After their surprise announcement that they had plucked the UFC license from ‘streamlining’  publisher THQ, EA have today confirmed the developer behind their shiny new combat sports acquisition.

Snuggled up in EA Sports HQ in Canada, ‘Team Fight Night’, developers of the very well received boxing ‘Fight Night’ series, will be in charge of development duties on games based on the UFC license.  EA’s last dabble in MMA licensed waters came in the form of the underrated ‘EA MMA‘, which although solid, lacked the name, recognition and gravitas that the UFC brand provides.  EA MMA was developed by EA Tiburon; the branch of EA Sports that often finds itself developing their American Football titles.

Creative director of the Fight Night team, David Hayes, had this to day regarding EA’s acquisition of the UFC license; “When we found out that EA and the UFC would be working together, the team was excited. Most of the team didn’t even know about it until the announcement at E3. We were all watching it together and when Andrew Wilson and Dana White took the stage, everybody starting cheering. It was great.”

Hayes further commented; “For me personally, the UFC is something that I grew up with. I remember watching the first UFC events when I was a teenager and it’s amazing to see how they have evolved and flourished. Ultimately, we’re huge fans, we think we have a great team and we are really excited to be taking on this new challenge. We look forward to bringing the UFC video game experience to new heights.”

All inspirational stuff, but the proof, as ever, remains firmly in the pudding.  As a long-time, frequent player of the excellent Yukes developed UFC Undisputed titles, I am very eagerly awaiting the first details on EA’s inaugural foray into the UFC license.

No details regarding the EA UFC game have been released and target platforms haven’t been mentioned either.  A cross-gen effort across current and future Sony and Microsoft hardware seems likely however.