Will next-gen Madden/sports games regress again like they did for this gen?

[Lieutenant Dan]

I think we all remember too well being so excited for the new systems (360/PS3) and their possibilities for sports games, especially coming off of NFL2k5, Madden 2005, etc. Then the first few years (at least) of Madden on 360 was pretty disappointing, with a stripped down approach as opposed to building on top of what we had in 2004/2005.

So, the next gen is looming ahead. This gen's games are really coming around nicely: EA's NHL series, NBA 2k, and Sony's The Show are incredible. And even Madden and NCAA Football are finally getting their game on.

It's my thinking that maybe the gulf in graphics/power won't be so huge between this gen and next that we can see much more carry-over in these great titles and start ADVANCING them much faster. The games are already in HD, so programmers are already used to resource management (which was less of an issue in last gen boxes).

What say you? Good leaping off point for a smoother transition to next gen systems, or are we going to have to regress and reboot all these series all over again?

[roadman]

Nah, I don't think the same mistake will be done twice.

That's putting a lot of faith into Cam Weber and I don't think he would allow it to happen.

Just a gut feeling.

[BigSpleen]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lieutenant Dan

I think we all remember too well being so excited for the new systems (360/PS3) and their possibilities for sports games, especially coming off of NFL2k5, Madden 2005, etc. Then the first few years (at least) of Madden on 360 was pretty disappointing, with a stripped down approach as opposed to building on top of what we had in 2004/2005. So, the next gen is looming ahead. This gen's games are really coming around nicely: EA's NHL series, NBA 2k, and Sony's The Show are incredible. And even Madden and NCAA Football are finally getting their game on. It's my thinking that maybe the gulf in graphics/power won't be so huge between this gen and next that we can see much more carry-over in these great titles and start ADVANCING them much faster. The games are already in HD, so programmers are already used to resource management (which was less of an issue in last gen boxes). What say you? Good leaping off point for a smoother transition to next gen systems, or are we going to have to regress and reboot all these series all over again?

how can it regress more? It's pretty bad now as it is.

[carolinacrazy]

I doubt we will see any regression. From what I'm hearing, the focus will mainly be on Memory Capabilities rather than Graphical Improvements.

So it will likely be a seamless transition, but we will be buying our games off of Xbox Live Marketplace instead of purchasing a disk.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Quote: Originally Posted by carolinacrazy

I doubt we will see any regression. From what I'm hearing, the focus will mainly be on Memory Capabilities rather than Graphical Improvements. So it will likely be a seamless transition, but we will be buying our games off of Xbox Live Marketplace instead of purchasing a disk.

Your first paragraph sounds good and makes sense.

But downloading games and no disks part sounds awful to me, even though it'll likely turn out that way sooner than later.

I LIKE real media! Love my dvds and blurays and videogames, even though they take up some space. I like sitting in front of my collection and looking thru them to see what I want to watch or play, rather than just looking at a list of a hard drive.

But back on topic....your original point of focusing on memory rather than graphics horsepower is in keeping with what I was thinking too. It SHOULD be a smoother transition.

Hell if we're lucky the next gen memory resources will be sufficient to have the players wear their team helmets in the Pro Bowl again!

[kjcheezhead]

It's lose/lose. They could start from scratch, which means the games will be bare bones for at least the first couple versions or more... or the other possibility is they port the xbox 360 game, which is just as bad if you are someone like me who has never really enjoyed the game on these systems.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by carolinacrazy

I doubt we will see any regression. From what I'm hearing, the focus will mainly be on Memory Capabilities rather than Graphical Improvements. So it will likely be a seamless transition, but we will be buying our games off of Xbox Live Marketplace instead of purchasing a disk.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lieutenant Dan

Your first paragraph sounds good and makes sense. But downloading games and no disks part sounds awful to me, even though it'll likely turn out that way sooner than later. I LIKE real media! Love my dvds and blurays and videogames, even though they take up some space. I like sitting in front of my collection and looking thru them to see what I want to watch or play, rather than just looking at a list of a hard drive. But back on topic....your original point of focusing on memory rather than graphics horsepower is in keeping with what I was thinking too. It SHOULD be a smoother transition. Hell if we're lucky the next gen memory resources will be sufficient to have the players wear their team helmets in the Pro Bowl again!

By increasing the amount of RAM in the new consoles, that will also affect graphics.

They will have better GPUs as well, which would also increase graphics capabilities.

First off, game developers will ALWAYS focus on graphics to a certain extent, as that is the first hook that gets the sale. Even if that weren't the case, the next consoles will perform better graphically as a consequence of the better hardware that they are sure to have.

[crenk]

best thing to do is keep buying your ps3 or 360 games, which at that time will likely be really good, for a few cycles while they work the kinks out on ps4 and 720