Now Is As Good a Time As Any for Unlicensed Sports Games - Mos1ted's Blog

Mos1ted's Blog

Now Is As Good a Time As Any for Unlicensed Sports Games

Posted on July 26, 2011 at 05:46 PM.

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When I first joined OS back in September 2002, sports gaming was at its peak. The one thing that existed back then that doesn't exist now was variety. They were about five or six licensed NFL games, three licensed NCAA football games, five licensed NBA games, three licensed NCAA basketball games, plus five licensed MLB games. Fast forward to 2011, and there is now only one licensed NFL and NCAA football game, one licensed NBA game (that actually gets released), one licensed NHL game (that actually gets released), no NCAA basketball games, and only two MLB games, one if you're an Xbox 360 owner.

Has football decreased in popularity in the past nine years to warrant such a decline in licensed video games? Football is arguably the most popular sport in America, surpassing baseball as the new American pastime, so the answer to that question would be no. And basketball has reclaimed its spot among America's favorite sports after falling off in popularity following Jordan's second retirement. Baseball still holds the interest of many, and the NHL is back following the strike it incurred a few seasons ago. If interest in sports isn't waning, why is the number of sports games diminishing? The short answer is exclusivity.

What began as "the deal heard around the world" in December 2004 -- that is when the NFL and EA Sports signed an infamous exclusivity agreement -- has trickled down to nearly every sports league in America. The NCAA would soon followed the NFL by giving EA Sports an exclusive license to make NCAA-licensed football games. The Arena Football League did as well. Many would argue that EA Sports was motivated to strike these deals as a way of preventing their most formidable opponent, 2K Sports, from making any licensed football game that can appeal to the masses (and thus cementing EA's market share in sports gaming). Of course, 2K decided to strike back by completing a deal with Major League Baseball, but that deal didn't prevent first party developers, such as Sony's SCEA, from continuing to make officially licensed baseball titles.

The sports gaming landscape of today leaves many of us scratching our heads as we ponder what could have been. At this point, many of us are fed up with the lack of innovation from some of the leading franchises that are fortunate enough to still be in existence. Although it might be difficult to prove, it seems that a lack of competition is the main reason sports games haven't progressed to the level we all imagined at the start of the current console generation. Nowadays, games ship unfinished, with the routine release day patch, plus the wait for an additional patch just for the game to perform somewhat close to what was promised. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it, and it's ridiculous to think that I'm paying $60 for a game only to have it sit idly on my shelf a few days later. Suppose I didn't have a high speed internet connection. Am I just out of luck at that point? Am I suppose to just try again next year to get a game I can actually enjoy?

I know that official sports licenses are a big selling point for many. After all, gamers want to play with players they recognize and with teams they can identify with. However, I would argue that the vast majority of us here at OS value gameplay over player likenesses, longevity over features. All we want is for a game to play how it is done on the hardwood and turf, and to look the same way it looks on TV -- you don't need any official licenses for that.