Backbreaker News Post

Breaking Down Backbreaker

01:16 PM - January 11, 2010 by RaychelSnr

For five years, some Madden players have annually dished out $60 to play a game they wish was simply NFL 2K5 with improved graphics. Since Electronic Arts obtained the exclusive rights to make an NFL-licensed video game, there have been several attempts by various companies to re-create a football experience sans the NFL label. We have seen new versions of the Blitz franchise as well as a new Tecmo Bowl game, but only one game, All-Pro Football 2K8, has even come close to tapping into what most gamers are looking for.

In August 2007, some were filled with hope when another football game, Backbreaker, came to the forefront. While Backbreaker started off as a nameless tech demo, NaturalMotion -- a middleware development studio that decided to try out game development -- later decided to build an entire game based on the technology used in the initial tech demo.

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Game: BackbreakerReader Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 51 - View All

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# 21 TheWatcher @ 01/11/10 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allBthere


	good write up, except for this imo "With all of this hype surrounding Backbreaker, it better be a good game. Otherwise, another football game released during the Exclusivity Era will be added to the Wall of Shame" I've been following the game since it's inception. There is zero hype for this game. There are a handful of poster on their forum, and people here paying attention, but that's it. I don't think people should have their hopes too high, just get/rent the game with an open mind. I'm looking-forward to it and guess that I'll like it, but even with a 9/10 rating, it will not sell a million copies or even 500,000. This is niche and there is zero hype surrounding it.

I think the hype he's referring to is from the gamers who are hyping the product. The number can be considered small by comparison to other products, but the fact that you see BB being proclaimed as the second-coming everywhere you go online in football gaming forums by people who've never played the game, is something of note.

# 22 spit_bubble @ 01/12/10 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWatcher


	...They did it not because of legal issues, but because they didn't want to "upset the NFL" (as one of the Thomas brothers said) and weaken their position to get the NFL license...

How would that have weakened their position? Doesn't make any sense.

So basically you're saying the NFL strong armed 2K Sports?

Or that 2K Sports was afraid it might influence any future chance of the NFL selling them the license???

They (2K Sports) must have a very weak legal team, because either of those cases shouldn't have stopped them.

If Backbreaker does allow you to edit all teams, etc. to recreate the NFL... And has reasonable success in terms of sales, don't be surprised to see someone come after them. Most likely EA, because they'd be the ones potentially losing sales.

# 23 KBLover @ 01/12/10 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koshi


	If Backbreaker does allow you to edit all teams, etc. to recreate the NFL... And has reasonable success in terms of sales, don't be surprised to see someone come after them. Most likely EA, because they'd be the ones potentially losing sales.

Could they actually do that?

One game maker suing another because they have a player editor that people could use to make their own roster files (basically)?

That sounds questionable. Hopefully, there would be no legal standing for that kind of thing.

# 24 PVarck31 @ 01/12/10 01:30 AM

Why is the QB in the pic for this article holding the ball wrong? I hope that's just one of those very early build things.

I am excited to try the game out, but honestly my expectations aren't very high.

# 25 Blzer @ 01/12/10 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eski33


	I will give this game a rent. If it is fun, I will buy....I like the fact that they aren't trying to compete with the Madden franchise as a Spring release date is excellent marketing....

I think a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl is a must if they're serious about hyping this game.

# 26 godylla @ 01/12/10 05:04 AM

With the camera angles being right behind your player, and when on defense being on the bottom, I am guessing that this is only a one player game? How would you play against someone if there is not a basic camera like in Madden or the 2k series? Maybe split screen? Unsure about this aspect, because it would be fun to be able to use the tackles on a friend.

# 27 Cryolemon @ 01/12/10 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBLover


	Could they actually do that? One game maker suing another because they have a player editor that people could use to make their own roster files (basically)? That sounds questionable. Hopefully, there would be no legal standing for that kind of thing.

I have serious doubts they could do that.

# 28 CreatineKasey @ 01/12/10 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bill2451


	yes, you can mathematically predict what will happen between two inanimate objects when they colide if you know the exact conditions of that collision... however we are not talking about inanimate objects, we are talking about football players... they have to be able to accelerate, make cuts, have balance, strength, vision, agility, possibly some sort of fundimentals rating (ie a bad tackler may just throw a shoulder into the ballcarrier, where as a good tackler will try to wrap the ball carrier up)... thats completely ignoring things like passing, catching, etc yeah, realistic physics are great, but without ratings there is no game... you cant just take a physics engine, throw a bunch of dummies w/ different weight distribution in there, and expect a football game to come out of it... there are many many more factors than just mass/speed and angle of approach when determining what happens on the field

Bill, that's exactly what I was thinking. It comes down to more than fairly simple physics equations involving force and momentum.

# 29 asu666 @ 01/12/10 12:37 PM

If All Pro 2K8 had a Franchise mode I'd still be playing it.

# 30 DaReapa @ 01/12/10 12:51 PM

"One of the most anticipated gameplay aspects in Backbreaker is the camera angle while on defense. You will not be experiencing your typical football game while on defense. Rather than seeing the offense at the bottom of the screen and your defense at the top, the team you are controlling will always be on the bottom"

It will be interesting to see how this will work when the offense goes deep. From the outlook of things, anyone who prefers corner coverage has quite a challenge ahead.

