UFC 4 Announced Tyson Fury as a Playable Character, Here’s Why That Sucks.

EA Sports decided to run their first official UFC 4 reveal trailer during the July 11th UFC 251 card.

Showing footage of Jorge Masvidal fighting in a backyard venue meant to pay homage to his street fighting history, and Adesanya fighting in a mythical Kumite blood-sport type temple, the trailer rapid fires through more stars giving only two others significant time (McGregor, Khabib) before introducing the Pre-Order bonus: Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

It’s another slap in the face to Fight Night fans who haven’t had a new boxing game in an entire console generation, and given the lack of news, likely won’t see one within a decade.

Fight Night Champion was released in 2011, and as far as the current console generation goes it’s only accessible digitally on the Xbox One system.

Given EA’s willingness to import, and advertise two of the biggest heavyweight boxers in the world as playable characters in their UFC game, it doesn’t leave much room for Fight Night fans of ever seeing another entry in the series.

EA loves DLC, so if the Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua characters are bought and heavily used, you can anticipate them offering a whole class of boxers for download. UFC 2 featured two different versions of Mike Tyson, prime Iron Mike Tyson, and a Legacy Mike Tyson.

The difference between UFC 2 and UFC 4 is that none of the boxers were active or current world champions. With UFC 4, EA is tacitly saying these boxers have enough draw to be included with the reveal trailer, but not enough for us to create another game.

And honestly the worst part is, EA could phone Fight Night in like they’ve been doing for years with their other franchises (FIFA, Madden). They don’t need to revolutionize the boxing genre, or re-invent their intuitive control system.

Sure, a new storyline refined from the experience gained making Fight Night Champion would be nice, but honestly, the fan base would take a competent boxing game with a regular career mode and a bit more depth in customization options.

Instead, a bit of throw away DLC on a franchise that was built off of the Fight Night engine is the most the fan base can hope for in the foreseeable future.

UFC 4 released August 14th, stay tuned for a review of EA’s new fighter as it’s likely the last UFC game to be released for the PS4.