It’s In The Game: Strikeforce & CBS Aren’t The Only Ones Gambling On Fedor
This Saturday night’s Strikeforce event on CBS is obviously huge for both companies. Strikeforce is making their debut in primetime, and they’ll be exposed to the widest audience in the organization’s history. Make no mistake, with this event Strikeforce is firing a big shot right across the bow of the U.S.S. Zuffa and entering the national stage as a very real competitor to the sport’s undisputed leader.
Meanwhile CBS is taking another chance on live mixed-martial arts, this time without ratings powerhouses like Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano. The success or failure of this event rests heavily on the shoulders of one stoic Russian heavyweight and his undefeated opponent. We’re already into November sweeps, and the network will be under pressure to deliver strong numbers if there’s going to be any hope of a second Strikeforce event in primetime. There’s still a lot of opposition to MMA out there, but by taking the risk CBS stands to be at the forefront of what is likely be the next big sports movement in the United States.
There is, however, a third company with a lot riding on Saturday night’s event. They’ve been hugely successful over several decades now, but they’re also just starting to be involved with the sport of mixed-martial arts. I’m talking about video game software giant, Electronic Arts.
Formerly the world’s number #1 third party software developer, EA has built themselves into the gaming industry’s leading provider of sports games. This is obviously due in large part to the unstoppable football juggernaut that is the Madden franchise, but the company also has several hit titles in the worlds of soccer, college football, golf, NASCAR, basketball, and more.
In 2010 EA will attempt to conquer a new avenue of the sporting world, one that is only recently gaining mainstream acceptance. EA Sports MMA is scheduled to be released sometime within the next 12 months. The game is being made without any support whatsoever from the UFC, and in fact the Zuffa machine has its sights set firmly on sinking the new game before it even hits. UFC President Dana White has already declared that he will not sign any fighter that has agreed to appear in the game.
There’s no mystery as to why this has happened. The UFC has already launched their own hugely successful videogame franchise, as THQ released UFC Undisputed 2009 earlier this year to raves from critics and blockbuster sales. The 2010 edition of the game is already in production and will be directly competing for sales with EA Sports MMA. As has been seen countless times in the past, Dana White has no problem with you until you come after his pocketbook.
EA has already announced that their game is going to be headlined by two of the sport’s biggest stars: Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture. The addition of Couture is a double-edged sword. On one hand he’s easily the biggest American MMA star to be included in the game. On the other hand he’s a fighter that is currently under a UFC contract. It remains to be seen how this will affect Couture’s promotional abilities in relation to the game. Will EA be allowed to put him on the cover? Could he appear in commercials for the game? The Zuffa lawyers are likely already drawing up scenarios to make sure that doesn’t happen, but there’s no way to know for sure at this point.
That leaves Fedor as the most likely face of EA Sports MMA. It will be his name at the top of the roster list. It will be his character featured in much of the in-game footage. It will be his face on the cover of the game.
So now the concept of marketing the game becomes easier or harder for EA depending on what happens this weekend. If Fedor can pull off the kind of performance that has won him over so many die-hard fans, then he’s likely to gain plenty of newfound adoration from those that tune in. Think about it. If you were being exposed to Fedor for the first time this weekend and he not only beat his much larger opponent, but made it look easy, wouldn’t you want to like the guy?
At the same time if Fedor should lose to Rogers (which is unlikely, but entirely possible) then his drawing power amongst the casual audience will be all but gone. He’s been hyped as the best fighter in the world, but if Rogers can pull of the same kind of upset as he did against Andrei Arlovski, what reason is there for fans to get behind Fedor?
Try to put yourself in the mind of a casual MMA fan. If you’re looking for a new game and you see one box with Fedor’s picture on it, and another with (hypothetically) Brock Lesnar’s picture on it, which would you choose?
The burden isn’t entirely on Fedor though, as CBS will need to pull in strong numbers if anyone is going to see the guy. Their marketing push for the event has left something to be desired, at least up until the last few weeks.
According to the EA Sports MMA Twitter page the first trailer from the game shown during the CBS broadcast. This will be the first public showing of any footage from the game, as screenshots and info has been handed out in small chunks to the media since the game’s announcement.
