Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya teased big things in regards to video games and it may foretell a new Fight Night, potentially Fight Night Champion 2.
Fight Night was once the top dog of the combat sports sim genre, but after the release of Fight Night Champion, EA seemingly gave up on the series altogether. Although Fight Night Champion sold well, even topping the UK sales charts for a time, the series has been on the shelf. It’s unclear why EA seemingly dropped the series, but the company gained hold of THQ’s license for the UFC, which it still produces games for.
It doesn’t help that boxing’s popularity has declined in recent years, so EA has no motivation to resurrect the Fight Night series. However, a recent tweet from a boxing legend hints that may all change.
Is Fight Night Champion 2 confirmed?
EA has not confirmed Fight Night Champion 2 or any new game in the series, but Oscar De La Hoya hinted that it may be in development.
The 11-time champion celebrated the 18th anniversary of Fight Night Round 3 with a teaser. The game featured De La Hoya on the cover, which explains his enthusiasm for the game. At the tail end of De La Hoya’s post, he states that a “huge announcement” will be coming soon regarding the “game sector.”
While EA left the franchise adrift, it never officially “killed it.” Although it did close down servers for older Fight Night titles, EA continues server support for Fight Night Champion. The game averages over 3,000 players daily, an impressive number for a 14-year-old game.
EA is getting more active when it comes to sports, with a return to college football and the revival of Skate both coming. Whether this is indicative of EA branching out or a lack of bandwidth to tackle a project like this is unclear.
Are there any Fight Night boxing video game alternatives?
Those looking for a new boxing game can look to Undisputed as the closest alternative to Fight Night.
After EA’s hiatus from the franchise, games publisher Steel City Interactive took to the task. The publisher’s sole title is Undisputed, a boxing game with similar mechanics and visuals to Fight Night. Undisputed was released on Steam Early Access in January 2023 and hasn’t left it since then. However, boxing fans didn’t give Undisputed a warm welcome.
Reviewers often compared Undisputed to Fight Night Champion, citing that the decade-old game had better presentation and balanced mechanics. Undisputed was also plagued with technical issues that led to long loading screens and random crashes. If EA ever returns to the boxing game niche then Undisputed might be in trouble.