Unlike many people, I don't think that EA is the devil, they're just an assistant. Is EA held to high standards that may sometimes be too high for any company? Sure. Should EA be light years ahead of development with their games, especially with Madden having 20 years under their belts? Absolutely. The problem is trademark branding and what is expected/tolerated from certain brands. The bottle marked "cola" better be a good quality soda or else it's done.....but if it's marked Pepsi,,,,hey, it's Pepsi, of course it's good....look at the name. A lot of gamers pick up NHL 2K9, for example, and require it to be the end-all be-all of games or else it's a rental or a return. Those same gamers will pick up NHL09 and find it better before opening it, just because the EA stamp is on the box. A lot of gamers, non-sim types usually, start by praising EA and hold all other games to a standard of "better than EA or not". They don't even consider that perhaps EA has a sub-standard game and there shouldn't be any game used as a "bar".

The EA fanboy is strong and large. There's no denying the fact that most of the reviews, metacritic scores, articles, etc., are effected by the EA fanboy base. What always amazed me is the attitude of different fanboys and what they'll tolerate. The typical 2K fanboy will discuss how they appreciate the game, prefer it over the alternative, and discuss how it can get better. For the EA fanboy, Madden can remove the running game altogether and a lot of the "Madden Nation watching, EA is a God" fan base will respond with "no one in the NFL really runs the ball anyway----2K sucks."

I find the above comment to be funny. Fanboys exist on both sides. It's far too easy to point to good scores and say "EA fanboy bias" and then look at the rough scores and say - see! EA Sucks! If everyone loved EA, why did March Madness score so poorly last year?

As for the blog - it's missing the NBA Live score. The one area people still seem to recognize 2K superiority is basketball although the gap has closed. Hockey can be argued on both sides although my brother switched back to EA's game the last couple years. Baseball is poor by 2K and The Show is so much better.

Of course the big question is how would an NFL 2K product be right now if not for the exclusive deal? No point in debating since it's been done a million times over on the message boards and 2K will never get the NFL license back anyways. Next gen football is getting better by EA. Still not quite there but getting there.

i get some of the points here, but honestly around here 2K gets a pass where EA doesnt, for example as far as MLB 2k8/NBA 2k8 go, if EA released a game as buggy as MLB 2k8 or with crippled online like NBA 2k8, they would be raked over the coals far more than 2K was.

So let me get this straight...the review scores don't matter because EA pays off reviewers? Am I reading that right? You do realize that is an absolutely absurd opinion to have when you have absolutely zero evidence to back that up? That is the most absurd and really, one of the dumbest things I've ever read on a website. If it were true, I'm sure OS would have broke that story already because that's the true money story if it ever came to light and you had proof.

Another one I just read that I can't believe I just read is that EA gets higher review scores because they make most of the sports games? How does that affect quality? The answer is, it doesn't.

The point in the above list of games is that EA is actually making better games overall than 2K right now, which is something that wasn't true even 2-3 years ago. Anyone denying that fact, well you just look dumb. My question is, why is 2K struggling with next-gen consoles (sans NBA 2K9) while EA seems to be upping their game across the board? And when (if ever) will the balance tip back into 2K's favor?

Interesting blog Chris.

Howcome the NBA Live score is missing?
Are these PS3 or Xbox360 scores?

Ooops, I'll edit the Live score in.

I averaged em together (360 and PS3), like I said in my blog, the scores are a few weeks old as I did this and found it laying around my computer and figured I'd present it to the wider masses.

Maybe include EA's facebreaker to even things up slightly?

The goal of this list is to keep arcade titles out of it, we're just talking real sports games. I included MLB Power Pros for 2K simply because it got good reviews and made their lineup look better (so there was some comparison) even though it is fringe territory as far as the arcade factor goes.

I think the simple fact is, for some reason, EA has improved quality across the board while 2K Sports is struggling with next-gen consoles by and large. This almost reminds me of 989 sports, as they had good to great titles with the PSOne but never could produce anything worthy of mention outside of one sport on the PS2. Am I crazy with that comparison?

Gameday 97 was a great football game and then that series just fell off the map. I think 2K sports will be done. I heard from an insider at E3 (or one of the shows this year) that the 2K display was pathetic and the writing was on the wall that the future was bleak. They already cancelled College Hoops, bailed on another football game and could NHL 2K be next? They paid a ton of money for the baseball rights and yet their baseball game is an embarrassment. I downloaded the demo for the PS3 and couldn't believe how bad it was compared to the Show. Worlds apart.

2K doesn't have a football game, doesn't have a new one planned and therefore does not kill EA.

This blog disappoints me a bit.

OS used to be about the content of a review, not the score. I used to love that. These numeric scores don't really take other things into account, such as who the reviewer is or what was said in the review.

I understand it's a blog... but how many individuals keep pointing to metacritic as a source for a game's quality? Especially HERE, at OS?

The thing is though, Metacritic scores are IT as far as what developers usually use to gauge the quality of their work (sales are big too, but we're just talking sheer quality). So I think it's perfectly valid to bring them into the discussion when companies do on a frequent basis.

Plus, there is no other way outside of the naked eye to judge a games quality. Review scores are indeed subjective...but they are also the only thing we really have to judge how good a game is outside of sales...but those can be misleading or even more accurate, an indication of the success of the marketing and not the quality of the product.

The post above is an oxymoron. Questioning the sanity of anyone who doesn't agree with your gaming tastes makes no sense either.

I thought I had read the dumbest thing at OS, but 7stringking has now taken the cake. Do you realize how stupid what you just typed was? It has no factual basis (at least in the REAL world) and it just speaks of fanboyism to the 2000th degree.

Unlike you, I have ripped EA countless times over the years as well as given it up to them when they deserve it. This year, they deserve to be given some praise because their sports lineup was very good and was by far and away filled with more good games per capita than the competition from either 2K or Sony.

I just want to remind everyone I was one of the few people to get kicked out of the EA Community Leaders program for telling them their game was absolutely god-awful and saying it on my site at the time (MM). So it's not like I am an EA fanboy rattling off stuff, I'm just giving it up to them for having an excellent year. I'm also wondering if 2K is on the downward trend because they just aren't producing good games across the board anymore. They have ONE great game and the rest of their lineup is mediocre, if not downright awful. For those wanting competition (myself included), that's a very scary trend and reeks of either a lack of effort or lack of resources being thrown at the development of 2K Sports' other games. That's never a good thing.

I think the point getting lost in the discussion is that mmchriss said that they were doing better than 2k sports in general. Not that Live was better than nba 2k9, or that EA is making the best games out of any company out there. And as far as sports games are concerned, I agree with him.

Their Hockey and Soccer games are amazing. And even if you take the conversation out of the realm of 2K sports, the only sport game better than EA is MLB the show.

Now, I'm not saying that these are the best games that they could possibly put out, but if you want the newest sport game, more often than not you will be picking up an EA title.