An Open Response to Steel City Interactive
I’ve read your letter carefully. More than once.
I want to be clear from the start: this response isn’t written out of hatred for Undisputed, nor out of a desire to see SCI fail. If that were the case, I wouldn’t still be here talking about this game at all. I’m writing because I care about boxing, about what this genre could be, and about the precedent this situation sets.
That said, your letter confirms what many of us already feared.
Acknowledgment Is Not Resolution
You acknowledged that Undisputed is broken. That’s good, but acknowledgment is the starting line, not the finish. For years, players have been reporting the same core issues: AI that doesn’t understand boxing, mechanics that fight the player instead of the opponent, and systems that feel unfinished or contradictory. These aren’t surface-level bugs. These are foundational design problems.
When a game reaches that point, players don’t just want patches; they want to know why those problems existed in the first place, and whether the people responsible truly understand them now.
Right now, your letter says you hear us. It doesn’t yet prove you understand us.
The Sequel Problem
Let’s address the elephant in the room.
You are asking players, many of whom feel burned, to emotionally invest in the idea of Undisputed 2 while Undisputed 1 is still fundamentally struggling. From a consumer perspective, that’s not just difficult to accept, it feels backwards.
In boxing terms, this feels like leaving the ring after losing a controversial fight and immediately promoting the rematch without ever addressing why the judges scored it the way they did.
You say Undisputed 2 is an evolution, not a replacement. That distinction matters on paper. In practice, players will judge this by one metric only:
Does Undisputed 1 ever become what it was promised to be?
If the answer is “no,” then Undisputed 2 won’t be seen as evolution; it will be seen as an admission of failure sold at full price.
Trust Is Not Resettable
Here’s the part that’s hard to hear but necessary to say:
You don’t get a clean slate.
You don’t get to ask players to “wait and see” again. You don’t get goodwill as a default anymore. Trust isn’t restored through transparency posts; it’s restored through long, boring, unglamorous follow-through.
That means:
Fixes that materially change how the game feels, not just how it reads in patch notes
Design decisions that show a deep understanding of boxing identity, not just balance spreadsheets
Proof that mistakes weren’t just acknowledged, but internalized
Until then, skepticism isn’t negativity. It’s rational behavior.
The Boxing Community Is Not Casual
One of the biggest ongoing disconnects is this: boxing fans are not a monolith, and they are not interchangeable with general sports gamers.
Many of us can tell when footwork is wrong. When defensive responsibility is abstracted instead of embodied. When AI doesn’t understand pressure, ring IQ, fatigue, or rhythm. These things aren’t “nice-to-haves,” they’re the soul of the sport.
When those elements are missing or mishandled, it’s not nitpicking. It’s calling out that the game doesn’t yet understand the thing it’s simulating.
Until that gap is closed, no sequel, no matter how polished, will escape the same criticism.
What Would Change the Conversation
If you want people like me to believe again, here’s what it would take:
Finish the fight you’re already in.
Not “supporting” Undisputed. Fixing it in a way that meaningfully changes how it plays.Show design introspection, not just roadmaps.
Talk openly about why certain systems failed and what you misunderstood about boxing.Let actions speak before marketing does.
Undisputed 2 should be proven quietly long before it’s promoted loudly.Respect that some fans may never come back.
That’s not hostility-that’s a consequence.
Closing
Your letter was a necessary step. It just wasn’t a sufficient one.
I don’t want SCI to fail. I want you to succeed for the right reasons. Boxing deserves a game that understands it deeply, not one that approximates it and hopes passion fills the gaps.
Whether Undisputed 2 earns its place won’t be decided by announcements or intentions. It will be decided by whether you prove, over time, that you’ve learned what this sport actually demands.
Until then, skepticism isn’t the enemy.
It’s the bar.
-Poe
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