Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
existing game as a sunk cost, simply because of the immense importance
for sports games to hit their launch dates, especially in one of the few
sports with open competition between publishers.
The limited window for launching sports games and the desire for annual
releases changes the dynamics of design and development of these games.
Most commonly, critics argue that the games fail to innovate, as innova-
tion presents potentially unsustainable risks like those encountered in the
case of
NBA Elite
11
.
EA Sport's leadership fi ercely disputes the notion
that they are failing to innovate new approaches to game design, with their
president, Peter Moore, contending that “our games have become more
and more complicated and complex, and we often get dogged for one of the
biggest misconceptions in the entire industry—a lack of innovation year
in and year out on annually iterated titles. I bristle . . . when I hear this
disputes the contention that they only iterate, the tight timeframes within
which to produce sports titles is a key piece of the construction of these
games. External factors play a crucial role in the development of sports
games, especially because “people admire game companies that take risks
but in retrospect they only seem to admire game companies that take risks
of their short sales window means that it very well may make more sense to
write of a title than release it late or in an unpolished level of production.
Quite simply, sports games do not age well, and many gamers have plenty
to say about it.
Players of sports games are divided into categories beyond hardcore and
casual, as they are also split on how often they buy their titles of choice. In
addition to the subset who buys a new version of the game each year, there
are a substantial number of irregular buyers who are prone to purchasing
the newest version of a sports franchise every few years. However, both
groups are subject to the annual releases of EA Sports titles that quickly
make their older games obsolete. This dynamic occurs with their exclusively
licensed titles, like
NCAA Football
for which those interested in creating
large online tournaments are faced with an additional charge “like tribute,
because it's not enough that they'll bilk you for $
60
($
70
in Canada) for a
game doomed to obsolescence in a year. It's what EA does. You will pay
and you will like it, because EA also holds the sole license to the NCAA and
crop up in evaluations of the other kind of football as well, particularly in
the assessment of specially released tournament titles, which are slimmed
down versions of the full
FIFA Soccer
games that only allow play in a par-
ticular tournament. In the conclusion of a positive review, it is noted that,
although “
2010
FIFA World Cup
is one of the best tournament games EA
has ever put out . . . its obsolescence cuts closer than the usual annual
FIFA
in July, the game only of ered a few months of play before real life events