EA reveals October release date for UFC 5 game

12 September 2023

Whenever you think of global gaming, international esports and fighting games, Streetfighter is one of the first titles that comes to mind. And deservedly so, because the legendary Capcom franchise has helped define the arcade-style fighting game genre that we know and love today. Streetfighter is not the only popular fighting game franchise on the market though, far from it actually. The likes of Tekken, Brawlhalla and Dragon Ball Fighter Z have garnered millions of fans over the years as well, just to give a few examples. Another popular franchise and one that has gained a lot of attention in the past few years is EA’s UFC franchise, the company primary MMA fighting series. Following the recent revelation of the release date for the latest instalment in the series, UFC 5, we have listed a few of the most important things to know about the new game.

EA UFC 5 release date

Fans of the UFC franchise have had to be patient, seeing as the most recent instalment of the series was released back in 2020, but the wait is about to end. EA Sports has announced that EA UFC 5 will be available for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S from Friday, October 27th, 2023, just a few days before the highly anticipated rematch between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira at UFC 294.

“IT’S TIME #UFC5”, wrote EA Sports on their own X account on Thursday, September 7th, 2023, “Available worldwide [on] Oct 27th. From unrivaled Frostbite graphics to all-new damage systems, UFC 5 is as real as it gets”.

All of the popular fighters and then some

Together with the release date, EA Sports revealed more information about the upcoming game, helped by an official trailer. It features all of the most popular fighters of the moment, including Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Michael Chandler, Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkanovski, Alex Pereira and the previously mentioned Islam Makhachev, as well as female fighters Valentina Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes. On top of that, pre-ordering the UFC 5 Deluxe Edition will give you access to legendary names like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Bruce Lee and Fedor Emelianenko. Whether or not bonus characters like UFC president Dana White and announcer Bruce Buffer will be playable fighters as well, as has been the case in previous UFC games, has not been revealed just yet.

Frostbite makes debut in UFC series

UFC 5 will be the first instalment of the series that makes use of EA’s own Frostbite graphics engine, which is also used for the most recent Battlefield titles. This takes the graphics to a whole other level, including a new cut, bruising and swelling system, and more than 64.000 possible combinations of facial damage. The same goes for blood and sweat graphics, which have become considerably more realistic and gorier. That’s also why UFC 5 is the first title in the series to receive a ”Mature” rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB).