With 2015 looking to start a bit slow in terms of games, especially with big AAA titles, there is a window for some indie developers to steal the spotlight. This is especially true in the sports space, as some industrious indie folks could come along and make a big impact in either an established sport or a fringe one. As both the Xbox One and PS4 start to gain market share — and with the WiiU, mobile and Steam providing other opportunities — there are lots of potential users for almost any sport. The proverbial brass ring is there if a developer wants to grab it.

I am a little bit shocked, quite frankly, that we haven’t heard more out of indie devs in regards to sports games in 2015. Sure, you’ve got stuff like SNOW coming to PS4 from Poppermost Productions, and there is Rugby 15 from HB Studios, but there has been little else revealed. After big debuts of stuff like The Golf Club and Super Mega Baseball last year, plus other entries such as RBI Baseball, Sportsfriends and Pure Pool, there is a need for indie games to fill a hole. This is the reason that so many AAA studios (across all genres) are re-releasing games from last year, as it’s just taking a while to get going on the new systems. Indie developers can certainly get noticed while there isn’t much else around, and it would be cool to see them do so.

What sort of games could we see? Frankly, I think almost every sport is up for consideration.
 

Baseball

While RBI Baseball and Super Mega Baseball are likely to see second iterations at some point, there is still room for improvement. MLB Bobblehead Pros provided a rock-solid experience in the last generation of hardware, and it worked fairly well online. A baseball product that provides reasonable stat tracking and gameplay depth as well as a strong suite of modes is something that will play with a lot of people, especially with MLB The Show being the only game in town for the big studios… for now.

Football

I enjoyed Avatar Football back on the Xbox 360, and even the iOS title Football Heroes provided a new spin on the sport, with its Tecmo Bowl art style and loot-driven unlocks. With a competitor for Madden seeming more and more unlikely with each passing year, the opportunity for some smaller developer to try and put together a more streamlined but deep product in the indie space remains enticing. Then again, it could just be something akin to NFL Blitz, which would be cool too.

Basketball

Maybe EA takes NBA Live the way of NBA Street, but maybe they don’t. Then again, maybe NBA Jam makes a next-gen debut. Whatever the case, there is still plenty of room for smaller basketball titles to co-exist with NBA 2K at the top of the heap. I fully suspect EA will take their basketball product into a smaller direction, but this still leaves plenty of market share for some indies to exploit the depth of moves and customization that a sport like basketball allows. It’s also a sport that isn’t beholden to some license in order to succeed, and there are lots of possibilities for modes that don’t have to be carbon copies of what 2K does.

Soccer

It’s hard to say if we’ll see the return of FIFA Street, but FIFA and PES do cover a lot of ground in the soccer/football space. I think a smaller experience that has an emphasis on customization or arcade action can still succeed, especially if it plays with a good framerate and has some sharp animations. I don’t know if I’d want soccer to go full “Mutant League,” but that would certainly be an intriguing direction to take it in. Add some wrinkle to soccer that either provides an additional strategy layer or ups the speed. There are lots of possibilities, but it will be harder to stand out with FIFA and PES in the way.

Hockey

If there was ever a window to exploit the hockey space, it’s now. EA has whiffed pretty hard on their attempt to break into the new generation for hockey, and this year will be all about damage control and the re-establishment of the EASHL (which is very welcome). The same dev team previously released 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, and I think that is a title that needs to come back in some way, via EA or not. If you pumped up the visuals, added full online play and augmented the creation/customization features, it would be an incredibly exciting product.

Just the same, there is plenty of room for someone else to come along and focus purely on gameplay, where EA has always been solid but never flawless. A smaller indie game with incredible depth would not only get people playing, but it would push EA to go further than it has.

Fighting

Wrestling has a lot in common with the hockey space in that it’s ripe for exploitation. It’s pretty obvious that 2K botched their entry into next gen with WWE 2K15, and an indie wrestling title could do a lot with some awesome gameplay and creation options, a la FirePro Wrestling. Sure, there is currently stuff like Pro Wrestling X on Steam and the iOS title Wrestling Revolution, but none of these are really pushing the envelope for wrestling titles. Someone with a bigger pedigree could make a (body) splash here.

Boxing is an obvious candidate for indie games as well, but how a developer goes about it could prove troublesome. Real Boxing on Steam seems to have garnered mix reviews at best, and the Kickstarter of Ring Kings failed pretty spectacularly. It’s hard to know which type of approach would reach enough people to really stick. An arcade title would probably sell more; a simulation game would actually do the sport justice. EA seems to be biding their time on bringing back Fight Night, so boxing is viable for some clever indie to figure out how to market it.

Other

There are plenty of fringe sports or wacky categories that could be a good home for indie sports titles in 2015, too. How about the return of Super Spike V’Ball, one of my all-time favs? There is plenty of room for a good track and field or Olympics product as well. Extreme sports are also a good bet, as are certain water sports.

A good indie racing game is probably the safest bet, and it would be fun to see some additional licensed and unlicensed products arrive to put pressure on the likes of Forza, Gran Turismo and DriveClub. Then again, those title have stumbled enough themselves as to leave a gap for a strong indie title to move through. I think the rally and off-road areas of racing are untapped as of late, and those could prove fun for the masses.

I hope we hear a lot out of the indies in the coming months, especially at E3. There is plenty of room in almost every sports category for one or two companies to try something new (or at least iterate in a meaningful way). The release schedule has actually gotten out of their way quite a bit this year, and there are several big-name products that are currently making a mess of the sport they should be stewarding. The indie space is a creative place, and many sports need some creativity now.