EA Sports vs. 2K Sports: The Battle to Decide the Future of Virtual Football - jWILL253's Blog

jWILL253's Blog

EA Sports vs. 2K Sports: The Battle to Decide the Future of Virtual Football

Posted on April 14, 2009 at 08:15 PM.

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For those who have been following sports gaming, you all know of the constant EA Sports/2K Sports battle for supremacy. But the battle isn't between the entire companies as a whole, but rather between Madden NFL & NFL 2K. Ever since 2005, there has been constant comparisons between the two virtual football giants.

Now, I am a balanced sports gamer. I don't bounce to one side, or the other. But, there are a lot of "fanboys" out there. I can safely say that there are more fanboys in 2K's side than EA's. The number of those fanboys increases with every exclusive release of Madden. I don't like to go backwards when it comes to sports games, but sometimes I will find myself playing NFL 2K5 sometimes. But, I look for new and innovative apps, so I continue to play Madden.

But, which is better? Madden, the exclusive, sometimes subpar NFL giant? Or is it the old, outdated, but still-enjoyable NFL 2K5?

Madden NFL (EA Sports)

Now, Madden is a tricky game. There are a lot of times where Madden will impress me. However, there are also a lot of times (but there has been less ever since Madden 09 came out) that Madden frustrates me. Because EA currently holds the monopoly of the NFL license, there are a lot of people that are screaming murder, saying that its unfair to 2K Sports.

Because of that fact, Madden literally has all of the tools to make a great football sim. With the NFLPA behind them, and the blessing of John Madden himself, Madden could blow everyone out of the water.

But that doesn't mean they always use those resources. For example:

For a game that has John Madden's name on it, they seem to use him less and less with every new next-gen release.
At times, Madden seems to lack dept. Ever since Madden 06, they have been hitting us with the "Back-of-the-Box" features that have been unbalancing the game, and turning Madden into an arcade game.
The game seems to get less and less realistic every year. From O-Line blocking, to warp tackles, to 8 broken tackles just to get 5 yards.
Presentation. Madden on the PS2/Xbox/GC had really good presentation. Al Michaels and John Madden actually commentated during the game (although a bit repetitively). The replays used to be analyzed, and Backtrack was a return to that. Stat overlays, however, are still too vague to fathom, if they appear.
Ratings. What do they mean? All the ratings do is make one player better than the other. They don't, however, make the A.I. force the CPU-controlled player to act like its real-life counterpart.

But, that doesn't mean EA doesn't have anything going for it:

Authentic playbooks, authentic stadiums, authentic jerseys.
Graphics. Although the players move somewhat like robots, the player models are amazing...
Recently, with people like Ian Cummings and Phil Frazier, EA has been doing an outstanding job of listening to the community at OS. In my honest opinion, David Ortiz seemed to turn a deaf ear to the critical, and instead listen to the fanboys.

NFL 2K5/All-Pro Football 2K8 (2K Sports)

If I were anyone at EA Tiburon, I would be embarrassed to be constantly compared to a game that is 5 years old. But, its within reason. NFL 2K5 is a pretty good game. Key words: pretty good. There are a lot of fanboys out there that say 2K5 is head and shoulders above Madden, which just isn't true.

Some things 2K5 has going for it:

In sports gaming, it's the little things that make an authentic experience. 2K5 has that, hands down. From the player interactions in between plays, to the touchdown celebrations with the fans.
Gameplay. The blocking is great, the running back play is great, the QB play is great, the physics are great, and the AI is decent.
Presentation. ESPN is the king of sports brodcasting. They got everything right from the commentating, the replays, to the stat overlays.

Not to say 2K5 doesn't have it's faults:

The game isn't the prettiest of them all.
Controls and accessability. While EA has always made games for the mass market as well as the hardore, 2K5 is pretty much hardcore only. EA has simple controlls, while 2K5 has always been complex.

My perfect sports football game has the best of both worlds: great graphics, great presentation, great gameplay. It's what makes MLB 09: The Show such a great game, as well as NHL 09.

We all know that EA is feeding us constant information on Madden NFL 10. It seems they are making the most effort than they have ever before. But, I was reading the article on the NFL Anti-Trust laws, and I was surprised at some of the comments. Some people are willing to play a game with only 16 or so teams if a bidding war is allowed between teams and third-party game developers, just because they don't like Madden. If that is the case, then there needs to be a monopoly because you can't have the NFL experience without all of the teams.

The exclusive license ends soon. Will virtual football die end with it? Time will tell...

What do you think? What does EA need to do to create a quality game? What does 2K need to do to "reclaim" the top spot? Post your comments...

Comments

# 31 drae2 @ Apr 16

2k5 is not in the least an ugly game. Blew Madden out the water. And IMO, APF is still the most realistic playing game to date. However, Madden 09 did have some good points, but there are just some things on Madden that really piss me off. Like for example, I'm playing with the Bears, I got Hester on a deep pass, he's got the defender beat by at least 3-5 yards, and then all of a sudden, the safety goes into warp speed, and breaks the pass up?!? No way this should happen. But the good news is that I FINALLY think EA has taken a HUGE step in the right direction. I just can't wait for the day when/if more than one company can do NFL football games.

# 32 jWILL253 @ Apr 16

Dynamite,

I do notice this. But, I'm still not kissing EA's glutes.

drae2,

Compare APF to Madden 09... two totally different approaches with their games...

# 33 SouthernBrick @ Apr 16

Yeah there different alright apf motto is we have to give the fans what they want a real sim game. Madden's motta after the exclusive rights whateva whateva we do what we want...(like eric cartman from southpark) its my body.

There Body being the video game...you won't get this joke if you haven't seen this episode....lol

# 34 jWILL253 @ Apr 16

I don't get it...

# 35 SouthernBrick @ Apr 16

Have you seen the episode???

# 36 Dynamite @ Apr 17

My comment was more directed at your comments about EA having more than football...the stock doesn't dip or rise as significantly on the release of any other game, company wide.

# 37 jWILL253 @ Apr 17

Actually, EA doesn't just rely on their sports games. Like AnyGivenSunday was saying, they have major releases that they have success for...

# 38 SouthernBrick @ Apr 18

What are you talking about? 5 years? Its 2009, Doesn't it end going through the 2012 season and not 2014?

Madden remains the only game in town through 2012. As the article says.

# 39 jWILL253 @ Apr 19

Soon. As in three years. Before you try to degrade someone's credibility, make sure you get your sources straight...

# 40 jWILL253 @ May 5

loyshon,

Unless you've been dead for the past few months, the new Madden team has been really improving on old mistakes. I agree, the players who played on the Madden Challenge and Madden Nation are no match for me (in real-life football, or on a realistically-played game of Madden), but you can't apply that to Madden 10. I mean, come on: Pro-Tak? Did you see those videos? Not even 2K could do that.

All of those guys on that show are cheesers. And the pros probably lost because they're never at home, and they don't play video games that often, at least not as much as those losers. If the only way you get on tv is for playing Madden all day, then you are doing something wrong in life...