UFC President Dana White Says EA Sports Sucks

LAS VEGAS -- THQ teamed up with UFC to unveil the cover athlete for UFC 2010 Undisputed at Mandalay Bay before the big UFC Relentless fight. UFC President Dana White, the man behind Ultimate Fighting Championship, was on hand to talk about the new game, why Brock Lesner is perfect for the cover of the new game, and why EA Sports sucks in this exclusive interview.

[elcompa425]

video doesn't work...

Oh well, I'm sure w.e he says is full of garbage. I can't stand DW....idk why, but I just dislike that SOB.

[Blaze929]

EA completely dissed the idea of a UFC game and went as far as saying MMA isn't a real sport. So since EA turned him down he went to THQ. Now EA sees how successful 2009 Undisputed was and they go and announce a MMA game.

So I see where Dana is coming from. If I were him, I'd be trash talking EA as well. This is a situation where EA clearly doesn't care about the sport but instead the potential revenue.

Now the SAD part in all this is that EA will probably put put a better game...

[The_Nameless_One]

Why would they not care about the revenues? Do you think EA are in this business for the fun of it. It's all about the revenues.

[evrfighter]

you make a point nameless one. But would you agree that Dana White is cleared to say these things about EA Sports?

I sure as heck would think so. Imo Dana White is on a power trip but I totally get why he dislikes EA Sports.

and EA Sports does suck.

[MasFlowKiller]

EA Sports does suck they only have one good game and thats FiFa and it took then almost 10 years to get it to where it is today.

[The_Nameless_One]

yes he can say what he wants. Should come as no surprise he would say that after they rejected him and insulted a sport he feels very passionately about. I bet EA are kicking themselves for this one too. I wonder if his rejection was before the Riccitiello years because seeing how he [Riccitiello] likes to take chances on new ip's I don't think he would have rejected him so fast. I don't it was because I'm sure that if Riccitiello was in charge then he would have jumped on that opportunity. The other thing is that I wonder if White is suffering from rejection since EA was his first choice.

[Cueil]

EA isn't didn't do a 180... they simply got a person in charge who has some common effing sense

[BattleAxe]

Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a great example of why EA sports kinda sucks. They come out with almost the exact same game every year with the smallest possible changes to the game.

[zack61]

There's no sound.

[sabestar]

He is the only man I know with the name Dana. It just feels weird. Dana is a girls name usually. hehe.

Anyhow, as a person, I also don't like him much.

[Max Power]

name was Dana. While it is more popular as a girls name, it can be given to males along with Casey, Kelly, and Aaron.

[multipayer]

I think casey and aaron would make better dyke names.. "sucks" is a great name for EA anyway.

[Nuclearwinter]

You've never heard of comedians Dana Carvey ( SNL, Wayne's World) or Dana Gould

[Bluemaster77]

HAHA his name is DANA !

[cereal_killa]

That guy named Dana makes more money in 1 night than you make in a life time so who's really laughing?

[Lookbehind]

I do'nt think if this dude was standing face to face with you guys,you would be sayin shlt..................

[ZBlacktt]

He's a little bi*ch. He's still crying over money. He had a deal not go through with EA like last year. Then EA went in a new direction with it's own MMA. So he's been crying about it ever since.... Guy sucks. Just the rigth time right place when he started UFC.

[dgroundwater]

Yeah isn't that the truth

ITT: Internet toughguys.

[bigjclassic]

Dana didnt start UFC. It is actually owned by the Fereitta (sp?) brothers and Dana is a minority owner. Dana was responsible for the re branding of UFC with the Ultimate Fighter which led the way for its massive exposure.

On topic, the UFC game was a great game. However THQ needs to work on the ground game because mashing buttons is hella lame.

[orange-skittle]

He actually came in as a partner and took over when the UFC started to go bankrupt. Dana made it a brand and his marketing has catapulted the UFC to heights no one ever imagined. It has out-shined boxing and made the fighters are more recognizable than most boxers today. You have Rampage doing a movie(A-Team) with hollywood heavyweights in a theatrical release. Not a B movie starring Brian Bosworth or an aging Steven Seagal. Randy Couture is the spokesman for Body by Jake home gym and does movies/tv shows. The fighters back in the day would be lucky to see a $75,000 purse while today all these champions are millionaires. Except for Mayweather, if you put Chuck Lidell side by side any boxer today and he would be more recognizable. Even over Winky Wright or Manny Pacquiao.