If EA is going to build any sort of buzz for their new franchise (especially since this far from the release date) then they’ll need people to see that footage and they’ll need those same people to get behind the fighters that are in it. Several other competitors from Saturday’s event (Jake Shields, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, and Gegard Mousasi) are featured in the game’s roster. If fans find their new favorite fighter amongst any one of those names, EA’s odds for success have already improved.
It also doesn’t hurt that Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock will be on commentary, since they’re in the game as well (although Shamrock is included as a fighter). Don’t be surprised to see some extra mentions of the game throughout the event, especially since it’s all but certain that EA Sports MMA will be one of the night’s sponsors.
If EA hopes to have any success with their new franchise they’ll need these Strikeforce events to pull in plenty of viewers. Trying to market a new MMA-related product without the UFC’s support can be a nearly impossible task. Strikeforce will need to build their brand, as well as the Fedor mystique, if EA Sports MMA is to have any chance of being a success.
The war for consumer’s videogame dollars won’t really heat up until next year, but the battle begins this Saturday night.
Angry Mike
Bad Monkey
Dufresne
jding3
joshuawood
redness
Rich S.
windstorm
Batting 1.000, Tool! Nice article. Hadn’t really thought of the importance of Fedor to EA MMA. Good to have you here.
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It’s going to be exciting one way or another.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Happens all the time.
Well-Done.
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Great Debut Tool !!!
agreed Jak. I was just having this conversation, a cut, and early stop, a clear screw up in a judges decision. They could certainly set the sport back, and do serious damage.
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This is very similiar to what i said in a previous post that was stating the Fedor vs Rogers fight is a win win for the organisation. It may be a win for Strikeforce if Rogers beats Fedor, however it will be a far bigger success if Fedor beats Rogers. Fedor is being hyped up as the best fighter in the world, hyped up as unstoppable, and the greatest MMA fighter ever…. And then he is beaten by a big strong guy, who is relatively unknown, with 25% amount of skills and talent and probebly 25% of the fighting experience that Fedor has. Imagine if you were casual fan. Who had never watched the sport before. I know alot of my friends think that MMA is just mindless cage fighting which requires very little skill… as they know nothing about the sport. So…. Fedor gets beat by Rogers, people will instantly think… ‘ooohh so this bigger stronger guy beats the more skilled and talented fighter, see there is no skill in this sport at all’, obviously not everyone will think like that, but you get the idea, alot of new people watching will instantly think that. If Fedor wins… he has been hyped up as this humble…calm.. relaxed… ‘man’ who is also the most talented, well rounded, skilled fighter in the world. So people will be able to witness how real skill in martial arts overcomes size and power. IMO…. Fedor winning is FAR more of a win for Strikeforce. They will be able to continue Fedors unbeaten legacy in Strikforce, and constantly hype the fights up. If Fedor loses, iv said it before and il say it again, it will be the BIGGEST upset in MMA history. And then Rogers will probebly go on to lose his next fight (i think he has speed and power, and is exciting to watch, but the possibility of being an all time great? hmm i think not), and then instantly all this Rogers hype will just fizzle out.
All that said though, im giving Rogers very little chance of beating Fedor. I see Fedor taking this very comfortably. Fedor has WORLD CLASS submissions and a general worldclass ground game. I cant see Rogers being able to defend against it. As he has never had to overcome any dangerous situations on the ground before. I even think Fedor will outstrike Rogers. His counter striking game is easily one of the best out of any HW in MMA. And he has extreme speed and power when he strikes.
