What Will Sports Games be Like in a Decade?

[RaychelSnr]

Ten years ago, EA Sports was creating baseball games, though still under the Triple Play name, FIFA 99 had just been released on the Nintendo 64, and the Sega Dreamcast was set to be released in the United States in four months. Obviously, a lot has changed in the 10 years since these events took place. Knowing this, what will the sports-gaming market look like in another 10 years?

Though I do not own a crystal ball, by looking at past changes in sports gaming and some of the more successful trends in the industry today, I feel comfortable prophesying where the sports-gaming world may be in another decade. I have narrowed the potential list of changes down to five select items which will show the most improvement in the coming decade.

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[C HOWARD]

Great article Jack. This is something I think about often. I can't wait to find out. A virtual reality baseball game of some sort is what I am hoping for. I just want to play OTP playing my position: First Base

[jaosming]

what about actual gameplay changes? we've gone from canned behaviors for a fumble, missed shot, or a deflection off a foot, to physic engines for all sports now

in 10 years I see mo-cap animations as being merely guidelines for "endorphin" like players. There may be a mo-capped 1 hand dunk, but if Lebron is too close or too far away from the hoop, the game can automatically calculate the change needed to get his hand on the rim, or miss it if the user doesnt change the shot.

this kind of stuff is already happening with madden's tackling and procedural awareness animation techs, but i could see in a few years the changeover from those techs being cosmetic "oh cool, he actually saw the ball" moments to game changing and defining as the AI gets tweaked for it.

[Boucher]

Its scary to think how amazing games will be in the next 10 years

[FootballSchemer]

I think the graphics will peak and plato... Nintendo already believes this thats why they went the way they did with the Wii.

I think instead of looking back at games and saying aww the graphics is going to be more look awww the gameplay is sooo bad. And features of the future is the one that can mind boggle....

[statum71]

Looking at the progress from 10 years ago...its actually scary to think about how far this can go.

Scary in a good way that is.

[onlybygrace]

Part of me things there has to be a cap on what is possible with these games.

Like next gen made the graphics better, the gameplay often lagged behind for a bit as a result.

I think we will see the same cycle repeat itself.

[RaychelSnr]

The thing you have to consider is the more realistic games become, the tougher it becomes to code good gameplay. Basically, if you want a game to look 10x better, it's going to take a lot more than that in coding to make sure you cover all the new possibilities that open up. To me, it's not surprising that games have taken so long to catch up with the visual enhancements with similar leaps in gameplay this generation. So yeah, I think the same process will end up happening again in 2013 or so if the hardware leaps are big enough.

[travis a.d.]

It honestly hurts my head thinking about the possibilties of sports gaming in the next ten years.

[acarrero]

I don't think your idea of virtual reality is far fetched at all. It's not if", but "when". I am willing to bet that 10 years from now there is a virtual reality system where you can go anywhere on the field, into tunnels at the stadium, back into the training room, into the huddle, etc. Once first person gameplay is perfected, you will see virtual reality come along.

[onlybygrace]

...virtual reality hockey would be the bomb..

[Bumble14]

I hate to play Devils Advocate here, but I think everyone's getting a little too excited about possible gaming advancements in the next 10 years because of this one fact:

Aside from graphics, the 2004 sports gaming crop still plays better than our current generation of games.

Think about it- MVP 05, Madden 05, NFL 2K5, NBA Live 05, High Heat Baseaball...etc.

That was 5 years ago, and other than the NHL and the NBA 2K series (which hasn't changed much from the gameplay standpoint), gamers are still yearning for the games they were playing back then.

Based on that tidbit, do you honestly think 10 years down the road sports gaming will be that different? At the current pace, we may just be hitting the point where games can have great graphics and play solid- maybe they won't even have to be patched 3 times to become functional by 2019.

I know, I know, but someone had to be cynical!

[USF11]

My guess is that computer programming will become more and more streamlined. Right now the DEV cycle is way to short for creating new versions of games. So I think we will get less buggy versions of games we c now.


I don't think graphics can go as far as people think. - Your still limited by human artwork and direction.

The improvements will come in the form of physics, weight, speed, force, wind, lighting.

[mgoblue]

Re: What Will Sports Games be Like in a Decade?

My guess is that computer programming will become more and more streamlined. Right now the DEV cycle is way to short for creating new versions of games. So I think we will get less buggy versions of games we c now.


I don't think graphics can go as far as people think. - Your still limited by human artwork and direction.

The improvements will come in the form of physics, weight, speed, force, wind, lighting.

Big improvements will have to come in AI in order to make these games as real as people expect...I'm just not sure that'll all happen fast in 10 years.

I do agree that the physics/tackling/animation all that will be the next area. We see that keep improving, and as there's more computing power you get the ability to add more and more engines of greater complexity to do this stuff.

[GatorBait06NC]

I agree with Bumble