Joachim Hansen
7 Eddie Alvarez
8 Eiji Mitsuoka
9 Takanori Gomi
10 Mizuto Hirota
11 Josh Thomson
12 Gilbert Melendez
13 Sergey Golyaev
14 Gesias Cavalcante
15 Vitor Ribeiro
16 Mitsuhiro Ishida
17 Jorge Masvidal
18 Marcus Aurelio

The UFC is what's wrong with MMA. Sure, they're a big reason why the sport's even on the radar, but they're also the reason that people and businesses (like EA) talk about it in the same breath as "professional wrestling."

I'd love to see what the Fight Night studio could do with MMA. And if you know much about boxing, you know just how skimpy the lineup is for FNR4 in terms of active fighters. If EA can do a top-notch boxing game with a limited roster, I don't see why they couldn't do the same for an MMA game. All they need is a few big names (past or present), add the same fighter creation tools as in FNR4, and no one will know the difference.

meh.... WEC > UFC.... IMO.

the UFC is turning into the same drama and BS that plagued "professional" wrestling.... at the end of the day, WEC is more exciting to watch.

Did you just start watching the UFC this year or something?

The UFC is what's wrong with MMA. Sure, they're a big reason why the sport's even on the radar, but they're also the reason that people and businesses (like EA) talk about it in the same breath as "professional wrestling."

I'd love to see what the Fight Night studio could do with MMA. And if you know much about boxing, you know just how skimpy the lineup is for FNR4 in terms of active fighters. If EA can do a top-notch boxing game with a limited roster, I don't see why they couldn't do the same for an MMA game. All they need is a few big names (past or present), add the same fighter creation tools as in FNR4, and no one will know the difference.

Problem is the Fight Night studio isn't doing MMA. FN was done in Canada where they focus on strong physics based mechanics and strong AI simulation. It's being done in Tiburon, where the focus is on gimmicky feature lists for the back of the box and buzzwords.

Problem is the Fight Night studio isn't doing MMA. FN was done in Canada where they focus on strong physics based mechanics and strong AI simulation. It's being done in Tiburon, where the focus is on gimmicky feature lists for the back of the box and buzzwords.That sucks. I thought it was going to be done by the same team on alternating schedules. Bummer. :(

WEC is owned by UFC if I remember right so EA would not be able to get them.

EliteXC did way more to make people think MMA is WWE in their few cards then UFC has done in years of existence (with the exception of the current little mess they have going on, which apparently White was none too happy about.... Well and TUF is sort of a mess too. Though at least the fights are not WWE like, just the editing and the overall antics of the people who want their faces on TV. Not looking much better with the upcoming season and Kimbo but we will see.).