Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again"

[mestevo]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

I just don't see the love affair, anyone with the money to make a football game (licensing commitment, development costs, etc) are probably just going to build something in-house rather than give Natural Motion a cut.

We won't see the kind of thing that you describe on current gen consoles, at some point next gen when there's more overhead to do it right you'll see EA try and make the product you describe.

[bkrich83]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

Who's really surprised? It was blatantly obvious the first release was designed to be nothing more than a tech demo..

[dcal]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

You are probably right about it being a Tech Demo. I am surprised that no other Developer has bought into the Euphoria Engine for a football title though. That being said, there may be 3rd party titles in the works that we don't know about yet......hopefully.

[YanksFan4Life]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

Hopefully 505 Games reconsiders this decision for the Next-Gen consoles. There is so much more potential with this franchise on consoles.

[mestevo]

Hopefully 505 Games reconsiders this decision for the Next-Gen consoles. There is so much more potential with this franchise on consoles.

Next gen consoles means fewer people to sell their title to as the platforms develop, the current gen wasn't holding back Backbreaker. If they were to continue the franchise they'd do it now.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

How is it EA's fault that a terrible football game failed?

It didn't even feel like football, football logic didn't work and it was all based around arcade gameplay. It wasn't about to compete with Madden, maybe Blitz the League, or the orginal blitzes, but it was never a sim game.

Yeah it had a lot of potential but they didn't put the effort and let it collapse. Which is sad because a physics based football game that actually came out good would be beautiful.

There is only so much money and resources a publisher will give to a developer for a football game without the NFL license. Case in point, look at all pro football, do you believe if they had the NFL license, that they would have released a game without a franchise mode? Or would they have released such a bare bones game? Money talks, and unfortunately without the NFL, no company is gonna give any developer the proper capital and resources to make a proper football game. It's unfortunate for us consumers, but it's pretty foolish to even try to make a football game to compete with the juggarnaut that is the NFL. Market analysts are right, most people won't touch anything that's not the NFL or NCAA when it comes to football. Publishers know this, so they invest the bare minimum in a developer attempting such a foolish task.

[liftheavy]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

Backbreaker is real football...anyone who played the games respects what they brought to the table gameplay wise. Really wish they were going to continue the franchise.

[dcal]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

There is only so much money and resources a publisher will give to a developer for a football game without the NFL license. Case in point, look at all pro football, do you believe if they had the NFL license, that they would have released a game without a franchise mode? Or would they have released such a bare bones game? Money talks, and unfortunately without the NFL, no company is gonna give any developer the proper capital and resources to make a proper football game. It's unfortunate for us consumers, but it's pretty foolish to even try to make a football game to compete with the juggarnaut that is the NFL. Market analysts are right, most people won't touch anything that's not the NFL or NCAA when it comes to football. Publishers know this, so they invest the bare minimum in a developer attempting such a foolish task.

You bring up a very good point. It is the perfect recipe for one and done football titles. Not much funding so only one shot to get it right. The dissapointing thing about Natural Motion(Backbreaker) is they could have made it work because they have recources to fall back on and a point to prove with their proprietary Euphoria technology. They just quit, took their virtual ball and went home.

[dcal]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

One more thing to add about Natural Motions bail out of full on football. Even non Backbreaker fans should be a little miffed about this. NM was supposed to lead the charge into physics based football, something that is LONG overdue. Instead, they set physics based football back years because now the perception is it really did not work and we need to stick to canned animations.

They laid an amazing foundation to be built upon(remember it was the FIRST attempt, not the 25th edition of the game) and threw it away to focus on My Little Pony games. My 20 years of gaming have never witnessed a bigger fail......not because Backbreaker did not catch on, but because Natural Motion completely failed to realize ALL were waiting to see how the next edition would turn out and what improvements would be made.

Sorry for the rant this early in the morning guys, I just had my 3rd cup of coffee and I am charged up for Championship football today.

[Tad.Reez]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

One more thing to add about Natural Motions bail out of full on football. Even non Backbreaker fans should be a little miffed about this. NM was supposed to lead the charge into physics based football, something that is LONG overdue. Instead, they set physics based football back years because now the perception is it really did not work and we need to stick to canned animations

BB's engine was promising. But I hate how their campaign led to so many gamers concluding on false information and misunderstanding. BB had "canned animations" and they stunk. The passing animations, running, catching, all of it stunk. The only animations not "canned" where the tackles because they were physics based (collision dependent), and those were awesome although over the top too often.

You can't make a game with animations without "canned animations" unless the game is just only collisions and I don't know what kind of game that could be.The term "canned animations" is misleading because it asserts that motion capture is somehow bad when it's the standard and unless you keyframe there is no other way to animate a polygonal character.

I wish NM would've gave it another try, but in retrospect their attempt did more harm than good. Their campaign misled people whether intentionally or unintentionally with the whole "canned animation" nonsense, they set football games with physics back many years as a concept, and they only further perpetuated the idea that making a football game isn't worth it unless it has an NFL or NCAA license. NM didn't help the situation by dropping that atom bomb that was the Greathouse patch as it completely ruined the game's playability, and then when gamers tried to complain they released a public statement telling them to stop complaining, smh. Considering that, it's clear that NM never really belonged in this arena. We really need 2K to come back, but they can't seem to pull their heads out of their butt caves. As long as we're stuck with Madden we're screwed.

[mestevo]

I'm not sure they even did motion capture for BB as evidenced by their running animation.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[jyoung]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

The running animations (and all other animations, really) were massively improved from the first console game to the XBLA release of Backbreaker: Vengeance.

I think only the juke move animation still looks weird in Vengeance. All the other special moves look really good.

I especially love the spin move. It's so awesome when a defender grabs a hold of you and you actually spin out of his arms and the defender falls down while still trying to hold onto you.

[LionsFanNJ]

All sports games are going to need motion capture animations in some form. They only way RTP will be a success, especially in football is if they blend the usage with traditional "canned" animations. Backbreaker had trouble when Euphoria wasn't in play.

[dcal]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

It is diffictult to get rid of mo cap completetly, I agree. For me the use of physics in the most important aspects of the game is crucial. Collisions in a football game being the best example.

[Cre8]

Re: Backbreaker Developer: "Very Unlikely That We Will Revisit Full-On Football Again

We really need 2K to come back, but they can't seem to pull their heads out of their butt caves. As long as we're stuck with Madden we're screwed.

I was just reading about Take-Two's stocks and how they are among some of the most risky... This isn't because of the prospects of an NFL2K game or even their great NBA series. It is due to the fact that the plus side of investing in them is because of Grand Theft Auto... not sports games.

2K Sports aren't profitable because it is a niche market and their focus on Basketball and Baseball is actually a liability rather than an asset.