The State of Sports Games After E3 2012 - fakeimmigrant's Blog

fakeimmigrant's Blog

The State of Sports Games After E3 2012

Posted on June 9, 2012 at 04:32 PM.

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Being the first E3 I was unable to attend in four years, I had to get a lot of information about the upcoming slate of games from a number of different sites. While it was easy to get information on titles such as Tomb Raider, Beyond, The Last of Us and many others, the sports genre was essentially cast aside by most major gaming sites outside of the dedicated ones. While Operation Sports and Pasta Padre offered sufficient sports coverage, those who don�t frequent those two sites or who want even more in-depth coverage (and differences in opinions) were left in the dark.

Regardless of sales figures, the Sports Video Game genre has become a niche one with only the most important of news getting noticed. One of the biggest news story of E3 involved the transfer of the licencing rights of the UFC from THQ to EA. This was one of the few sports related news stories to get coverage around the internet. If it wasn�t for THQ�s financial troubles and the closure of their San Diego Studio, then some sites may have skipped this announcement altogether. At the same time, some sites were posting news stories about the existence of an NBA Live game (or the resurrection of an EA NBA game) as something new when in fact, they had made this public months prior. That including members of EA�s staff publicly admitting a game was in development as far back as February (to me directly).

What exactly is the state of sports game in 2012? For those who follow the genre, you will have noticed that over the years, developers, and more specifically publishers, have limited the amount of information made public to the masses. Instead of showing off a lot of their game(s) at E3, the developers have decided it is best to �trickle� out information and to be extremely selective with what is revealed. For example, a lot of what was shown at E3 regarding both FIFA and Madden were shown to press weeks before E3 while they had to wait until the Expo to publish that information. Then, as in previous years, those seeing the games for the first time did so behind closed doors.

Both NBA Live and NBA 2K13 were shown for the first time at the Expo but both were very underwhelming. NBA Live won�t be ready for attention until probably August or September. The same holds true for 2K Sports� NBA 2K13 which will also not see much until the second half of the year. While 2K did show off the game in action, a lot of the game�s new features and gameplay changes won�t be made public until a later date.

With so few sports games on the market and them not getting much attention, perhaps it is time for sports games to skip E3 altogether. EA typically holds Spring and Summer showcases where the press is able to get hands-on with their sports titles. As mentioned earlier, EA did host Press Events for their sports games prior to E3.

With 2K Sports and Konami the only other publishers with sports games (excluding THQ�s WWE franchise), is it really worth the developers trouble to attend E3 and show their games to small number of gaming sites/publications? In the case of Soccer, both Pro Evolution and FIFA will get a lot more attention this summer at GamesCon in Germany; both publishers could simply wait until then to really showcase what their latest game will feature (and both will get a lot of love from the European Press).

It does make some sense for sports titles like NCAA Football and Madden NFL to get shown at E3. Considering both games launch two months after E3, it is essentially the last time most members of the press will see the game(s) prior to release. Madden might get some additional coverage come July and/or Early August, but nothing substantial. Considering how sites like Pasta Padre and OS don�t send their writers to many events and that neither are located in the SF Bay area (where 2K�s PR firm is located and EA�s headquarters), seeing the game multiple times is extremely difficult unless they accept free trips from the publishers..

An interesting thing to consider with sports games is if we can classify Racing as part of the genre, or at least enough of a sibling that the two could fit under one branch.. NASCAR and F1 are sports but most major gaming sites separate racing from sports regardless of the brand of cars being used. The racing genre has seen a huge decline in games published yearly but it still gets a lot of attention from all publications. This is surprising since Traditional sports games still sell more than racing games although both release close to the same number of titles per year.

Typically, outside of GamesCon for Soccer and Racing titles, E3 is the only real opportunity for sports games to get a view from a lot of gaming sites. Racing games do make an appearance at PAX and some arcade-centric sports titles are playable at similiar events, there are very few other opportunities made available for sports titles to be shown publicly.

As someone who plays sports games on a regular basis, have only a few sites available to get information on upcoming titles is quite difficult. It was nice when you could turn to just about any gaming site and get a number of different opinions on an sports game and know you�re getting the best possible information. With two dedicated sports sites, which still tend to sway more towards certain sports games over others, it is becoming difficult to get the information someone may crave.

To be quite honest, this is the low period for the genre. Publishers limit what is shown and the bigger sites are not willing to attract readers with information given to them via press releases. Major sites want to be able to gain access to a game well in advance so that they can post videos, previews and do features. If the publisher only gives them access to the game days before release, there is no point for them to put in that extra effort. It�s a funny catch-22 and neither participant is willing to budge.