Fight Night Is Back
Most popular sports have a regular series of video games that let you step into the shoes of their most famous athletes. Not boxing, or at least not boxing since EA shelved its Fight Night series. Now, after 15 years, Fight Night is finally about to return.
Out of nowhere on Tuesday, a new account, run by EA, called EA Sports Fight Night appeared on Twitter. For now, there is just one post on that account, and it confirms there’s a new Fight Night on the way, the first game in the series since 2011’s Fight Night Champion.
The post reads, “To everyone who stayed in our corner: Fight Night is coming back,” and shows a pair of gloves over a ring lit by a spotlight. The profile says “back into the ring” and notes that the ESRB rating is pending, suggesting the game may be nearer to release than expected.
Whether Fight Night’s return is a couple of years away or right around the corner, it’s remarkable that EA has managed to keep the project under wraps. There have been no rumors suggesting the boxing series might be taken out of hibernation, outside of a boxing promoter mentioning that EA might be considering it, and that was more than six years ago.
The History Of Fight Night
EA released five Fight Night games between 2004 and 2011, all of which scored well reviews-wise, with none of them scoring lower than an 85. However, EA shifted its fighting game focus to UFC, releasing its first MMA game three years later, and its most recent, UFC 6, this year.
That suggests we might now be living in a world where EA releases both boxing games and UFC games, although it’s highly unlikely the series will get a new game each year like EA Sports FC and Madden. UFC never did, and Fight Night didn’t before that.
One of the assumptions when EA decided to stop making Fight Night games was the issues surrounding securing the rights to use certain boxers’ likenesses. Harder waters to navigate than UFC, where you just need to make a deal with the promotion rather than the individual athletes. It seems EA believes that extra effort is worth it again, perhaps an edict brought about by its new owners, although the bulk of this game’s development may predate the acquisition.