# 31 CreatineKasey @ 01/12/10 12:55 PM

I'm looking forward to the camera view. Defense may become more about playcalling, though. I doubt it'd be easy to switch to other defenders quickly with that camera view... if switching is even possible.

# 32 Blzer @ 01/12/10 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bill2451


	that would be at least a 2.5-3 million dollar endeavor

They'll get it back due to that marketing, though.

You know that EA is in for a Madden commercial, though obviously they can very easily pay it off. The word needs to be thrown around to everybody, and everybody watches the Super Bowl.

# 33 stiffarmleft @ 01/12/10 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metallicatz


	The Evasive and Aggressive mode is interesting I suppose.......but I don't like having to choose if i'm locked into it for the entire play. A ball carrier can juke a guy and then choose to lower his shoulder and go over another defender right after that in real life. hopefully you're not locked into one of those modes for the whole play.

I think I recall seeing a video where it was switching between Evasive and Aggressive mode during the play, the camera gets tighter in Aggressive mode and pulls back in Evasive, so it's not locked for the play duration. I'd imagine if you're quick enough on the buttons you should be able to pull off a stiff are spin/juke move.

# 34 allBthere @ 01/12/10 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bill2451


	yes, you can mathematically predict what will happen between two inanimate objects when they colide if you know the exact conditions of that collision... however we are not talking about inanimate objects, we are talking about football players... they have to be able to accelerate, make cuts, have balance, strength, vision, agility, possibly some sort of fundimentals rating (ie a bad tackler may just throw a shoulder into the ballcarrier, where as a good tackler will try to wrap the ball carrier up)... thats completely ignoring things like passing, catching, etc yeah, realistic physics are great, but without ratings there is no game... you cant just take a physics engine, throw a bunch of dummies w/ different weight distribution in there, and expect a football game to come out of it... there are many many more factors than just mass/speed and angle of approach when determining what happens on the field

that's not really what I was trying to imply. I was trying to show that during a tackle it the outcome is kind of ratings free. You're kind of taking about before an impact or how a player would try to initiate an impact.

I was also saying that in a way everyone could have the same "ratings" and you'd get different games/plays/events each time. It didn't imply dumbness, I was indicating that we wouldn't need different ratings for the game to function properly. We would want ratings to flesh out nuances and strategy though and give players the appearance of uniqueness in terms of their abilities.

So in short, everyone could have a good football IQ, decent speed and acceleration and power - and you'd still get unique games and plays, because of the way things would flesh out differently each time. Really 'no' ratings 'is' ratings, but they would all be the same.

I'm not sure I explained myself well the first time or even this time the way i wanted to

# 35 DirtyJerz32 @ 01/12/10 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blzer


	They'll get it back due to that marketing, though. You know that EA is in for a Madden commercial, though obviously they can very easily pay it off. The word needs to be thrown around to everybody, and everybody watches the Super Bowl.

This. How many random people out there know about this game? I would bet good money that there arent' a lot of people other than OSers that know about it.

They would do themselves well by putting out some kind of clip or something.

This game reminds me of the Under Armor brand. Not a lot of people knew about it other than those schools that wore the brand. Then they started marketing and all of the sudden... Everyone knows about Under Armor.

Just my .02

# 36 AlphaTrojan @ 01/12/10 05:41 PM

All I want for Christmas is for Backbreaker to rock!!!!

# 37 TheWatcher @ 01/12/10 05:51 PM

I doubt they have the budget for a Super Bowl commercial. This is not how you build a product from the ground up anyway.

They need to build slow (which they will), create a strong foundation, and then build from there. If they market this properly on the net and do in-stores, they'll reach exactly who they're targeting without blowing their budget.

# 38 CreatineKasey @ 01/12/10 06:23 PM

Think Backbreaker should maybe attempt viral youtube style marketing on the web or something?

I really think they can't afford the mass media outlets, especially given the risk of this release.

Fortunately, if the game is rock solid it should sell well over a longer period of time. Think Halo 1 for the Xbox.

# 39 Blzer @ 01/12/10 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWatcher


	I doubt they have the budget for a Super Bowl commercial. This is not how you build a product from the ground up anyway. They need to build slow (which they will), create a strong foundation, and then build from there. If they market this properly on the net and do in-stores, they'll reach exactly who they're targeting without blowing their budget.

Problem is, they're planning to release this game within months. They should have started doing this in September if they wanted to do that to people.

YouTube would be a good place to go, but they really have to find a way to hit everybody with it.

# 40 LingeringRegime @ 01/12/10 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allBthere


	good write up, except for this imo "With all of this hype surrounding Backbreaker, it better be a good game. Otherwise, another football game released during the Exclusivity Era will be added to the Wall of Shame" I've been following the game since it's inception. There is zero hype for this game. There are a handful of poster on their forum, and people here paying attention, but that's it. I don't think people should have their hopes too high, just get/rent the game with an open mind. I'm looking-forward to it and guess that I'll like it, but even with a 9/10 rating, it will not sell a million copies or even 500,000. This is niche and there is zero hype surrounding it.

Totally agree.

I also don't think that All-Pro Football belongs on the wall of shame. It is just disregarded, because it had no franchise mode and license.

Perhaps the Madden Franchise belongs on the wall, with the exception of Madden 10 of course.

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