EA Reportedly Bringing Back Fight Night Franchise

It's been more than 10 years since Electronic Arts released a new entry in its Fight Night franchise, but it seems that the wait might be nearing an end! According to sources for Video Games Chronicle, the beloved boxing series will step back into the ring sometime in the future. Before fans get too excited, it seems that it might be a bit of a wait. According to an email shown to VGC, EA has paused development on the new Fight Night game so that it can prioritize UFC 5 first, and make sure that players get quality experiences from both.

"We're very excited about UFC 5 and… we want to eliminate the split focus that several members of our leadership team have had over the past while so we can solely focus on delivering migration and UFC 5 at high quality," the EA email apparently reads.

It's worth noting that ComicBook.com did not get a chance to look at this email, so this writer cannot speak for its authenticity. That said, Video Games Chronicle is a very reputable site, so it seems quite likely that a new Fight Night game is indeed in the works, even if it seems to be on hold, at the moment. EA's Fight Night series received strong critical and commercial success over the years, but VGC speculates that the licensing costs for boxers could have become too costly for the publisher. If that is the case, hopefully EA has found a way around the problem!

Fight Night 2004 was the first entry in the series, followed by Fight Night Round 2 in 2005, Round 3 in 2006, Round 4 in 2009, and Fight Night Champion in 2011. The last entry in the series released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so a new game would presumably debut on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. With EA focusing on UFC 5 at the moment, it's probably too early to speculate on platforms, but hopefully the publisher will have something official to unveil in the near future!

Were you a fan of EA's Fight Night franchise? Would you be happy to see the series return from the dead? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!