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good stuff Tool
keep it up
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correct me if im wrong but boxing as of now is the more popular sport in the US right?? How long has HBO or boxing as a whole have been trying to promote the Klitschko brothers in the states and nobody cares about the HW dev in the states right or thats what all my yankee friends tell me (yankee is a joke with my friends who will be reading this later)??? So Fedor beating a the shit out of an american HW who is hasnt lost yet is going to go over well with the new american viwer??? Just a question cause as a boxing fan i cant understand the non intrest in the Klitschko borthers who are the top two HW and keep on destroying every thing in their way and making it look easy in the states?
all of these are just questions that i have in mind cause Fedor winning will keep all the hard core fans happy but the new fans wont give a shit. All they will see is another European fighter taken out another american fighter and wont care. not matter how humbel they make him and now matter how much of a down to earth guy he is. They will all tune in to the next Brock fight and wait for him to open his mouth when he wins.
just questions and will love to read any suggtestions
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Absolutely not, only purists still love it, mma is on fire in the states now, everyone trains mma, talks it all the time, etc., so at least on a generational street level boxing is non-existent and continues to die as a sport. Fedor already has a huge amount of fans in the u.s., there are just far too many immature “fans” of his that don’t really know the sport and are annoying for some reason, but he also has a huge share of educated intelligent mma fans who love him and have seen all his fights.
I don’t know, I really don’t see people in the us hating fedor cos he’s not american, thats actually pretty ridiculous. We love Anderson Silva, especially after he demolished the all-american (rich franklin) so I really dont know why you think american fans only care if the american wins, we’re not that closed-minded IMO. Well, not most of us.
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no no no i don not think that. thats the feeling i get from most of my americans friends and from what they tell me. thats why i stated just questions and if i offened anyone sorry.
All i hear for my friends is Brock Brock Brock all the time and they give no love to Fedor for verious reason
1. being european
2. do know enough about him
3. he ducks all the real HW
4. scared to fight in the UFC
5. doesnt talke enough or to quite
and so on and so.
im on the phone with these guys everyday mostly for work and all of them are big mma fans and boxing fans and never stop talking how the US needs a great HW boxer cause it will bring the dev back to were it was. They also claim the he is going to get killed by Rogers and even if Fedor wins (i laugh everytime they say that) it wont change how anyone see’s him as a fighter but as a boring eurpean fighter and always compare him to the Klitschko brothers all the time.
I love Fedor for being the quite gaint that he is and go’s to work when the bell rings. I also like Rogers as a im not scared of mystique no bull shit attiued he has.
the way they go on about boxing and how it will take a while for mma to get where boxing is right now i thought boxing was more popular
again sorry if i offended anyone
just was asking questions
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Well I can say for sure that your background isn’t that huge a deal. I live right near Toronto, Canada, where probably the most loved person is Mats Sundin. He’s Swedish for the record. It’s all about how you market it. People don’t know about Fedor because he hasn’t been marketed in America very much until recently, not because he is from Russia. Everyone knows who Brock is because he was the posterboy of WWE when it was at its peak of popularity, and is now one of the posterboys of the UFC which is getting extreme amounts of press right now. It’s not so much his heritage as it’s how he’s been marketed. If it were Fedor who was the WWE posterboy, and now transitioned to the UFC, then everyone would know who he is and swear by him.
I think boxing does still have the bigger fan base, but their time is running out. MMA is quite single handedly killing their industry by how evolved it is. Boxing doesn’t have that many huge PPV names anymore compared to the old days when they could do anything they wanted. I believe if Ali were born again today he would transition into MMA instead of just boxing because of how much more extensive and intense MMA is.
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Mats Sudin the BEST LEAF of all time.
Makington i understand the whole Brock thing and why it is what it is, but what is killing me is how my friends who know Fedor and were he is from just give him no love and how he is a going to fade off in the sunset in the next year and nobody will care about him. Their all rooting for him to get KILLED tomorrow (still makes me laugh)
Maybe im talking to the wrong people who claim to be fans but thats all i here form them day after day.
my main reason for my first post wich i but in brackets was for them when they read it later cause they have never been on this site and i wanted to prove to them that their Fedor fans all over. Maybe i should have stated that as well.
shit no that i read my 1st post over maybe i should have worded it a whole lot better. I can see how i might have offened people. I guess thats whats happens when your trying to post at work before you boss walks in
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Lol, I’m not offended at all. You didn’t give anyone hell, and you didn’t really even disagree that much. You asked a question that you were wondering, no biggie. To me it seems like the people you talk to aren’t ‘hardcore’ fans of MMA like us. Everyone who is hardcore knows how extreme Fedor is, and knows that he deserves to be the considered the best HW in the world. However, all the casuals know is Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. There are a legion of people out there who believe Frank Mir is the absolute best HW ever to come into fighting simply because he is ranked 91 in the video game.
