Fighting was the theme of the week around here, with Fight Night Round 4 hitting stores on Thursday (one week early!) and still plenty of chatter on the boards about our recent MMA announcement.  I’m pleased to see the anticipation already growing about what the Tiburon team has in the works for MMA next year - that’s going to be a fun one to bring to market, just as Fight Night Round 4 has been for us over the past several months as we’ve arrived at this week’s launch.

Considering the bar that Fight Night Round 3 set when ushering in this console generation in 2006 (I remember being on stage with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer as they demoed the game at CES - we were very proud to have it on the Xbox 360), it’s been gratifying to see such strong critical acclaim so quickly out of the gate this year - including three perfect scores (AP, Playstation: The Official Magazine, G4) and more than a dozen reviews of 90 or above.  Many of you know how much I love reading this stuff, and I have to hand it to OXM for delivering the best line I’ve read yet about FNR4: “Round 4 is a force that topples its mind-blowing predecessor in every category. You will get punched in the face, and you will love it.” Then of course there is the great quote from Level in the Czech Republic - “best game with half-naked men on the market!”.  My congratulations to  Dean Richards and his very talented team up in Vancouver - you’ve created an undisputed champion.

To celebrate the launch, we were lucky enough to have three boxers - Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and Andre Berto - come by EA headquarters here on Thursday to introduce the game to our employees.

All three of these guys are known for their grit and toughness in the ring, but they couldn’t have been any more polite and accommodating to the team who was anxious to meet them, ask questions and check out the game for the first time.  One of the highlights must have been when Sergio went from a sparring session with his trainer to quoting Hemingway when doing Q&A  (”first, one must endure…”) - quite a treat.

Hope you have a great weekend playing Fight Night.  Once you’ve had some time on the sticks, let me know what you think.  Maybe I’ll see you online…

I’ll be taking a break from FNR4 on Sunday to see if the US can pull off the ultimate upset by beating Brazil in the Confederation’s Cup Final in South Africa - C’mon Sam’s Army!

Peter