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

[RaychelSnr]

The best sports games aren't necessarily innovative. But they do, however, contain innovative features.

Take a look at our most recent "Greatest Sports Game Ever" poll, and it's easy to match the top finishers with a ground-breaking feature. MVP Baseball 2005: Hitter's Eye. NFL 2K5: First-Person Football. College Hoops 2K8: 6th Man Meter.

This isn't to say that all great games innovate or that all innovative games are great. There just seems to be an inherent connection between those games we view as quality titles and the ability to bring something new to the table.

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

[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.

[SDwinder]

The hitters eye in MVP 2005 was just a gimmick to compensate for the physics engine not being able to replicate realistic pitch physics. That has been solved in The Show 15.

[bballshawn24]

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.

I gotta say 2k has been one of the main suspects of taking things out of the game only to re introduce it as something new 2-3 years later. How you can take out summer league, d-league, draft combine, and crew is beyond me. I take note of this and when they introduce it as something new, i simply dont count it as a new feature.

[BA2929]

In my opinion, EASHL is probably the most innovative thing that has came out in recent years.

[Hooe]

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

Strikes me as a bit shortsighted for this article to not mention Ultimate Team / MyTeam / Diamond Dynasty whatsoever.

Specific to Madden NFL, I would call Draft Champions an attempt at innovation. It's certainly a new way to interact with the same game. Certainly it is buoying a little bit off of Ultimate Team, but it is not the same.

Rory McElroy's PGA Tour has a feature called Night Club which challenges the user to use the traditional golf gameplay mechanics in new and non-traditional ways. I would also call that innovative.

[snc237]

I think everything above is true however these games are so big and complicated now, that adding some crazy new thing might just be way to big of a hassle when you can make small improvements

[Kanobi]

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

Speaking specifically about the console football-gaming genre

The days of Madden vs NFL2k were the best. Madden 05 is still hailed as one of the best of the franchise if not THEE best. And of course NFL2k5 is legendary. I owned and spent equal time playing both games because they each offered a fulfilling experience in their own way.

I think that was due to competition between Visual Concepts and Tiburon which ultimately inspired innovation and risk-taking. But now...

I've been watching Madden ..and waiting for it to blow me away with something...waiting to have that "Oh man I gotta get this game!" feeling to return but it just hasn't happened.

Madden is a good game in it's own right. But with no other bar to compare it to, how accurate can that assertion really be?

When Madden is still behind games that are 8-10 years old in certain areas of gameplay, animation and presentation, one has to ask themselves "What am I paying $60-$70 for?" because clearly Tiburon no longer feels a need to aggressively push the envelope or gamble with a formula that's tried and true.

This is getting off-topic but I really wish OS (Steve and the staff) would do something about NFL/EA exclusivity.

As one of the pillars of the online sports-gaming community, OS is in prime position to utilize their influence to bring about change or least draw attention to this subject from eyes that could make something happen.

Perhaps OS could partner with the leaders of other notable sports-gaming sites and formulating a plan...a petition...anything to bring about an end to this exclusive EA/NFL partnership.

I'd even try to make the NFL understand that their agreement with EA eliminates them from seeing the league represented to its fullest and highest potential on a video-game platform due to there no longer being competition among developers to produce the best NFL game on the market.

The NFL also needs to see that their agreement with EA goes against the very principles of fair competition that they so intensely impose and promote in just about every facet of the league.

That's the only way true innovation will ever return to the NFL-Licensed football-gaming genre, in my opinion.

[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]

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

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]

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

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]

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.