Conor McGregor is no stranger to video games.
He’s been in several of them, including EA UFC 2, 3, 4, and 5. As one of the owners of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, he wants a video game for his promotion. A fan posted two video game renders of McGregor and compared the visual accuracy.
McGregor reposted it and revealed he is “working on a BKFC video game.”
McGregor shoots for the moon with every business venture, and there is no question a BKFC game could be fun conceptually. Blood and guts fighting games have a history of success when the mechanics are tight, and the gameplay is addictive.
Even EA’s Fight Night Champion had a bare-knuckle mode.
As interesting as it sounds, McGregor’s idea has two huge problems.
McGregor and BKFC must find a studio to develop the game, and if the project is going to be a success, it can’t just be any group willing to give it a shot. Suppose the game is designed to be a simulation. In that case, the task will be especially tough as few studios with a proven track record of producing quality sports titles and even fewer have demonstrated the ability to make a strong combat sports game.
If the BKFC game isn’t a simulation and it’s more of a fantasy-based fighting game like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, the task might be more manageable. If that’s the approach, the BKFC license would only be used for characters, logos, name recognition, and arenas.
A non-simulation might also widen the net regarding a targeted audience. The other major issue that a BKFC game could run into is a lack of fighter recognition from fans. The two most popular fighters associated with the promotion are Mike Perry and McGregor. The Notorious has never fought in BKFC, though he vows to do so at some point, but he’s under contract for two more fights with the UFC.
McGregor also fired Perry after he lost a boxing match to Jake Paul in July. Getting Perry in the game shouldn’t be an issue, although the UFC still owns the rights to use him in EA UFC 5.
However, there is almost no way the UFC is going to sign off on allowing McGregor to be in a BKFC video game, as the title would be seen as a direct competitor to the EA UFC series. Without McGregor, it would be tough to sell consumers on the BKFC roster, and it is tough to imagine anyone from BKFC rising in popularity enough to influence users to buy the game.
McGregor and Co. could go the free-to-play route, raising fighter notoriety in reverse as fans might become more acquainted with the roster through the video game. In any case, McGregor is wildly ambitious, but at his best, he’s always been tough to doubt.
Hopefully, this project sees the light of day as it would–at the least–add depth to a shallow field of combat sports video games.