I know how it is when I hear everyone talking about how Kimbo is the best and Roy Nelson is a dirty cheater, and how Herb Dean doesn’t know how to ref a fight. People tell me how Fedor sucks because he isn’t 265 and ripped. There’s no convincing people like that. I could get all worked up and try to rant at them for an hour about how great Fedor is, but that would be counter productive. I would just be turning them off of it. I should just be glad that we are starting to get many casual fans, even if they don’t know a whole lot, because that’s where everything starts. They might be the guys who think Brock is the shizzzzznit now, but maybe they’ll be genuinely interested enough to start to find more about MMA and learn how good Fedor is. I basically just ignore those people, even though it gets pretty hard sometimes when I’m minding my own business and I hear some friends talking about how Kimbo is going to be the champ soon.
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dont get me started about kimbo. Im still not talking to my brother about that
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my only concern with this game will be the roster i would love to see what ea sports could do with mma because they definitely make the best sports games by far, but you must include fighters from the ufc how could they not it would be amazing if they could somehow work things out with zuffa because i would love to make all those match ups happen we may never get to see fedor vs brock or shields vs gsp not to mentoin all the dream fighters in real life going at it in the cage but at least the video game world would deliver
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I hope this game is better than the terrible UFC game. Thats right I thought it was terrible. No South paws, no leg checks, silly restrictions based on your fighter class (like not being able to throw head kicks if you are a wrestler/boxer or if you are a kick boxer you can’t throw an overhand right? what!!!! please tell Sylvia and Koscheck to stop throwing Head kicks!), very limited character design and skill set make up, bad sound effects, only a very limited amount of take downs and DANA WHITE calling me a KID. I honestly was holding out for the UFC game for years and within 1 week of owning it I had traded it in (honestly). Come on EA get it right.
Moosebaby
“1. being european
2. do know enough about him
3. he ducks all the real HW
4. scared to fight in the UFC
5. doesnt talke enough or to quite
and so on and so.”
Sounds like your American friends are American idiots.
For example why does A.Silva (or any single contracted UFC fighter) not fight out of the UFC is he scared. Maybe it could be some other reason. Who has Fedor ducked? he didn’t duck 5 UFC cmapions or 2 K1 champs or 2 Pride gp and 2 Pride HW champs or any of the 10+ top 10 fighters he has faced, oh and how many Americans go to Russia and talk reporters heads off IN RUSSIAN!!!!!.
“do know enough about him” or MMA sounds right though.
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You do know both have head kick KO’s in their career.
They definately could make a lot of things better though. Especially having more fighters fight at multiple weights.
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They have millions of things they could make better. The stand up was too robotic to me. If you landed your first hook, you could always land all 3 without them being able to stop you. And those 3 hooks were the biggest combo you could string together really, you would have to keep using it. I thought the game was fun as hell when I got it, but the flaws got pretty obvious to me pretty fast. Also added was probably the worst character creation I’ve ever seen. Atleast EA has those things down. Their Fight Night game was so in depth that you could choose how the lacing was on the underside of your boxing gloves.
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Great article. I think the more hardcore fans usually make one mistake though: assume that “casual fans” are stupid because they aren’t into the technical aspects.
Just because Tiger Woods does in fact lose at times does not make him no longer the world’s greatest golfer. Even Randy Couture who is something like 16-8 has been turned into a star despite 1/3 losses. So even if Fedor does lose, why would his power among casual viewers be assumed to automatically be gone? I’m not convinced “casual fans” are really that stupid. But maybe golf “casual fans” (rich white males?) are just smarter than mma “casual fans” (poor young immature meatheads?)?
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“You do know both have head kick KO’s in their career.”
Yes I know but they can’t head kick in the game. Can they? I’m pretty sure they can’t anyway.
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Yea man at least Koscheck can. Im not sure about sylvia. I thought you were complaining about them having headkicks in the game. My bad.
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