[Cueil]

Boxing died the day Tyson bit off dudes ear... Holyfield or whatever(I keed I keed)still no UFC fighter will ever reach the level of Tyson and Ali

[Venatus-Deus]

Yeh… I can really see those two defend a takedown by Anderson Silva and then watch him dislocate their shoulders with a quick arm bar.

Even an average MMA fighter would take down the very best boxer. They have too much of an advantage.

[caseh]

I think you got the wrong end of the stick on that one. Cueil was talking about fighter popularity and income...

[Venatus-Deus]

I guess I was confused because he added Tyson to that statement. Ali yes, no question. The guy is a 20th century icon.

Tyson is a convicted rapist who was a good boxer for a few years. Popularity and income aren’t something you would associate with him. Ever.

I’m pretty sure he meant it how it was written.

[RayRay36]

UFC 2010 is gunna be crazy. The first one was pretty good. Although, the online was basiclly un-playable because of the lag. When you push arrogant but I still like him. According to him "EA said this isnt a real sport and we're not touching this thing." S crew EA, if anyone can make a UFC game, wouldnt you think it would be the UFC?

[hatchimatchi]

dana white is a smart business man but his incessant trash talk of competition gets really annoying.

[hatchimatchi]

i love the disagrees.

dana white took an organization that was so deep in red and was branded "human c*ck fighting" and turned it into one of the most watched sports on television. There have been so many other organizations that have tried to mimic what the ufc has done and almost all have failed. Also, the fact that there are/has been discussions on espn about UFC rivaling boxing is absolutely huge and extremely impressive for a sport that has been in the public eye roughly 2 decades.

[donscrillinger]

i cant hear any sound but i'm sure that i agree with this guy ea sports does suck ..look at wat they did to nfl football they took the best making football game maker off the market 2K ..which is str8 uckin BS and we'er stuck with wack azz arcady MADDEN...i'm just glad that the NBA didn't do this wack BIZ deal with them thank god for that ..but now there trying to do the same thing with UFC .UCK EA for real ...

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

I dont like EAs strategy of buying talent/contracts and trying to stop the competition from making a competing game(instead of improving their quality). And I beleive EA would diss MMA and then go and try to make their own game as soon as another company has a little success with it.

but I blame the NFL/EA deal on the NFL. The NFL is one of the stupidest organizations I have ever seen. The ea deal was bad but I think the direct TV Sunday ticket is horrible. They could offer it to every cable provider and let the fans have a choice. They would be rolling in money right now. But short term gains were enough for them to ignore the fact taht they could easily make 500% more money without being tied to direc Tv.

And I DID have direc tv and sunday ticket back in the day and it was great if it worked. Satalite Tv sucks here as I live in FL and everytime it rains(which is alot in summer) it would go out. Direct tv paid NFL to get a contract because with out it NOONE would ever get directv(maybe people in the desert). If I could pay the price of sunday ticket and get even just the patriot's games on comcast I would. I just have a problem paying for tv service that gets messed up when its cloudy.

[SlaughterMeister]

If EA Sports is anything like everything else EA does, then it's probably terrible.

[Cueil]

Terrible like? Freedom Fighters? Mirror's Edge? Mass Effect 2? NHL 09?

[Venatus-Deus]

Dead Space? FIFA 10?

[subzero-08]

EA is gonna do MMA better than THQ. There are no sports games I can think of where a different company does it better than EA. Basketball, Hockey, Football, Boxing, etc. But I'm sure UFC 2010 will sell better because it has "known" fighters.

[elcompa425]

That is because they have all the LICENSING. In the end, nobody wants to make a hockey game with fake names.....consumers won't like it. Another reason, people always pass on games like PES, due to FIFA's licensing. You remember NFL 2K5? They stopped making it, because EA bought the licensing.........right?

