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Fight Night Champion To Be EA Sports' First M-Rated Title

Thanks "authentic and dynamic blood!" I appreciate it!

It's hard to believe that a Fight Night title was rated less than an "M for Mature" before Fight Night Champion, but that's apparently the case. EA Sports has announced (ahead of an official rating from the ESRB) that its forthcoming Fight Night title will break the "T for Teen" barrier by being rated Mature. It will become the first EA Sports title to earn an "M."

"As the first-ever ‘M' rated EA Sports title, Fight Night Champion showcases the truest graphical representation of the sport, lifestyle, and culture of boxing with authentic and dynamic blood, realistic body damage and deformation, and mature content throughout," the EA Sports website reads. "Experience the violence and brutality that is true to the trade."

The game's first trailer and some new screens have come out since this rating started getting noticed by the press. The trailer doesn't seem to play up the brutality angle, but one screen in particular has a dazzling amount of both physical deformation and blood. Check it: 
 

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== TEASER ==As Kotaku notes in its post about this rating that Fight Night Champion will have some company as a Mature-rated sports title since some NFL Blitz games earned M's from the ESRB before. But while these two games will probably represent the extremes of an M-rating (lifelike versus over-the-top violence), it's hard to shake the feeling that some mismatched Fight Night Champion fights might end up straddling the line between ridiculous and simulation. A man can only bleed so much, you know?  
 
  

71 Comments

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imayellowfellow

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Edited By imayellowfellow

THIS GUYS A FRIGGIN ANIMAL

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vaiz

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Edited By vaiz

MMA and Boxing are both exciting. Everyone stop being dicks. Also, this game will be good, M rating hype be damned. It's fight night.

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liquidfkinfire

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Edited By liquidfkinfire

I fell like a chump.  Before every fight night comes out, I get super hyped, and think this will be the game where they get it right.  I was hyped 1 and 4, and both let me down.  I was really looking forward to FN 4, but when I got it, and after spending a good amount of time with it, the same old flaws popped up. 
Hopefully they'll get it right this time, because I still like punching fools in the face.

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MindChamber

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Edited By MindChamber
@Ed: if they do go the mob story route, it would be interesting to see actual fights being played outside the ring for effect. 
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HandsomeDead

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Edited By HandsomeDead

This reminds me of ESPN UK's showings of UFC where they have the 'this program contains scenes that some viewers may find offensive' message at the start which is fucking ridiculous considering it's a sport.

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Necrozilla

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Edited By Necrozilla

Such a good seires. Glad the career has cutscenes.

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bwmcmaste

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Edited By bwmcmaste

Looks great, and it appears as though they have finally put the story element back into these games (gone since the good ol' Knockout Kings days)!

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s7evn

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Edited By s7evn

So why didn't they make MMA break the T rating, seems like a much more brutal sport.

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mikeeegeee

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Edited By mikeeegeee

Hell. Yes. I love Fight Night. I wasn't terribly hyped for any 2011 release, so this is at the top of the list.

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ImperiousRix

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Edited By ImperiousRix

I'm liking the fact that it seems they're heading a more "story-oriented" root with the game.  That alone makes me want to play it, but last Fight Night left a bad taste in my mouth.  The controls were just too detached from the action (unlike in Fight Night: Round 3) and it made many fights seemed to take the actual punch placement out of the game in favor of punch volume. 
Still am really intrigued, though.

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bearshamanbro

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Edited By bearshamanbro

Yeah makes sense. I'm a bigger MMA fan but boxing is really the more brutal sport (especially due to standing 8 count) and this is much more realistic. Just ask Margarito after this last Friday (below).  

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Hourai

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Edited By Hourai

Fuck yes. I want more blood in my boxing games. 

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Phished0ne

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Edited By Phished0ne

Looks good, i always enjoy a good Fight Night game, although the last one was a little meh.  I'm excited to see that this game seems to have more of a "story", that could be an interesting way to go about it.  Disputes with promoters, maybe you'll get asked to throw a fight at some point.  Could be cool stuff. 

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TwoOneFive

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Edited By TwoOneFive

FUCKIN AWESOME. love these games.  
 
and this looks like a total evolution of te genre. for once it looks like thier incorporating solid storytelling into a sports game. this could be huge for the industry fellas. look out for this one. imagine if other games follow suit

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bravetoaster

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Edited By bravetoaster

Fight Night is the shit.

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recroulette

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Edited By recroulette
@dankempster said:
" So EA are using this game's M rating as a selling point? Is is really any wonder that there's still so much stigma against the industry when developers and publishers behave like this? 
 
Actually it's quite a risky gamble. They will probably lose sales cause of this.
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simian

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Edited By simian

Wait wait there's a story mode to this? Are you kidding me? 
Boxing == WWE

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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog

Do the Fight Night games keep a significant online playing community very long after release or does it die off rather quickly?

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Agent47

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Edited By Agent47
@Branthog:  Well the FN4 community is pretty strong match wise I am not sure, but I have seen a lot of time go into a CAB to get thousands of downloads.I my self made a few note worthy ones.
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ryoma122

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Edited By ryoma122

lets hope they dont go down the road of 4 again god that was a bad game

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Liono88

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Edited By Liono88

Hopefully this means that EA will take more time and make the career mode more expansive and in depth.