Has Innovation Become a Thing of the Past With Sports Games?

[MAGboyswifT27]

I made a comment on innovation recently in regards to Madden. I strongly believe Madden hasn't been innovative like it used to be. The lack of competition with the license being owned by EA, new developers/team, and a yearly game with roster updates, minor additions/subtractions etc are a few factors that play into this with others I may have missed. I'm not saying that I won't play the Madden titles or that I'm hating on it because I've played every title since these changes have occurred. And I love the game of football, I mean it's the only American Football title we have left. But games such as MLB The Show do their very best to simulate what a sports gamer would want in their game. As mentioned in this article it's the small things and attention to details that bring sports gamers back to purchasing that game. I hope that whatever game you play that you're receiving that fulfillment. MLB, NBA heads are receiving that. I'm not sure I can say the same for us NFL heads. The hope is that Madden continues to get better, Madden 15 was a start. Now continue to build on that and prove me wrong with the old school "innovative" motto, "if it's in the game, it's in the game..."

[razorkaos]

The problem with sports games and innovation is the fact that you have to deal with the limitations the sport you're trying to recreate digitally imposes to you, at least in the case of realistic (or wannabe realistic games) sports games.



It's really hard at this point to add a gimmick (let's face it, most innovations in sports games were simple gimmicks or just things that needed to be in the games but the lack of tech made these things complicated to put in these games)



I gotta say, it's easier to innovate when it comes to arcade sports games, like NFL Blitz or NBA Jam. You can throw every absurd thing your creativity allows you to conceive and it's ok, but when we talk about realistic sports games... It's complicated

[BigMacAttack22]

In design, you are often one of two things: a generalist or a specialist. Generalists change the world, specialists perfect it.

It seems, in that vein, sports games have drifted toward the specialized end of things. After many years, we have a very good idea of what makes a good sports game. Franchises that deviated too much from the formula of what makes these games fun have been filtered out by the market. That means the core of most sports games, especially the ones that have been around longest, is not going to change. I think that's okay.

Think about it weight training. When a person begins the effects can initially be dramatic. Then they plateau. The work gets harder and slower, and the changes are less readily visible. Like an athlete toning his or her muscles, developers are now toning their games.

The opportunity now is to strive for perfection. In most aspects – graphics, physics, realism, atmosphere, replayability – the sports games we love are inching closer to that goal. Personally, I am excited to see where it all leads leads.

[The GIGGAS]

Let me just pose two questions: Did Super Mega Baseball innovate at all? Did The Golf Club innovate at all?

In any genre, you're not going to find much innovation in the core games. It's always found in niche or indie games. The sports indie scene is currently not great, but there are games out there that innovate in a sports game. It's just harder to find.

[KBLover]

I'm beginning to wonder. MLB15's directional hitting is "innovative" to its series, but it's very similar to MVP's hitting system. BBPro '98 had a similar idea as well.

I think innovation is going more to the "surface" things in sports games. The lightning system is an example.

The frontier that has the most room to grow is game AI - and there's been precious little innovation there. Games are getting prettier, but they aren't getting smarter at the same rate.

[slgrant]

Quote: Originally Posted by Guapo516

I think we are getting to the point where it's going to be hard to innovate but we aren't there yet. NBA 2k is the game that's closest to being the game that reaches its ceiling and even that series has work to do.

You're wrong. The show is the best sim sports on the market.

[BizDevConglomerate]

Hear me out, I'm watching my daughter and her cousin playing Marvel Lego edition the other day, I'm completely blown away how they have made that platform so alive. They have many facets of marvel intertwined into the experience, it's a combination of grand theft auto, batman, in an open world platform. In don't play anything but sports, but if they took a page from the devs that create these open world platform games in could see sports gaming change forever.

That would mean scrapping everything they have now and building from scratch, which would great. Madden is still using cleats from 2010. How is that?

The best sign of innovation I see is in the Rory McElroy. This could be a pilot for other titles. Don't release every year, but provide updates and doc to support the changes. I've raised this point many times on here and on their posts. But people don't feel me.

I can't see how people are saluting mlb the show, I bought it played it once and never touched my ps4 again. The fact that Sony won't allow backwards compatibility had forced me to give up on Sony all together, and switch to xbox. There is nothing wise than manufactures and companies giving little effort to wow their customers. These gaming companies are very lackluster in that department.

EA sports seems to only be concerned with graphics. 2k is good but not great.

Sorry for the typos.

[Mr.Smif]

With all these monopolies id say yes, innovation has become a thing of the past. The only company/sports game I see really taking changes in the NBA 2K series. Yeah they get a lot of complaints but they have a lot more stuff in their game for people to complain about. If it wasn't for 2K Sports, sports games wouldn't be where they are today.