EA Sports UFC 4 release date, trailer announced for PS4, Xbox One – Polygon

Mixed martial arts is one of the few sports that has continued despite COVID-19 concerns, with UFC president Dana White insisting on holding fights during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. UFCs most elaborately conceived event yet, UFC 251, is set to begin hours from now on Saturday night. Well, technically, itll take place Sunday morning, since its being held on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates which UFC has rebranded Fight Island. (No, the organization didnt go with John Olivers suggestion of UF-Sea, but that did lead to a fun back-and-forth between the Last Week Tonight host and White.)
UFC chose Yas Island because the organization needed a venue outside the U.S., since some countries have travel restrictions in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The pandemic has also upended UFC 251s fight card itself: The main event will now pit UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman against rival Jorge Masvidal, who stepped in when Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
As unfortunate as that development was for Burns and his fans, the news couldnt have been better for video game publisher Electronic Arts, which happens to be putting Masvidal on the cover of EA Sports UFC 4 alongside Israel Adesanya. The game is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Aug. 14, which is less than five weeks away. Two other fighters are pre-order bonuses, except theyre boxers instead of MMA stars: Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Martial artist Bruce Lee will also be available, returning from EA Sports UFC 3.
Image: Disney
For the UFC fans out there, ESPN+ will be streaming the special series Fight Island on July 11, 15, 18, and 25.

• July 11: UFC 251: Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal
• July 15: Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige
• July 18: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez
• July 25: Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till

The full Disney+ bundlecosts $12.99 per month and includes Hulu and ESPN+.
Before you ask: No, theres no word yet on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X versions of the game. We are exploring opportunities on Gen 5, but nothing to share right now, said Nate McDonald, a producer on UFC 4 at developer EA Vancouver, referring to the next generation of consoles during a media briefing earlier this week.
Asked about playing the game on next-gen consoles via backward compatibility, Brian Hayes, the games creative director, said in a statement to Polygon that presumably, fans will be able to play UFC 4 on their Gen 5 consoles, as long as both the PS5 and Xbox Series X offer the feature. But he noted, We havent yet had an opportunity to test this out and determine whether any additional development work is required to leverage Backward Compatibility. The statement is strange, considering that the box art for the Xbox One version claims the game will be playable across both Xbox One and Xbox Series X via Smart Delivery.
UFC 4 gameplay improvements
Hayes and McDonald spent the rest of their presentation outlining the development teams vision for UFC 4: a game that looks and feels more like real-life UFC action in the octagon, while taking more liberties outside of it. They said their overarching goal is to broaden the series appeal by making UFC 4 more accessible a welcome change for the franchise, since we described 2018s EA Sports UFC 3 in our review as probably the least pick-up-and-play game in the sports genre.
Both McDonald and Hayes have been working on the EA Sports UFC series since the beginning, and their approach used to be inspired primarily by EA Sports famous, long-running tagline, Its in the game. Hayes told Polygon, We were always consistently going down

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