UFC Undisputed's Disappointing Sales Blamed On Red Dead Redemption

by Dan Ryckert on July 22, 2010 at 11:16 AM

3,049 Views

26 1

Despite moving 2.6 million units since its release, UFC Undisputed 2010 hasn't performed as well as THQ was hoping. The company's UK marketing director Jon Rooke said "Our sales were softer than where we would have liked them to be. We know our UFC and MMA fans have bought it, but we haven't delivered the broader sales yet."

Speculating as to why the game underperformed, the company pointed towards the juggernaut that was Red Dead Redemption. Rooke said "Rockstar have probably taken a fair amount of our market share. They shipped 5m units, taking a lot of consumer dollars."

While they're two entirely different games, there's no denying that Red Dead was a sales phenomenon during that time period. It's entirely possible that its runaway success could have taken a chunk out of UFC's numbers.

I bought this, RDR, Transformers, and Toy Story 3 all in a relatively short period. I guess people's priorities are just out of whack... food? Pfft!

Anyway I think at least part of the problem is that this game suffers a bit from Madden-syndrome, where many people would not be able to differentiate between this game and '09, other than the rosters. Personally I am really digging the changes to the career mode, which is where I spent most of my time with '09. What I don't like about this year's outing is the god damned clinch game- it's really hard when you're trying to start out a Muay Thai fighter and every time you go into a clinch the other fighter can take control and then keep you from gaining control of the clinch or letting you out of the clinch for the entire *** round, GAH!!! Also the new way they do training camps/fighting styles, where you cobble together your own fighting style a move at a time is definitely a double-edged sword: once you get a few moves it starts to come together, but when you have to "buy" every little ground/clinch transition, it can get to be a headache. I kinda wish you could just adopt whatever pre-made grappling style and then just do the pick-and-choose for your striking moves. At any rate, this year's career mode definitely makes you feel like a bigger scrub for longer.

I must admit, however, that I had pre-ordered this game, and then ended up skipping it and getting Transformers instead, and it wasn't until I found it for $40 @ Fred Meyer's that I decided to go ahead and get Undisputed 2010.

@Ryckert: I appreciate that you used a screen-shot of Clay Guida for this article, seems fitting as he's easily one of the most underrated fighters in UFC, mostly owing to the fact that he's lost 2 or 3 split decisions, despite the fact that everyone watching saw Guida dominate. On at least one of those occasions Joe Rogan was basically calling it for Guida, and then the judges give their score and Joe and the UFC fans collectively scratch their head like "wtf?"
I also appreciate that you may well have picked that screen on accident/chance, and have no idea what I'm going on about right now. At any rate I was super stoked that they put Guida in 2010- he was missing from '09 because they couldn't make his hair look right...

Comments

sort by date:

by Raven K. Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 07:52 PM

I bought this, RDR, Transformers, and Toy Story 3 all in a relatively short period. I guess people's priorities are just out of whack... food? Pfft!

Anyway I think at least part of the problem is that this game suffers a bit from Madden-syndrome, where many people would not be able to differentiate between this game and '09, other than the rosters. Personally I am really digging the changes to the career mode, which is where I spent most of my time with '09. What I don't like about this year's outing is the god damned clinch game- it's really hard when you're trying to start out a Muay Thai fighter and every time you go into a clinch the other fighter can take control and then keep you from gaining control of the clinch or letting you out of the clinch for the entire *** round, GAH!!! Also the new way they do training camps/fighting styles, where you cobble together your own fighting style a move at a time is definitely a double-edged sword: once you get a few moves it starts to come together, but when you have to "buy" every little ground/clinch transition, it can get to be a headache. I kinda wish you could just adopt whatever pre-made grappling style and then just do the pick-and-choose for your striking moves. At any rate, this year's career mode definitely makes you feel like a bigger scrub for longer.

I must admit, however, that I had pre-ordered this game, and then ended up skipping it and getting Transformers instead, and it wasn't until I found it for $40 @ Fred Meyer's that I decided to go ahead and get Undisputed 2010.

@Ryckert: I appreciate that you used a screen-shot of Clay Guida for this article, seems fitting as he's easily one of the most underrated fighters in UFC, mostly owing to the fact that he's lost 2 or 3 split decisions, despite the fact that everyone watching saw Guida dominate. On at least one of those occasions Joe Rogan was basically calling it for Guida, and then the judges give their score and Joe and the UFC fans collectively scratch their head like "wtf?"
I also appreciate that you may well have picked that screen on accident/chance, and have no idea what I'm going on about right now. At any rate I was super stoked that they put Guida in 2010- he was missing from '09 because they couldn't make his hair look right...
by brian dufresne Friday, July 23, 2010 at 02:29 AM

Maybe the lack of online, or lag of online i should say caused the ufc to tapout!
by domFerris Friday, July 23, 2010 at 04:07 PM

Red Dead=cause of 2012
by Daft Gringo Friday, July 23, 2010 at 04:22 PM

Usually games don't get good sales numbers in the summer.
by gamergirl89 Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 12:34 AM

You can't point the finger thq you could have made UFC 2010 better than 2009 and released it in June or July during the summer game drought. Thq brought it upon themseleves
by silentrunner Friday, July 30, 2010 at 07:12 PM

lets face it RDR cant be beat as for UFC hahaha RDR kicked your ass!
by Kerry Amos Tuesday, August 03, 2010 at 02:04 PM

All I can say is wow, that's pretty pathetic if you ask me. Yeah Red Dead did have huge success and was a great game. But as a fan of the MMA world I was highly disappointed in UFC 2010. I had high hopes in this game as I thought that 2009 was a great game and revolutionized MMA gaming. The lack of new features or improved gameplay left me wanting much more from the latest release. They should have pointed the finger at themselves.

GameInformer

UFC Undisputed's Disappointing Sales Blamed On Red Dead Redemption