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EA Sports EPIC FAIL With Dark Match Stream

By John Chechitelli

This past weekend, I was gearing up for Strikeforce: Miami and I came across a news blurb saying that the Joe Riggs vs. Jay Hieron fight was going to be streamed live on EA's MMA site. "Diesel" and "The Thoroughbred" were hooking it up for a welterweight division number one contender spot in the UFC's biggest rival promotion. A winner would get a crack at either Nick Diaz or Marius Zaromskis depending on who was crowned the newly minted champion in the night's main event. Because the event's lineup was stacked (an annoying fact to Zuffa but a great thing for MMA fans) a great matchup with a lot on the line and maximum entertainment potential like Riggs/Hieron was relegated to the un-televised undercard. Fans of professional wrestling would call this a dark match.

Ever since the release of UFC Undisputed 2009 by rival THQ, EA Sports has been trying to capitalize on the large contingent of fans (and fighters) who want MMA on their consoles. And why not? With the UFC having paved the way and Strikeforce's stock at an all-time high with a network & cable television deal to promote a thin slate of high caliber fighters, an agreement with the San Jose based promotion company was a great low risk high reward move.

It is easy to see the thought process of a flip-flopping EA executive dating back to when they rejected Dana White all the way to their current day situation promoting EA Sports MMA. Dana says he approached the video game giant to do a UFC project and they scoffed at the idea. After competitor THQ heard the same pitch and saw dollar signs, EA took another look at the market and either fired the suits that said no or quickly reallocated the budget of another project for MMA. Zuffa wisely went up and down their roster trying to get everyone to sign away likeness rights so that UFC Undisputed would distribute smoothly to millions of gamers around the world.

Minor glitches like Randy "The Natural" Couture and Jon Fitch not complying were eventually smoothed over through bullying and strong armed negotiations. Bridges with the fighters weren't completely burned though as both currently remain on the UFC's roster; except for the video game roster which does have Fitch but is missing Couture. Instead Randy was the first high profile name EA Sports could announce as a part of their game. EA hadn't even signed two fighters when they'd already caused Zuffa to restructure their contracts going forward.

After Randy came Fedor Emelianenko and then next for EA was simple, align yourself with Strikeforce and feed off of the talent pool there and the marketing capacity of CBS & Showtime. With the current international and financial trajectory of the sport, guys like "King" Mo Lawal and Gegard Mousasi are going to become superstars across the globe and EA Sports could obviously benefit greatly.

We all started noticing EA decals in the Strikeforce cage months ago preparing for the launch. Then there was the vaunted Fedor/Brett Rogers simulation trailer. It looked okay, not an insane level of character detail but more like an anxious cartoonist's rough sketch of a new concept. The point is that they were following the successful District 9 style marketing campaign and spreading the word ahead of time to build a buzz of anticipation.

With the new year came new fighters and soon EA's roster was up to a wide ranging assortment of international bad-asses like Shinya Aoki, Melvin Manhoef and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza along with a few personalities like Jason "Mayhem" Miller & Josh "The Punk" Thomson as well as some stalwarts of the sport including Frank Shamrock, Renato "Babalu" Sobral and Nick Diaz. At the time this blog is posted, the total number of competitors on EA Sports MMA is twenty-six but Dan Henderson's name awaits to be announced as do a few other free agents.

Two men that are already included in the game are journeymen Joe Riggs and Jay Hieron.  Both veterans have faced elite level competition in the UFC and came up short, but both are in Strikeforce, still in great shape and were riding winning streaks when it was announced that they would fight on the Strikeforce: Miami card. Hieron was previously scheduled to fight Nick Diaz for the vacant welterweight crown but after Diaz failed to convince the CSAC that his medical marijuana was legit, the fight was scrapped and Hieron instead blew through Ultimate Fighter castaway Jesse Taylor back in August 2009.

Now with Lithuanian head-kicking terminator Marius Zaromskis having ascended to a title shot, Hieron was promised a number one contenders bout with Riggs... In a dark match on the undercard. That is a tough consolation prize but MMA is a tough sport. Then there was a glimmer of hope. Insert EA Sports and the aggressive marketing campaign for their new MMA game. EA's idea was to showcase the Riggs/Hieron bout through a live stream on their site prior to Showtime's airing of the main fight card.

The intent meant well but their execution was horrid. Hours before the event, the website had a picture of the two fighters and stated that after free registration, the fight would automatically start streaming at 9pm EST and some EA developers were even doing a live chat to talk with fans. Again, good intent but poor execution. Come 9pm EST, I go to the site and immediately start having problems. I had already registered for free with the EA site and downloaded the Silverlight program necessary to watch, I was just waiting on the stream to load...

After a few minutes and tries refreshing, I loaded the chat application to ask what was up. The chat was moderated and turned out to be a method of EA propaganda. The moderator was only saying expected "pre-approved" comments until he must have seen countless messages of backlash from angry of fans that couldn't get the stream either. Ironically, when the response finally showed that they were having technical difficulties, my stream kicked in. Round one was nearly over and I couldn't tell who had been winning. After twelve or so seconds a major lag began and started chopping the fight up to a point where I could no longer watch. I closed my browser and tried again.

This time when I got to the chat, the moderator was repeating his own frustration at the plethora of problems they were having. At one point, he seemed to pass blame on the amount of fans who had actually visited the site. Perhaps, once again, they didn't assume MMA's fanbase was as big as it actually is. Whatever the cause, the result was a mess. My stream, like thousands others, never came back on. I was given the result of the fight (a unanimous decision to Hieron) by the moderator like that would some how make me forget about the EPIC FAIL that I was just dragged through. I feel bad for Joe Riggs & Jay Hieron because they had an opportunity to gain a lot more fans and put some buzz into a future title match but instead competed in a dark match to an audience of TV grips and and a few diehards who showed up to the event early. Now the welterweight title showdown between Hieron and Diaz has no traction, especially with Diaz telling a Showtime associate on camera after the fight that a match with Hieron doesn't motivate him.

Thankfully, the Strikeforce Miami main card lived up to its hype and the night wasn't wasted. I still look forward to seeing EA's final product with MMA but after witnessing firsthand the level of incompetence displayed last weekend, my expectations for the game have dropped significantly. Crafting a good game is not an easy task. My fears are that the entire project was rushed. From the moment THQ signed a contract with the UFC, EA Sports has been desperately trying to get out of the rearview mirror. One can only hope that the guys in charge of the internet streaming had no part in the creation of the game, like Goldberg & Rogan just handling media duties as opposed to M1-Global co-running the show.

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