Conor McGregor is working on a BKFC video game, but that's problematic

Conor McGregor is no stranger to video games.

He has been a part of several of them, including EA UFC 2, 3, 4 and 5. As one of the owners of the 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 that he was “working on a BKFC video game.”

McGregor shoots for the moon in any business venture, and there's no doubt that a BKFC game could be fun in concept. Blood and guts fighting games have a track record when the mechanics are sophisticated and the gameplay is addictive.

Even EA's Fight Night Champion had a bare knuckle mode.

As interesting as it may sound, McGregor's idea has two major problems.

McGregor and BKFC need to find a studio to develop the game, and if the project is to be a success, it can't be just any group willing to try it out. Suppose the game is designed as a simulation. In this case, the task will be particularly difficult, as few studios have a proven track record of producing quality sports titles, and even fewer have demonstrated the ability to create a strong martial arts game.

If the BKFC game is not a simulation but more of a fantasy fighting game like Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat, the task may be easier to accomplish. If that were the approach, the BKFC license would only be used for characters, logos, name recognition and arenas.

A non-simulation could also expand the network in terms of a target group. The other big problem a BKFC game could run into is the lack of recognition of the fighters from fans. The two most popular fighters associated with the promotion are Mike Perry and McGregor. The Notorious has never fought in the BKFC, although he has vowed to do so at some point, but he is under contract with the UFC for two more fights.

McGregor also fired Perry after he lost a boxing match to Jake Paul in July. Bringing Perry into the game shouldn't be a problem, although the UFC still owns the rights to use him in EA UFC 5.

However, the UFC is unlikely to agree to allow McGregor to compete in a BKFC video game, as the title would be viewed as a direct competitor to the EA UFC series. Without McGregor, it would be difficult to sell consumers on the BKFC roster, and it's hard to imagine anyone from BKFC becoming popular enough to get users to buy the game.

McGregor and Co. could go the free-to-play route, thereby increasing the fighters' exposure as fans may become more familiar with the roster through the video game. In any case, McGregor is extremely ambitious, but at his best it was always hard to doubt him.

Hopefully this project sees the light of day, as it would – at the very least – add more depth to a superficial area of ​​martial arts video games.