EA Sports UFC First to Feature Female Fighters

[roseofbattle]

EA Sports UFC First to Feature Female Fighters

This move forward signals representation of women in both videogames and mixed martial arts.

EA announced today that women competing in the Ultimate Fighter Championship would be featured prominently in their new EA Sports UFC game to be released next year. UFC Women's Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and top contender Miesha Tate are the first two women to be featured in a UFC game.

"This is a great moment for videogames and for Mixed Martial Arts," Dean Richards, general manager for EA Sports UFC, said in a press release. "In our commitment to delivering the most realistic fighting experience ever achieved, we wanted to represent the full spectrum of talent and diversity of all the fighters in the sport, including women who have become an undeniable force to be reckoned with."

UFC President Dana White said the women's bantamweight division was added this year. "The female division has become a huge part of the UFC and fans will now be able to experience fighting with them in the game."

Rousey and Tate will also be the first female coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, a reality television series and mixed martial arts competition. There is no word on how many women will be on the roster for the game, but Rousey and Tate will not be the only ones. EA Sports UFC will be released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in spring 2014.

Source: EA [http://news.ea.com/press-release/ea-sports/female-fighters-join-ea-sports-ufc-roster-mark-first-ever-appearance-ufc-vid]

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[MCerberus]

Isn't this the game series whose online component has the lifespan of a mayfly?

 

[iniudan]

Isn't this the game series whose online component has the lifespan of a mayfly?

Is that every EA Sport games ?

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Isn't this the game series whose online component has the lifespan of a mayfly?

I haven't played the most recent in the series, but what I personally have noticed is that wrestling/fighting games have a much greater and longer couch presence than online. Because of that game lifespan numbers will be a lot lower than reality.

 

[Parasondox]

how long will it take until an idiot starts a witch hunt on this because you can beat up women in this game.

Give it a few weeks. Some womens group may bring it up saying it will promote domestic violence. Silly I know

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Female characters have been in fighting games since forever. So it shouldn't cause any controversy. This is good news for the fans of the game.

 

[sid]

EA sure loves to pull the sex card, though I'm happy women are finally being thrown into UFC. Or around it, depends on the match

 

[tdylan]

Female characters have been in fighting games since forever. So it shouldn'tcause any controversy. This is good news for the fans of the game.

"Shouldn't," but it will. I haven't played any ofthe WWE/WWF games since "Here Comes The Pain" back on the PS2, but I've read that they removed female wrestlers from current interations due to the ability to have men fight them. You know...cuz it's not as though they had intergender tag matches on their live programs before. Hell! They've had straight up "man vs woman" matches before.

Of course, they've adopted a more "family friendly" image since then.

 

[DataSnake]

Female characters have been in fighting games since forever. So it shouldn't cause any controversy. This is good news for the fans of the game.

Next idea I hope they borrow from other fighting games: crossovers. UFC vs Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat, make it happen!

 

[DoubleAgent74]

"Shouldn't," but it will. I haven't played any ofthe WWE/WWF games since "Here Comes The Pain" back on the PS2, but I've read that they removed female wrestlers from current interations due to the ability to have men fight them. You know...cuz it's not as though they had intergender tag matches on their live programs before. Hell! They've had straight up "man vs woman" matches before.

They haven't removed female wrestlers completely, but they have taken out the option to have intergender matches. The closest you can get now is a "mixed tag team" match--each team has a guy and a girl, only same-gendered opponents can be in the ring at one time, and a team is instantly DQ'd if the male wrestler attacks the woman on the other team. Since you can now use the women in all but maybe two match types now, I'm not complaining.

Other than the fact that it's next-gen only, I think it's great that women will be in a UFC game.

 

[Mahoshonen]

Does UFC even do inter-gender matches?

Though I guess EA can throw in the option given that it's a game (on the other hand, it's EA)

 

[Jamash]

What does it mean by "first to feature female fighters"?

The game UFC: Sudden Impact featured a female fighter, Erica Montoya, and that game was released in 2004.

However because it only had one female fighter, she could only fight men which lead to some comically brutal mismatches and horrendous bouts as she would get dominated and horribly beaten by the larger and stronger men in fights that disturbingly resembled a domestic violence beating and rape more than a fight (especially if you put her against a heavyweight wrestler who was more than twice her size).

I suppose this claim is technically true in that it is the first to feature female fighters (plural) as the other game only had one female fighter.

I wonder if this game will users to create mixed gender fights or would it prohibit you from making men fight women.

I also wonder which option would be more controversial, allowing men to unrealistically fight the women and risk the ire of domestic violence and battered women's groups, or keep the men and women segregated like in real life and risk angering the types of people who would call it sexist and oppressive towards women.

 

[Vedrenne]

Why is this a big thing? WWE games have had women wrestling each other since WWF Smackdown, even allowing the women to use 'international' objects against each other (up till Smackdown vs Raw, as I recall).

 

[CriticalMiss]

Ok EA, now put female athletes in all of your other sports games! It's not like women don't play glof or football. Although it seems odd to make a big deal about it since there are decades old fighting games with female characters.

 

[CTYR]

Erm... Yay?

Honestly, women in sports has been going on for decades, now- this is something that I'm pretty sure should've already been done. Why celebrate the creation of something that's been expected? In fact, why weren't women/female teams just put into their respective sports games? I wouldn't mind playing a football game in which I could have a battle of the sexes.

 

[Grahav]

Women in sports bras and shorts beat the hell out of each other.

Is this a Dead or Alive game?

No because they have fit bodies instead of curvy ones with big breasts.

Nobody will fap for this, surely.

 

[Terraniux]

That's good, I guess. More variety tends to be better. You know, Knockout Kings 2001 had a pretty good roster of female athletes in it, but only in the PlayStation release. After that, they were taken out, remaining as such even once the series became Fight Night.

 

[beez]

Well, good for the female audience I guess, pitiful PR attempt to become popular on EA's part. It's always the same, always the same old gender issue topic on their part. When they are not paying soccer moms to riot about BS, they try to artificially blow themselves up as news.

Well, good for them. UFC is not my game, but hope the target audience has some fun with it, especially the new one they are trying to reach. At least this time, people got something out of a publicity stunt. Plus the risk of provoking feminists is still on, so more opportunity for news. I don't know, if I were explicitly feminist, I would be pissed about people trying to use me as a PR opportunity.

meh.

 

[iniudan]

Women in sports bras and shorts beat the hell out of each other.

Is this a Dead or Alive game.

No because they have fit bodies instead of curvy ones with big breats.

Nobody will fap for this, surely.

Please go read your internet rulebook again, your internet license has been revoked until then.