Cheers

[Elven6]

In regards to Basketball, 2K Sports says hi! Generally among reviewers and fans of the sport the NBA 2K series is seen as superior to the NBA Live stuff. 2K also had better NFL games but they can't make any NFL games due to the licensing thing.

[Baka-akaB]

everyone does it better than EA . They just as usual play bullies with licences

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

the last one they made(2K5 I think) was amazing. It had amazing an amazing ESPN interface so it looked like it was actually on espn with the stats and replays. Also it was only 20$ brand new and was pretty successful.

When Ea saw that they bought up the NFL license so nobody could make a NFL game. And people wonder why madden is the same every year.

Also, dana says EA dissed MMA before. Im guessing EA wanted to get a cheap license by acting like it wasnt worth much. Either that or they really believed that until THQ had a very good success with it.

I guarantee that EA would buy the UFC license to stop anyone else from making a UFC game if Dana would sell it to them. Then we would see the same game over and over every year.

edit below-- YUP. NFL is run by backwards morons it seems. The direc TV deal is horrendous to the fans. Same with NFL network. Now we can't even see Thursday night fotball unless we pay extra. Soon we will be lucky if we can even get 1 game per week on regular cable.

Also the NFL blackouts are a bad idea. The lions(i think it was the lions) won their first game in a while earlier this season, too bad the fans didnt see it because it was blacked out. How can they expect to sell tickets when the fans cant even see the one win in ages.

Its almost as if the NFL doesnt want its fans to be able to see their teams and give them money. They only seem to use the NFLs popularity to make billions of dollars for other companies(like direc tv, EA, and bars).

[orange-skittle]

2K has been dominating basketball for 10 years. NBA LIVE has been trying to capture the title since the turn of the millennium. Sony has a better baseball game and Soccer is dominated by Winning Eleven(not FIFA). The only reason football hasnt been tested is because EA bought every license to keep 2K out of the sport. After 2005, EA felt the heat because they realized the playing field just got even. They tried to disguise it by saying "the license was up for sale and they had deeper pockets," but the proved to be BS when they uncovered that EA not only bought the NFL, they also bought the CFL, AFL, NCAA, and ESPN license. Why would they do that? Why, because that would eliminate any type of football competition. They tried to buy the NBA license too but the commissioner said the NBA was not for sale and they welcome free enterprise. They get paid by all companies brandishing their moniker and don't need buyout money from 1 publisher. They get money for NBA: The Show, NBA 2K, and NBA Live while the NFL and NFLPA only gets money from Madden(hahahahahaha). Smart business deal you morons. I wonder if the guy the brokered that deal still has a job?

[nogolis]

But so does UFC, Dana... It's an absurd sport that centers around "supposed" tough guys who play up good and evil parts. It's Pro Wrestling for the next generation. It's a male soap as much as people say it isn't.

Are these guys tough? Sure... But Stallone is tough too... He just gets paid multiple millions to act tougher than he is. See the direction?

[red2tango]

Can't wait for UFC 2010. UFC 2009 was a great game, and 2010 can only be better :)

[arakouftaian]

Konami make better soccer games

Sony makes better basseball games

2k makes better American futbol games
and basketball games

ea sport only buy rights and buy thing but in gameplay
they suck or are just plain simple and arcade

[KILLERAPP]

Typical Dana white, just like Kimbo suck and then when he came to the UFC and he is god, such a hypocrite...

[Darkspade]

I don't see Kimbo fighting for title shots in the UFC.. Dana White is a Straight forward Guy and that why alot of you don't like him... Kimbo earned his way into the UFC, Dana White was told to his face from EA that MMA wasn't a Sport... Now they See the Money in it and they are all about it.. EA Sports MMA will be just another thrown together game.. Kimbo will be good but he's still new to the game and Elite missed up 3 years of Kimbo's Life in my opinion

[ahall88nhl]

Dana White is the reason I hate UFC, I will never buy anything with UFC on it it as long as that dumb ass is part of it. I'll stick to Strikeforce, Dream, Sengoku, et cetera for my MMA fix.

