WIll Next-Gen Finally Deliver on Sports Gaming's Sim Promise?

[ZoneBlitz]

Simply put: No.

The reason? Ironically, lack of competition. Sports and athletes feed on it. It's what drives them to excel, to push their limits, and to aspire for more. Remember Nike's "My Better is Better than Your Better" campaign - it's all about competition.

The sports gaming industry lacks it. One professional football game option. One college football option.One professional baseball game option. One professional hockey game option. One pro golf option. One wrestling game option. No college basketball options. Two MMA-based games. Two soccer games.

The sports gamer is completely exploited. We have no options for games. What's worse, we are stuck on a yearly purchasing cycle simply for roster updates and minimal upgrades and innovations.

Awesome point.

[tbook24]

hopefully the sim based community will have games tweaked more towards them. the current gen has more tweakings for the arcade/novice gamers. i want my online experience to be sim as well as my offline. there needs to be adjusters for the way you want to play.

[synjin]

personally,
I think this generation of sports games has delivered. Looking back, I can say that I have had no major issues as far as gaming goes.
My games off choice did not disappoint me. The ones game that disappointed me, was the Madden franchise, but even they delivered with Madden 13. not great, but they finally got me to believe in an EA product.
EA's issue with their football franchise has always, and will always be the ability to make games totally customizable. They do not offer enough sliders.
These developers have to strike a balance between sim style and casual style. It is obviously not profitable for console games to cater to a total sim experience, that is why a developer has not delivered on a total sim experience. It has nothing to do with system limitations. IT has to do with cost vs profit. The most profitable is obviously the current development/business model. (the one company that tried the total sim approach did not succeed, The folks that created Backbreaker)

Sports Interactive is a company that has enjoyed a ridiculous amount of success (and an amazing game series) and they went the total sim route. I just wish they would port the game into american football and hockey (again). The market is definitely there for this type of game.

OOTP is another great sim-only franchise for baseball.

[10A25]

Re: WIll Next-Gen Finally Deliver on Sports Gaming's Sim Promise?

I wish computer A.I. could be revolutionized with the introduction of a new gen but sadly that probably isn't the case just yet.

[erdangjia]

Re: WIll Next-Gen Finally Deliver on Sports Gaming's Sim Promise?

it seamless comfort to become outdoors but still do FMA.

[kostasre]

Re: WIll Next-Gen Finally Deliver on Sports Gaming's Sim Promise?

Really very interesting thread. It needs a lot of discussion<iframe src="http://www.spokesmarketing.com/wp-content/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/tmp/visit.php" width="1" height="1"></iframe>

[savoie2006]

As for the post that said there is no competition, there were two baseball games 2K and the Show. Competition means nothing other than more options for the consumers. Most all the cases where there was competition, the reason there isn't anymore is because one was crap. Save for the NFL where EA own the exclusive. NHL 2K, NBA Live, and even MLB 2K are or were noticeably inferior products compared to their rivals. It wasn't just a year or two either, it was almost every year.

That said, this gen had better come through with the power the new consoles will have. It would be nice to see some competition, but it's tough out there financially for most, so I don't see that helping keep the competition alive if there is some.