EA Sports Confirms Fight Night Is Coming Back After 15 Years
EA Sports has confirmed that its long dormant boxing series, Fight Night, is coming back. The announcement arrived through a short social media teaser on October 20, ending a 15 year wait for fans of the franchise since 2011’s Fight Night Champion was the last entry to hit PS3 and Xbox 360.
Fight Night Is Coming Back
EA Sports kept the message short and let the nostalgia do the work.
“To everyone who stayed in our corner: Fight Night is coming back.”
EA Sports
Beyond that statement and a piece of teaser art, EA has not shared a release window, platforms or any new features yet, so what the revival actually looks like remains a mystery for now.
A Franchise With a Long History
Fight Night debuted in 2004 as the successor to EA’s earlier Knockout Kings series, which had run from 1998 to 2002. Sequels followed in 2005, 2006 and 2009 before Fight Night Champion closed out the series in 2011. All five games were well received critically, with every installment landing a Metacritic score in the mid to high 80s, a track record that helps explain why the franchise has kept a loyal following even after a decade and a half without a new entry.
Why Fight Night Went Quiet, and Why Fans Kept Asking
After Fight Night Champion, EA shifted its boxing ambitions toward mixed martial arts instead. Licensing the likenesses of the world’s top boxers had reportedly become complicated and increasingly expensive to negotiate fighter by fighter, while the UFC offered EA a single blanket deal covering its entire roster. That led to EA Sports UFC, which has released five entries since 2014, most recently UFC 6 in June of this year.
EA Sports UFC became the publisher’s main combat sports focus after Fight Night Champion in 2011, with UFC 6 releasing this past June.
That did not stop boxing from finding its way back into EA’s games on the side. Both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have shown up as bonus fighters in EA Sports UFC over the years, and promoter Eddie Hearn has said in the past that he personally pitched a new Fight Night game to EA, calling the idea of its return potentially huge. Calls like that, along with a steady stream of fan requests, never really went away even as EA kept its focus on the octagon.
The Timing Is No Coincidence
The revival also lands a couple of months after EA’s $55 billion acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners officially closed in August, following months of reports about PIF’s plans for its newly acquired studios. Saudi Arabia has become one of the biggest forces in staging high profile boxing events in recent years, and PIF runs the Zuffa boxing promotion together with UFC president Dana White, so a renewed push into boxing games fits neatly with where its sports investments have been heading.
For now, Fight Night’s comeback is official but still largely a mystery. With no release date, platforms or gameplay details attached to the teaser, boxing fans will have to keep watching EA’s channels for the next update on the franchise’s long awaited return.
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Picture Source: Electronic Arts
