Fan Vote Will Determine Cover Fighter for EA Sports UFC

Amazon has added placeholder box art to listings (One – PS4) for the upcoming UFC game from EA Sports. Interestingly despite having been referred to up until now as “EA Sports UFC” a few retailers including Amazon and Walmart have switched the product name to “UFC”. All the EA Sports titles feature the logo prominently in the center so its presence in the box art doesn’t suggest otherwise. Certainly the EA Sports in front of UFC helps define the product better than without it and it will likely continue to be referred to that way regardless. 

Originally lost in the shuffle of all the dramatic news coming out of E3 last week is that UFC president Dana White stated the fighter to grace the cover will be determined by fan voting. So this is definitely just placeholder art and the individual featured here is not someone from the promotion. Given that the placeholder art originally sent out for FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, and NBA Live 14 were similar in style to their final versions means they may simply swap out the figure on the cover once the determination has been made on who it will be.

Cover voting campaigns have become increasingly popular at EA Sports and have been picked up on by other publishers as well – including with THQ’s UFC Undisputed 3 which went to Anderson Silva. They provide for early dialogue with fans and cheap exposure that would have been otherwise non-existent that far in advance of a game’s release. Response towards the voting concept of determining a cover however has grown increasingly more hostile in the last couple years with many fans feeling antagonized by processes that are hyped beyond their worth, flawed, untrustworthy, and far too lengthy.

UFC won’t be releasing until next April at the earliest. Like NBA Live 14 it will be exclusive to the two next-gen consoles. At E3 eight gameplay features were detailed.