Fight Night Champion Is EA Sports' First M-Rated Game



Not yet officially rated by the ESRB, promotional copy on the game's official page bills EA Sports' next boxer as the publisher's first ever M-rated game.
"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," says EA Sports. "Experience the violence and brutality that is true to the trade."
Scuttlebutt and forum comments over the past few weeks had Fight Night Champion, the fifth installment of the boxing simulation, as an M-rated title, and gory screenshots certainly seemed to be the reason why. "Mature content throughout," indicates it may go deeper than that.
M-rated sports games are not unprecedented - Blitz: The League and its sequel certainly comes to mind. None, however, have the kind of stature of the Fight Night brand, nor have they been as highly acclaimed. EA Sports assuredly knows its the median age of its user base and took it into account before acting, but this is a bold step nonetheless.
[via Pasta Padre]




Predict The Mature Content In Fight Night Champion



Yesterday, EA Sports confirmed that Fight Night Champion will be its first M-rated sports game ever. The sweet science is a dirty business - how far will the game go in presenting that?
Right off the bat, I'd say they're going to stop gimping the lyrics in the soundtracks. It always sounds hideous, but they have to if they want to hit that E or T, because the ESRB considers all content on the game the publisher's responsibility, whether it was originally written for it or not.
But after that, what are we going to see? We know from the debut trailer there will be a heavy roleplay component within the game's career mode. What's that mean? Steroids? Throwing a fight? Gratuitous and profligate f-bombardment? Out-of-the-ring violence? Profuse bleeding? Chewing ears? Beating a stuntman with a cell phone? Is your trainer going to hold your junk for the pre-fight piss after your hands are taped and gloved?
Let's put it to a vote! Box covers for Mature games typically list five to six content descriptors explaining why it got that rating from the ESRB. For the board's official definitions of the descriptors, check here. Then pick six, and tell everyone why in the comments below!