[taiketsu]

Great article! You certainly made some good points that ought to be applied to almost all the other major sports genres. But when you think about it, why should EA make ANY changes?

After all, the gaming industry is a BUSINESS and you chumps keep buying iteration after iteration of the same game with minor changes at $60 a pop. In fact, it appears there's even more chumps this year since I recall Peter Moore bragging about major sales numbers on the Madden series.

It's ridiculous how sports games have development cycles of one year. Polished titles like COD4 took 2 years, while even not so polished games such as Too Human took 10. With so many nuances in sports, from player animations to team strategies, how much of an improvement can really be made in a year? Heck, Starcraft's beta testing lasts longer than their development cycles. These sports series should, at most, be released every other year and then constantly updated while they develop a TRUE sequel, not a repackaged patch.

The worst part in all this is when sports games hype up their annual sequel by adding some poorly implemented feature and slapping on a fancy name i.e. Quick Strike of NBA Live 08. After some extended play, most gamers will find these new features are rarely well-balanced. When you finally realize how many bugs are in the game and how poorly it simulates the actual sport, you know you've just paid $60 to be a BETA TESTER for next year's game. I find it insulting and so should you.

But as I stated before, I understand sports games are a business and licensing can be expensive. I would not be opposed to paying a subscription for these updates in between sequels if game companies were to follow this model.