[KILLERAPP]

Too bad he kill pride, that was the best organization.
Pride > UFC

[orange-skittle]

I think Popeyes has better chicken IMO. It's a toss up between that and Bojangles

[Handhelds_FTW]

I really feel sorry for people close to Dana who he has real grudges against, if this EA feud is any indication of his character.

[alphakennybody]

UFC MMA both sucks, no style no rythm just bunch of meatheads fisting and teabagging each others on the ground. Really I miss the days when they actually had variety.

edit: @ below, I guess answering your own question like that make you sound cool right? no.
I know who they are I saw their fighting and its boring. Im sorry if we don't share the same opinion, simple as that.

[tetsuhana]

I guess you've never heard of Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, Melvin Manhoef, Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddel, or Alistair Overeem?
No?
Ok.

[tetsuhana]

This the same guy that said Fedor sucks, and then bent over backwards to try to sign him as soon as he became a free agent. He also said no one who was in the game would fight in the ufc (tell that to Randy Couture & Frank Trigg) This guy will say anything to make the competition look bad, maybe he should go work for MS gaming division.

[DiffusionE]

He's right about one thing though. EA Sports does suck. Take a look at their PC sport titles. All of them are crappy ports from the PS2(yes, that's right, PS2) version. And they're the masters of the franchise-milking technique.

[Magna Farta]

...even though I despise the guy, I can't fault him for feeling the way he does.

EA's come a long way, dragging their name out of the dirt with some great new IPs this and last year, but their Sports division definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

And it is very true that the EA suits more or less laughed in Dana White's face when he tried to hawk a video game franchise to them, only to carbon copy the idea once THQ raked in millions in profits on the game. It makes good business sense for EA, but it does make them look stupid and unoriginal.

And while I completely stand against this, I can wholeheartedly understand DW's unwritten rule that any UFC fighter who sells his likeness to EA will be barred from UFC. Because when you bite the hand that feeds you, you're gonna get slapped, that's just common sense.

[DelbertGrady]

I think EA's MMA romp looks alot better than UFC's offering. Much more hyped to see more of it's gameplay, even if it doesn't have the UFC roster. Won't bother me if the gameplay is tight. That's what matters most. I also get the feeling that UFC: Undisputed 2010 will be more or less a carbon copy of last years game but with Kimbo thrown in for extra dollars. I especially hated the poor animations. There was no real feeling of impact and then knockout animations were scripted.

[Ronster316]

Talk about a pain in the ass just to transfer a mask on army of two 40th day from their website to your console.

And they close down most online game servers after 18 months.

Pathetic.

As for basketball games, 2K>>>>>>> > Live.

Can't knock EA's Tiger Woods games though, for the most part they are great.

[ironmonkey]

what are u talking about? pride went bankrupt when they found out that pride was apparently run by the yakuza gangs money and they completely shut it down and most of the fighters went to america for better opportunities of making money

[mullerhun]

well, well... If figure skating would sell,
EA would jump on it:P

[Tito08]

They said it because of the system sales, but I found it as BS because actually it was because the Sega sports games were way much better than EA sports games... In 2004 Sega released NFL 2k5 for $20, and EA released Madden 2005 for $50, 2k5 was cheaper and better than Madden 2005, and that's where EA got scared and created the monopoly with the NFL and everything related to the sport, those bastards!!!!

[Dylken]

i used to have the very same opinion as you when it came to MMA, people beating each other senseless. While im not sure (with your distain to MMA) why you are commenting here, i can tell you that it is a sport that takes time to familiarize yourself with as well as appreciate, there is alot more going on then just "fisting and teabagging each other". its a sport that you'll need to either A) just be a fan of B) have a back ground in or C) have a fighter you love to cheer for. maybe someday you can learn to like it if you give it a chance. fighters who sold me: Fedor, Georges St Pierre, Jose Aldo, Gegard Mousassi, check them out.

as for the Dana's comments, they can be expected. while i dont agree with him forcing fighters not to sign (contractually) with EA's game (ie Jon Fitch), it is a business and he always has the business's interests first, which may include some trash talking politics (IHO :P)

and ps, to whoever said anderson silva going for takedowns, while having a BJJ blackbelt, he is hardly known for his takedown prowess. just some food for thought :)