The Rise and Fall of 989 Sports

[bigdaddykraven]

Ahh, Gameday. That series, initially, pulled my attention away from Madden. Loved the use of the right trigger (modifier) to lower your shoulder to either truck a defender or pop a ball carrier. I didn't like the user of thunder and lightning effects when playing rain games when using that trigger. I thought it was silly and cartoonish.

Another thing about the series is that they were the first to go polygonal on the PS1. I never got that game back from my cuz. He gave my jewel case back with Blitz in it after I let him borrow it. Lol.

At any rate, it is ashame how their sports games came to an end other than their MLB game which became such a remarkable game in The Show. Shootout was downright pathetic and only had 1080p graphics going for it in it's current gen iteration. Gameday coulda become something if it lasted but the lack of license would have hurt...yet, I think Gameday went kaput before the EA license deally. If that game was still around, Sony may have had a shot at keeping the NFL license open to all comers.

Read the Wiki, NFL GameDay 2005 did in fact come out. It was released on the PS1 only (I think they either cancelled the PS2 version to revamp it for the next year or it was EA's deal that killed it).

They were actually working on a title called Road to Sunday which got canned...sadly.

[stlstudios189]

MLB 98 was one of my all time favorites

[Armor and Sword]

The first Gameday for PS One was a ground breaking title. I remember buying both Madden 97 and Gameday 98 and I played Gameday far more. The second version of Gameday gave us a full on season mode with stat keeping IIRC.

In any case once Madden 99 hit the shelves I never went back to Gameday. For it's time though it was a great football game.

[SmittyD81]

Actually, 989 Studios didn't take effect until Gameday 99, NHL Faceoff 99 and MLB 2000. So in-between calendar years of 1998-1999 is when 989 started to make the Playstation sports games and as we all seen, the quality decreased yearly until SCEA came back into the fold. The problem was that they only took back and redefined the baseball franchise.

Just to set the record straight, SCEA was making the games from 95-98 (when the games were the best IMO). Then 989 took over for the next 5 or 6 years until SCEA came back into the fold, creating "MLB The Show" series of baseball games.

[maddmattrix]

Yup, I have some nice memories of GameDay. If I remember correctly, it was first to allow you to save instant replays. And the presentation, for the time, was top-notch.

Really wish the NFL would re-think the need to have the license cornered by one company.

[Herky]

989 brings back a lot of memories when I was in college with their 1999 and 2000 titles. I loved NCAA Gamebreaker, NCAA Final Four, and NFL GameDay. I liked those titles better than the ones that EA put out at the time.

[HuntTaker14]

Actually, 989 Studios didn't take effect until Gameday 99, NHL Faceoff 99 and MLB 2000. So in-between calendar years of 1998-1999 is when 989 started to make the Playstation sports games and as we all seen, the quality decreased yearly until SCEA came back into the fold. The problem was that they only took back and redefined the baseball franchise.

Just to set the record straight, SCEA was making the games from 95-98 (when the games were the best IMO). Then 989 took over for the next 5 or 6 years until SCEA came back into the fold, creating "MLB The Show" series of baseball games.

I know, I was thinking the same thing. 989 studios killed Gameday and the other sports franchises. Not to mention them doing Twisted Metal 3 and 4. The author of this killed all his cred thinking that 989 made the original Gameday, do some research buddy. If SCEA would of stayed with Gameday instead of hand it to 989 it would be better than Madden today. 989 was a garbage company with title like NFL Xtreme.

[jyoung]

989/Sony Imagesoft/SCEA/Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA)

etc.

Are all the same studio.

They just had a lot of name changes and corporate shuffling over the years.

[youvalss]

I had NBA Shootout 2002 and 2003 on the PS1, then 2003 and 2004 on the PS2. They could have been good, if only I could edit players and make them more like real life, rather than everyone dunking all over the place. Then it became NBA '06 (actually, "NBA" was the 2005 edition) until NBA '09, which in my opinion, were a waste of time/money (mine and theirs).

[savoie2006]

Re: The Rise and Fall of 989 Sports

NFL Gameday and NHL Faceoff started off with SO MUCH promise, but fell off so quickly. A crying shame really, because at the time EA was crap.

[spottieottiedop]

Gameday was the joint back in the day. Plus they had the best commercials. I remember they had Packers WR Robert Brooks. Long story short, he was playing the game w/ 989 reps and his virtual self dropped a pass as if he was slowed by his real life knee injury. Of course he took offense to that notion

[TarHeelPhenom]

Gameday was the first game I bought for my Playstation as well. I actually bought the game before i had a system. The first game me and my cuz was the 49ers and Raiders. The game was great but the only thing I didn't like was the fact that you couldn't bluff your calls. So, he could see what play i was calling and vice versa.

Gamebreaker on the other hand...was innovative for it's time in that they allowed the star of the teams to show out. Truth be told it may have been overdone. I took Darnell Autry of Northwestern in one game and rushed for a thousand yard by just hitting the stiff arm button and running away from people.

[Afrikan]

Actually when they changed the name to 989 Studios and Sports is when all the games started to get worse.

when it was RedZone Interactive working on Gameday it was great.

when it was Singletrac working on Twisted Metal it was great.

when it was Sony Europe working on the first NBA Shootouts they were great.

but then it went to 989 Studios, and I think they cut back on alot of things....

from there Gameday 99- 2003 were bad.....NBA Shootout 99- through what ever were bad.....Twisted Metal 3-4 were not as good as 1-2 by Singletrac......heck even Jet Moto fell off after Jet Moto 2.

[infernoisdead]

I used to play the heck out of the old FaceOff games. Growing up in a family that didn't like hockey at all, it was my first big step into what hockey was. I've loved hockey ever since.

[MrCWS83]

I remember having NCAA Final Four, I loved that game, I went with my hometown Creighton and won the national title. Rodney Buford was a beast for me. I remember getting Gameday once and not liking it, kept it over at my grandmas and never really played it, I preferred Madden myself