What have we learned from this generation of sports gaming thus far? - Acedeck's Blog

Acedeck's Blog

What have we learned from this generation of sports gaming thus far?

Posted on May 7, 2009 at 02:52 AM.

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As time progresses, so do the advancements in our sports games we love. Each generation of consoles consist of copious classic iterations, slowly building upon the success of their predecessors. We all care deeply about the direction these games move in, which is clear by virtue of us all being here at Operation Sports. Now, let's take a look at some of the lessons the sports gaming industry hopefully has learned from with the most recent jump to our current generation of consoles.

It is possible to bring success from one generation to another.

While there have been numerous titles that haven't been able to recover from the jump to a new console generation, MLB: The Show has shown us how it's possible to do so. MLB: The Show took a great game from the PS2, built upon its success, and transitioned it nicely to the next generation. There were a few hangups in the first year on the PS3, but it was still considered to be a very exceptional game. Bounce forward a couple years and it's still considered to be the best baseball game in town.

Graphics are good, Game-play is better.

Few would argue that the Madden series experienced some growing pains moving into this current generation of consoles. With the pressure of their newly purchased exclusivity of the NFL license, combined with the typical barriers that come with building a game from the ground up for a new generation, Madden suffered. It wasn't until last year where the game really began to regather itself. Back in Madden 2005, the series was on track. It had serious competition, but EA put out a very respectable game themselves. The game-play was chopped way down in order to put out a new game on the Xbox 360 that year. Many features were missing, leaving much to be desired in the eyes of Madden fans, and 2k fans alike. Graphics look great, but a dumbed down version of the game is not what we want.

Thinking back, another game comes to mind here. Although, the outcome of this series was a little better off the get go. NBA 2k6 boasted some of the prettiest graphics to be seen on a console at the time of its release. The sweat dripping of Shaq was almost too good to be true at the time. The difference with the NBA 2k series was that it still brought the game-play.

A straight port isn't sufficient.

The NHL 2k series is guilty of this when they ported NHL 2k6 over to the Xbox 360. After receiving a perfect 10 from Operation Sports for the Xbox edition, the 360 edition did almost nothing to improve other than introduce Crease Control and bring the game to 1080i. It was still a fantastic game, but it lacked any next-gen improvements initially. NHL 2k6 wasn't the only game to go this route, as crossing over to next-gen is no easy task for any developer. Regardless, this is a lesson to be learned for developers before we leap into a new generation once again.

The first year is not going to be the best of the series. It should be the foundation.

MLB: The Show demonstrated this lesson, and other developers should take note. There's no need to try to build the great wall of China overnight. If you attempt this, it will probably come crumbling down later anyway. A slow but sure approach to next gen rookie debuts should be taken. Improve the graphics. Get the main foundation of the game built. Then, worry about the other next-gen flare. There's always next year. As with most all sports games, one year is a very small development window. A new generation sports game really should have two years of development.

By taking these lessons into account prior to the development of future sports games, I feel gamers will benefit greatly. We'll see series transition smoother, with greater potential in the second year of the new generation. Too much emphasis is placed on the first year of a new generation. Typically, it's the worst year of sports gaming, as well as gaming in general.