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UFC 5 interview: Building an MMA game for PS5 & Xbox Series X

We ask the makers of UFC 5 about the switch to Frostbite, the new features it has led to, and whether a UFC game will someday grace PC.

Ozzie Mejia

October 19, 2023 3:00 PM

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The time is coming to step into the Octagon once again with the fighters of UFC. However, UFC 5 promises to be something a little different. It's the first in the series to be built for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, but it's also the first to use EA's Frostbite engine. To learn more about what players can expect, we spoke with EA's Nate MacDonald, Raman Bassi, and Jazz Brousseau.

"[Frostbite has] brought unrivaled graphic updates for this game," MacDonald told Shacknews. "Everything from the dynamic lighting and the overhauled character fidelity, to the realistic strand-based hair that's going to be in real-time gameplay for the first time in any of our EA Sports products, any of the clothing animations, improving our atmospherics, the Frostbite engine is really helping bring the action in the Octagon to life."

The team goes on to talk about the new blood effects, the gradual damage effects, the jump to an M rating, and the ways in which they hope to make UFC 5 a game that fighting fans can return to on a regular basis. We also make sure to ask about some of the advancements they were able to make on current generation console hardware, as well as whether the franchise may have a potential home on PC in the future.

To learn more about UFC 5, be sure to check out our recent preview. For more interviews like this, be sure to visit and subscribe to Shacknews and Shacknews Interviews on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?