August 10, 2010 - Sports gamers get hosed

So,

I broke into the gaming world with the pc and game boy. The first games i fell in love with? Madden 96 and NFL quarterback club 96. These game have either gone extinct from the exclusivity agreements with the NFL and EA, or, they are yearly releases that have been yearly since the Playstation was adopted. Since I have grown as a gamer, but I bought every madden for the last 11 years. That sickens me to think back on that now. Some years that stick out to be is Madden 10 games took forever and Madden 06 for the 360 was the worst version in recent memory. I kid you not, I still own a working copy of the original John Madden Football. My point is, since the recent release of Starcraft 2, I realized that Blizzard has given me 2 games in twelve years for one franchise and I have enjoyed then for just about as long as I have Madden.

I don't really have a resolution for this but i think this is certainly a gripe. You can even look at the last twelve years. Madden 05 for the ps2 had basically all the options of Madden 10 for ps3 and those were available 5 years ago. I hope that the future of sports games doesn't continue to be thinned-out next gen version and then slowly work in all the options of years prior. I believe that MLB: The Show has done a good job working to innovate every year. Not that they can, but I would venture to bet The Show 11 has MOVE support, which may be a selling point in itself.

Also, options. The exclusivity agreements have led to few options for gamers. I ventured to the unknown and found MLB Power Pros to be very enjoyable, but Backbreaker is a whole lot of nothing. I guess the sports genre needs some innovation. Thankfully the locomotion has improved for ncaa and madden, but it's not worth $60.  Unfortunately, I voted every year for this to continue to be an acceptable practice for EA to continue by buying the game.

If you are an avid gamer, likely you have started to feel the same way. A good example is a great company like Valve now charges for post-release content and went the way of the sequel on the L4D series pretty quickly. A better example is the yearly release from Activision on Guitar Hero and CoD. Give the games the time they need to be enjoyed and especially the time they need to be created. TH: Ride, you apologized for. Don't release the next one until it's ready.

It seems SOME companies are starting to worry more about setting release dates the  the quality of their product. I say some because Blizzard, Bioware  and Insomniac seem to all take whatever amount of time is necessary to complete a successful game. Starcraft 2  was delayed forever, and SWTOR will still take a lot of time to be released. Make sure to thank these companies by supporting them because though you don't see as many games from them, you do get some serious quality (see Mass Effect 2 and Starcraft 2 this year).

Okay, thanks for reading and I'll be continuing to blog .