2015 brought with it few big surprises in the overall sports gaming landscape. The biggest surprise (and it was a pleasant one) was Rocket League — a game with a ‘so obvious why wasn’t this done before premise’ with cars playing soccer (and then later ice hockey).

Outside of that, 2015 had a pretty good run of quality titles and few missteps. In that regard, covering sports games this year was pretty pedestrian. There was no real scandal and no real big, earth shaking events in the genre.

As we look ahead to 2016, will that change? I’m going to give three predictions in a bit, but fist lets look at a few of your predictions.

Here’s one from JKSportsGamer1984:

”A new college football game will be announced at E3."

Definitely an interesting prediction. Wouldn’t doubt something happens (read my predictions below).

Another from WaddupCouzin:

”Live will be digital only type game and not at full-price.”

This is again an interesting theory, and one I can see coming to pass. Again, I have something along these lines down below.

Here’s one from Clarke99:

”Also hopefully EA wakes up and makes another attempt of mvp for at least 2017, they make games of rugby and a dying "sport" of UFC but still haven't gotten back in the big leagues!”

Big thing with UFC is I don’t think the sport is dying at all, just it had a period where it was insanely popular. Now a bunch of the casuals have moved on, but the sport itself has a core fanbase which isn’t going anywhere. In that regard, its a lot like baseball. 

With that said, the market has been open for EA in baseball for some time and they haven’t taken it. I don’t know if that’s necessarily positive for any future MVP baseball reboot. We probably would have heard about one by now if one was coming in 2016 though.

Some Projections for 2016

So lets get into some of my picks for the upcoming year. These thee picks are the things I think which will end up being big stories by the end of 2016. 

1. The Future of College Video Games Will Become Very Clear - I think this will be either from a comment from an executive at a place like EA, a court decision, or an NCAA statement. Regardless, we’re going to know this year if college sports games have a chance to make a comeback. 

One way or another, we’ll know what the track is into the future. I wouldn’t put it beside EA to have a special E3 announcement if the answer is in the affirmative, but I honestly don’t expect anything new until at least 2017 in terms of games on the shelves — and that’s probably a hair generous.

2. A Major Game Will Go Digital, Subscription Only - Generally I’m looking in the direction of either NBA Live or Pro Evolution Soccer. There will be a game which ends up challenging the physical disk yearly release format this year in sports gaming. PES may have already called their shot somewhat with the free to play version of this year’s game.

Regardless, I’m expecting some experimentation with the release model to really begin in earnest with bigger games this year.

3. Overall Quality Will Continue Great, But The Indie Ranks Will Really Deliver - The independently developed sports games of 2015 were quite good across the board, the only real drawback is that there were’t nearly enough of them. 

Look for that to change in 2016, with some real gems being released this year. And speaking of gems, I don’t see any of the big AAA titles doing anything but improving. Call me an optimist, but I’m expecting every game is better and not worse again this next year.

So what do you think? Are my predictions off base? Do you have any of your own you’d like to add? Sound off in the comments with thoughts, concerns, and predictions of your own!