THQ considering ‘longer development cycle’ for UFC game

In an earnings call last week, THQ CEO Brian Farrell noted that the publisher’s UFC Undisputed franchise, which burst onto the scene last year when the company shipped 2.9 million units of UFC 2009 Undisputed worldwide within six weeks of launch, failed to meet expectations this year. Last month, a THQ spokesman blamed the success of Red Dead Redemption for the sales slump: THQ planned for growth, but UFC Undisputed 2010 shipped 2.7 million units — 200,000 fewer copies — in the same period this year.

THQ is taking the news as a sign that UFC Undisputed might not be suited for an annualized release schedule, and will perhaps be better served with “15, 18, [or] 21 months between releases.” It makes sense: much of the reason that “standard” sports — football, baseball, basketball, and hockey — see a new game every year is that there’s a high degree of roster turnover between seasons. The list of fighters in UFC doesn’t change that often, so that puts more pressure on the developers to innovate each year.

Farrell remained confident, asserting that there’s still “a lot of growth to be had” with the UFC brand — THQ is putting out a fitness game called UFC Trainer in January, and will release a UFC Undisputed game sometime in the company’s 2012 fiscal year (between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012). I think this will ultimately be a smart move on THQ’s part — more time between iterations of the Undisputed franchise can only help the quality of the games. Fans of traditional sports count on yearly releases, but with Undisputed, THQ is in the unique position of being able to set its own timetable.

THQ looking at ‘longer development cycle’ for next UFC [Joystiq]