What the Future Holds For Sports Gaming

[RaychelSnr]

Operation Sports' James Linden just submitted an article on what he expects the future of sports video games to look like. Check out his article here.

Quote:

"I first played video sports games on my 1981 Intellivision, so it's safe to say that I've witnessed the evolution of the gaming experience. Back in the day, you were lucky if your videogame console had a basketball, baseball, or an auto racing game to play. In today’s fast paced videogame world, there are sometimes 4-5 options of sports games within one particular genre. So, what’s next? There’s certainly no "cap" in sight for further developments for sports games and I believe there are even greater things to come in the next several years."

[yamabushi]

Quote:

My other hope/prediction may be a scary proposition for some, but it would be great if some of these games were scaled back a bit in terms of complexity of controls. For example, the simulation baseball games have become almost impossible for the novice to pick up and enjoy from the start. What made the Wii so popular, beyond its interactiveness? Intuitive controls.

Intuitiveness and simplicity do not go hand in hand.

And lets leave the Wii and its so-called "intuitive controls" where it belongs; at parties and retirerment homes. If you want Wii Sports controls, please, play Wii Sports.

[baa7]

I'm not worried about the future of sports games. We had the best soccer and hockey games ever this year, and from the company that supposedly is destroying sports gaming. Plus the best baseball ever (The Show), and that game is going to be around for a long while.

Football... that's another story. Maybe Backbreaker will wake people up by showing what a new-gen football animation engine (Natural Motion) is actually supposed to look like.

As for the controls comment: I don't see how it really ties in with the point of this article. But I agree 2K badly miscalculated with MLB and NHL, trying to make the game appear new-gen by virtue of a new control scheme, instead focusing on raising the quality of the overall product.

[ChaseB]

Quote: Originally Posted by yamabushi

Intuitiveness and simplicity do not go hand in hand. And lets leave the Wii and its so-called "intuitive controls" where it belongs; at parties and retirerment homes. If you want Wii Sports controls, please, play Wii Sports.

Why doesn't intuitive and simplistic go hand in hand? If your controls make sense then they are easy to understand from the start. He's not necessarily advocating Wii controls for the simulation games on the other current-gen consoles, just simply re-thinking how developers go about doing the controls perhaps. The likely scenario is that they don't actually change the controls to any major degree since there'd be certain folks who scream bloody murder -- and instead do more of the 'family play' type stuff to make it easier for gamers.

[frago]

The Duture of Sports video games is very very bleak my friend. One company will make all games and you will have zero choice.

Beleive it.

[pharcyde76]

I just hope he's right on about the online leagues. If NCAA 09 gameplay is ok, the majority of my gaming time will be spent on that title.