What's up with big budget sports games? Let's discuss.... - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

What's up with big budget sports games? Let's discuss.... Stuck

Posted on January 22, 2009 at 04:14 PM.

(4)

One trend I have seen taking over big budget sports games the past couple of years is that there are very few complete and utter duds in sports gaming anymore.

I know some here want to proclaim some games as terrible, but I'm talking about the sports games like NBA Live 06 and NFL Gameday 2001. I'm talking about major releases with such large budgets that it is just a head scratcher how they turned out so terrible.

It seems like we don't have any incredible hits either for sports gaming out of these titles either. There are a ton of extremely good titles as well, such as NHL 09, MLB '08: The Show (soon to be 09) and NBA 2K9. But there are no incredibly great titles.

You know the games I'm talking about. Games which you could play for years and not get bored with them. Some people have preferences of some games over others, but there aren't any games that are reviewing all that high across the board anymore.

My theory is that the development time needed to produce great games in this generation is around 2-3 years. When you take sports games which are developed over 12 months, you just can't get everything accomplished you want to. On the same token, I think studios are experienced enough not to completely drop the ball and create a truly terrible game nowadays.

So what do you think? Are there any historically good or bad sports games out there I'm overlooking? Why do you think games aren't achieving greatness in this generation?

Comments

# 1 luv_mist @ Jan 22

In all honesty, I've been a solid supporter of this type of thinking. These companies could use a full 2 years like all other big budget titles. Maybe they can alternate years in release. It seems like it would be the most sensible thing for them to do. The only problem is the fact that they have reach the level where their games could stand the test of time for two whole years.

I can honestly see us getting closer to this type of option.These companies have to really put their foot into the pot though . PC gaming seems to be the only true platform to allow the best updates at this point.......

# 2 SDwinder @ Jan 22

The Show 08 and NHL 09 are outstanding games period. The definition of a great sports game to me is can it be played and had fun with by both inexperienced and veteran jocks. And yet can the gameplay and strategy separate the men from the boys. Basically, does the game scale well.

Both of these games were a blast for all, but had the depth to really benefit those in the know.

# 3 OMT @ Jan 23

I don't think the sports gaming potetial market is big enough to justify a two year development (for subsequent games.. the first in the series will need 2-3 years). Why would a company go to every other year unless they are going to double their sales? I don't think that would happen.

Trust me, those of us that make the games would LOVE to have more time. But I can also understand why we do them yearly.

# 4 JohnDoe8865 @ Jan 23

A company could always take the approach that the Call Of Duty franchise takes, and give it to two development teams (Infinity Ward & Treyarch) and give each team two years to improve on the product. Not only would it be a better product (in theory) but it would also make each yearly iteration feel a bit fresher.

Now you could have consistent improvement in certain areas like art (stadiums, uniforms, helmets, logos, bowl art, etc.) and have some carry over between the teams like the art guys, the animation guys, the AI guys, but leave it so that the meat of the game can be tuned heavily enough by each team that the game feels different enough, yet retains the core values that make the game what it is.

So the NCAA 08 team would be doing NCAA 10 for example and the NCAA 09 team would be hard at work on NCAA 11.