Once Begging EA for a New Fight Night, Undisputed's Creator Says His Hit Forced EA Back and Readies an Unreal Engine 5 Sequel
For nearly fifteen years, boxing fans pleaded in vain for a follow-up to 2011's Fight Night Champion on PS3 and Xbox 360. Among those frustrated players waiting on Electronic Arts was Ash Habib, an IT professional from Sheffield who eventually founded his own studio with his brothers in 2020 to build Undisputed. Now, with EA Sports officially preparing to step back into the ring, the Steel City Interactive CEO is embracing the rivalry and detailing how Undisputed 2 is being rebuilt from scratch in Unreal Engine 5.
From Pleading With EA to Selling Over a Million Copies
Steel City Interactive's rise remains one of modern gaming's most improbable underdog stories. When Ash Habib and his brothers Asad and Asif launched the project originally known as eSports Boxing Club in Sheffield, UK, none of them had prior video game development experience. Their goal was straightforward: fill the massive void left behind when Electronic Arts pivoted its combat sports resources entirely toward EA Sports UFC, leaving sweet science enthusiasts without a modern simulation.
Published by Deep Silver and Plaion following a 2023 PC Early Access run, Undisputed shattered industry skepticism when its full 1.0 release landed on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in October 2024. Surpassing 1 million copies sold within days of launch and drawing millions of additional players through subsequent editions and PlayStation Plus availability, the indie title proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a massive, profitable audience for licensed boxing still existed.
In Habib's view, that commercial breakout played a decisive role in waking up the sleeping giant. Following EA Sports officially confirming the return of Fight Night after a 15-year hiatus under the "Worth the Wait" banner, the Steel City Interactive founder noted the irony of the moment: after spending years as a fan begging EA to revive the dormant series, his own studio's success helped prove the market viability that brought the publisher back to the table.
Rebuilding Undisputed 2 From Scratch in Unreal Engine 5
Rather than shying away from heavyweight competition against a multi-billion-dollar publisher, Habib welcomes the upcoming clash, arguing that direct rivalry will push both development teams to deliver sharper boxing simulations for players. That renewed appetite for the sport is already visible across the wider scene, including rising indie boxing contenders like Bruisers 2D Boxing on Steam.
To go toe-to-toe with EA Sports, however, Steel City Interactive made a pivotal call: wrapping up major content updates on the original game to shift full production toward Undisputed 2. Crucially, the studio has ditched the Unity engine used for the first entry and is building the sequel completely from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5.
Habib candidly acknowledged that while the first Undisputed succeeded in bringing boxing back to consoles and PC, its underlying Unity foundation and intricate physics architecture made fixing online desync, ghost punches, and movement stiffness a constant uphill battle. By starting fresh in Unreal Engine 5 with an expanded workforce of roughly 100 developers,bolstered by AAA veterans with past experience at EA Sports, Rockstar Games, and 2K,Steel City Interactive aims to eliminate those technical bottlenecks before the bell rings for round two.
My Take
You have to respect what Ash Habib and his brothers pulled off in Sheffield. For well over a decade, Electronic Arts treated boxing like a dead genre because negotiating individual fighter contracts was far messier than cutting a single check to the UFC. It took a self-taught indie team building a game from scratch and moving over a million copies to make EA realize how much money it was leaving on the canvas. That said, the real fight starts now. The original Undisputed deserved credit for reviving the sport, but its Unity foundation struggled badly with punch impact and online netcode stability. Tearing everything down to rebuild Undisputed 2 in Unreal Engine 5 with a hundred-strong team of AAA veterans is the exact right move. If Steel City Interactive nails the hit registration and inside fighting physics, EA Sports won't be reclaiming its heavyweight belt without a serious brawl.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles "Grimtag" is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
