The Sports Dilemma

The Sports Dilemma

Every year it happens: Madden mania. People line up for midnight launches around the U.S. just to get their yearly copy of Madden. Through good and bad, the faithful have always been there regardless of quality or cost.

And every year it happens, the forums flood with problems, issues, bugs, gripes, discrepancies, and downright loathing of features added or taken away.

It’s not just Madden, even though it might be the most popular of the yearly sports titles released here in the states, both EA and 2k Sports are guilty – FIFA 10, NHL 10, NBA 2K10, The Bigs 2, MLB 2K9, the list can go on and on. This dilemma is something I started to notice at the beginning of the Xbox 360/Ps3 era. When Madden 2006 came out for the Xbox 360, it was a disappointment; ten dollars more for a game that was hardly a “Next Gen” experience. What should have been the pioneer in sports gaming fell flat.

It can be said that the development cycle fell awkwardly between Madden 2005 and the insurgence of a new console, one which proved difficult to pump out a new version so quickly. But what about prior years? What about the same bugs and issues that would crop up year after year? Since then I haven’t bought another copy of Madden. A series in which fellow writer Dustin and I shared countless games is no longer an instant yearly purchase.

The NHL series, my favorite of all, just didn’t feel right up until last year. Since the Xbox 360 launched, the versions released always faced the same issues. The online play was laggy, the game froze constantly, and year after year fans would visit the official forums to offer advice on what features they wanted and what features just didn’t work from the previous year. NHL 08 came out with a scoring glitch and when NHL 09 launched with the same glitch I began to wonder what type of quality assurance was occurring during this “hit the ground running” development cycle.  It seemed every year EA would take two steps forward and one step back. Every year I would go out, spend sixty dollars, and just not feel like I was getting my money’s worth. I can’t tell you how many sports titles I’ve bought only to stop playing a few weeks in because I’d already been playing the same game for a whole year.

“So don’t buy next year’s edition, Justin”, you say. You’re probably right, and I finally did by abstaining from purchasing NHL 07. For the first year in a long time I had forgone my yearly IV drip of NHL. It took a lot of convincing and some well kept promises from the developers to hook me back into NHL 08 (which I only rented), a good title but one that still didn’t nail it just right. This brings me to an alternative to the current sports dilemma.

Why do sports games need to come out every year when most of the content remains the same and most gamers are just spending their money to access updated rosters and player ratings? Why not forgo the same year after year development cycle forcing a team to create unneeded or unwanted features (and stress)?

A Possible Solution

Simple – just abandon the current practice. Why not switch over to a two year cycle?

Couldn’t studios like EA and 2kSports use two years to really address some of the issues fans have? Why don’t they use that time to fix some of the bugs that constantly plague most sports titles? In Madden 2006, EA introduced the “Cone of Vision”, which could have been a good idea, but also should have featured an option to turn it off.  This option didn’t come until the following year. Normally, a fully fleshed out feature would have had this implemented already.  In FIFA 08 (the first Next-Gen version), the Be-A-Pro mode didn’t allow you to take a player through an actual season. It wasn’t until 2009 that EA implemented Be-A-Pro functionality that should have already existed. This trial and error formula should not exist in the first place; gamers have essentially become beta testers in this process. I understand that developers need to gamble on new features (which I welcome with open arms), but when you don’t give enough time to really let these ideas come to a boil and allow them to mature into a fully functioning product, it can be very frustrating for everyone involved. A lot of this stress comes from titles that were released during the beginning of the Xbox 360/PS3 era. These titles may be getting better year after year but at who’s expense? Can we expect the same outcome in two or three years when Microsoft, Sony, and possibly Nintendo come out with new consoles? Should I just ignore any sports game that comes out that year due to fear of the results of a shortened development cycle?

I’m not trying to be a negative Nancy and writing this rant does come at an odd time when both the NHL and FIFA series are at an all time high (though at the expense of several years of trying). But I’m thinking of us, the gamers, the customers. Do the subtle changes that come (mostly) every year really match the dollar amount? In a two year cycle, why not release an updated roster patch mid-year, complete with new player rankings and additions that cost five or ten dollars? This can help fund the extra development time that is needed to produce a more polished product. It allows gamers to get more use out of the title (instead of selling it back to Gamestop every year) and it could really spark some creative juices in the development team. Think about how much more interesting it would be to allow a team a full twelve extra months to dedicate to their product instead of the same constant high stressed atmosphere and peddling. Features that never see the light of day could have a chance and features that just don’t pan out correctly would have a longer vetting process. Most importantly it would feel like I’m buying a brand new product. It’s not like we don’t have the technology to do this. The 360 and PS3 (and the Wii to some extent) are fully capable machines. It’s not like people wouldn’t spend the money, as they are more than willing to spend money every year buying the new versions that come out.

Creating games take time and forcing teams to crunch all of their sweat, blood, tears, and ideas into a yearly product is a disservice to themselves and to fans. Change isn’t easy and with it comes the chance of failure. It’s a gamble but I’d like to think that gamers are smart consumers who know when publishers are doing right by them. Publishers and developers of other companies delay games all the time in order to craft a better experience. There’s no reason why sports developers shouldn’t get the same chance.

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