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Sports Games\Exclusive Licenses
August 10th, 2012, 17:54
Anyone else been pretty disappointed with sports games over the past few years?
My two favorite sports are college basketball and baseball. Exclusive licenses have killed the best franchises and left a bunch of disgruntled fans in their wakes.
For baseball, I mostly stick with baseball sim games these days (Baseball Mogul and Out of the Park Baseball) because they most accurately replicate statistical production. But from time to time I want to jump in and play some games with my team (which I can't do with these games). There hasn't been a good total package game since MVP 2005 (when Sega's inferior 2k series acquired the exclusive rights to MLB). Season simulation is entirely out of whack in the MLB series where Albert Pujols will all of the sudden bat .250 with 30 stolen bases in the second year of your franchise and players like Daniel Murphy may all the sudden become the leading MVP candidate.
It's even worse when it comes to college basketball. At least you have an option for baseball games, even if it's a crappy option. For college basketball, there simply are no options. There used to be Sega's (in this case, vastly superior) 2k series and the March Madness turned NCAA series from EA. Unfortunately EA bought the exclusive license here and we were all stuck with the crappier series. To make matters worse, EA determined that NCAA basketball just wasn't a profitable venture (has nothing to do with the quality of their games of course…) and just stopped making college hoops games — while still holding the license. I thought it was bad enough that I couldn't buy college hoops on PC!!!
I don't play (American) football games as much, but according to most accounts, the same thing happened there. 2k began producing some quality ESPN football games but EA and the Madden franchise bought exclusive rights to snuff out the competition.
It's incredibly frustrating to me that this has been occurring! And what's worse is that it has consistently been the worse series that has purchased the exclusive rights. Reviews from critics and gamers alike support this strange trend. The 2K series in baseball plays alright but is way off when it comes to the simulation experience (not matched since EA's MVP series, which had both aspects pretty well nailed down). I still play College Hoops 2k8 on the 360 (because there was no PC version) as it is still the best game on the market for college basketball!!! In fact, I truly believe that Sega was on the right track to creating the perfect college basketball game before they were forced out of competition, despite some of the game's crazy buginess. Several of my friends and I still spend hours at a time as coaches starting from the bottom rungs competing to create the ultimate college basketball program…by now Sega would undoubtedly have implemented online support for careers and would have squashed bugs and made minor improvements (like allowing you to continue as a new coach or something after the 30 year period is up in career mode).
This was mostly a rant, but it's something that has seriously bothered me for years. Anyone else have thoughts about this subject?
My two favorite sports are college basketball and baseball. Exclusive licenses have killed the best franchises and left a bunch of disgruntled fans in their wakes.
For baseball, I mostly stick with baseball sim games these days (Baseball Mogul and Out of the Park Baseball) because they most accurately replicate statistical production. But from time to time I want to jump in and play some games with my team (which I can't do with these games). There hasn't been a good total package game since MVP 2005 (when Sega's inferior 2k series acquired the exclusive rights to MLB). Season simulation is entirely out of whack in the MLB series where Albert Pujols will all of the sudden bat .250 with 30 stolen bases in the second year of your franchise and players like Daniel Murphy may all the sudden become the leading MVP candidate.
It's even worse when it comes to college basketball. At least you have an option for baseball games, even if it's a crappy option. For college basketball, there simply are no options. There used to be Sega's (in this case, vastly superior) 2k series and the March Madness turned NCAA series from EA. Unfortunately EA bought the exclusive license here and we were all stuck with the crappier series. To make matters worse, EA determined that NCAA basketball just wasn't a profitable venture (has nothing to do with the quality of their games of course…) and just stopped making college hoops games — while still holding the license. I thought it was bad enough that I couldn't buy college hoops on PC!!!
I don't play (American) football games as much, but according to most accounts, the same thing happened there. 2k began producing some quality ESPN football games but EA and the Madden franchise bought exclusive rights to snuff out the competition.
It's incredibly frustrating to me that this has been occurring! And what's worse is that it has consistently been the worse series that has purchased the exclusive rights. Reviews from critics and gamers alike support this strange trend. The 2K series in baseball plays alright but is way off when it comes to the simulation experience (not matched since EA's MVP series, which had both aspects pretty well nailed down). I still play College Hoops 2k8 on the 360 (because there was no PC version) as it is still the best game on the market for college basketball!!! In fact, I truly believe that Sega was on the right track to creating the perfect college basketball game before they were forced out of competition, despite some of the game's crazy buginess. Several of my friends and I still spend hours at a time as coaches starting from the bottom rungs competing to create the ultimate college basketball program…by now Sega would undoubtedly have implemented online support for careers and would have squashed bugs and made minor improvements (like allowing you to continue as a new coach or something after the 30 year period is up in career mode).
This was mostly a rant, but it's something that has seriously bothered me for years. Anyone else have thoughts about this subject?
Keeper of the Watch
Original Sin Donor
August 12th, 2012, 02:45
This has bothered me for years especially on how EA bought almost exclusive rights to every sports game. At least EA has lost the NCAA College Football license due to lawsuits.
All this should be illegal but it's not. It stops competition.
All this should be illegal but it's not. It stops competition.
--
“Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks.”
“Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks.”
Jaded Old-Timer
August 12th, 2012, 05:02
Yeah, it sucks. EA puts out pretty much the same football game every year with no competition. Espn football was really challenging madden and instead of making a better game ea just threw a bunch of money at the nfl.
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