After the success of EA Sports UFC 4 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, EA Sports and the UFC have made it official as the two sides have agreed to a multi-year extension of their current partnership.
The agreement extends the deal for another 10 years. Based on the history of past EA Sports UFC releases, that should equal to about three or four new game releases unless the two decide to move to the yearly release route, which is unlikely.
“We’re thrilled to extend our more than 10-year partnership with the UFC as we continue to build one of the fastest-growing sports franchises in the world, based on the rapidly expanding sport of MMA,” said Cam Weber, Executive Vice President & Group GM, EA SPORTS in the press announcment. “This agreement will allow us to push the creative boundaries of mixed martial arts video games and connect millions more around the world to the culture of the sport.”
EA Sports UFC 4 launched in August, and is the most successful launch to date in terms of player base and sales.
Leading up to the game’s launch, there were many questions surrounding whether it would be the final game of the partnership. It was known that it was the last game of the original licensing agreement, but there was a lot of focus on the quality and performance of the game before an extension was done.
According to multiple sources close to the negotiations, talks began between the sides over a year ago. However, they didn’t get anywhere close to complete until the launch of the latest game.
One source said that UFC was waiting to see if the game would out perform past releases before getting more serious on an extension. Once the mostly positive feedback started to roll in, it made an exclusive agreement easier for the UFC.
EA Sports is expected to support UFC 4 for the next year or more before the focus shifts mostly to the franchise’s debut on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
For you PC gamers out there, nothing has been announced regarding if the extension will see the series start coming to PC in the future. If it happens, that information isn’t likely to be revealed until the buildup to UFC 5 in 2022, 2023.