Modern Sports Video Games Suck

[The Almighty Hamster]

This is a trend I have noticed across all EA and 2K sports video game franchises i.e. FIFA/EAFC, Madden, NHL, NBA 2K, WWE 2K etc., which is a significant deterioration in the overall gameplay experience. The only ones I can think of that have had a positive reception in recent years are UFC, PGA and maybe a couple of motorsport-related games like F1. However, when it comes to the major heavy-hitting sports, the drop-off has been significantly noticeable. Whether that's due to lazy programming and bugs or a lack of new or exciting mechanics, it just isn't as fun as it used to be. I first began to notice this when I bought WWE 2K17 for the PlayStation 4 and was sorely disappointed. It's the same game repackaged annually over and over again, with a slight graphics improvement and a newer roster that could have just been an update or DLC, then sold for £80+ which all the brainless chavs will eat up on launch-day. The graphics look shinier but nothing else is new. And the cheek - no, the audacity of the developers to add microtransactions on top of the obscene price they demand is why I gave up on sports games altogether. It's Pay to Win, we're cows to be milked to death.

Another thing that I miss a lot about retro sports games is the ability to not take things too seriously. Where have all the whacky game modes gone? It's like all creativity has been drained. If I wanted ultra-hyperrealism then I would go and play the sport myself in a Sunday league. Of course, there are alternatives besides the major two publishers. In the case of football (my preferred sport) there's UFL, which is a new free indie competitor to FIFA, + the long-running Pro Evolution Soccer which is made by Konami. Also Captain Tsubasa and Inazuma Eleven for all you anime fans. The creators of Shifu are making a football-themed game. The criticisms of modern sports games are part of a broader issue with AAA gaming with extreme corporate greed and a lack of ideas. What are your thoughts? Any suggestions for sports game fans looking for something new?

 

[Yousef]

I’ve disliked all 2K wwe games up until 2k23 where I felt some passion was put into. Likewise 2k24 was also good and gets credit for referencing the “where’s that referee?! He was trying to fuck on me!” Iconic soundbite from a few years back.

 

[Cu-Neo]

One thing that I miss in the sport games genre is that before those games had a lot of insane and awesome things in them to discover: the character creation/customization on Smackdown: here's comes the Pain

Or even the cheats codes in PES 2006

And Fred Durst in Smackdown here's comes the Pain

And I also miss when copyright wasn't such a big problem in that time and thanks to that a lot of sports games had very good OST. For example the Fight Night games. So yeah I want back sports games with less realistics mechanics and instead more fun in them like the Tony Hawk games or SSX. We need more crazy things

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Never really been a fan of sports games myself. I Prefer whipping undead abominations to death, or Getting a Burger with President Ronnie cause I'm a bad enough dude.

 

[Michael Frank]

Where are my Mach Breakers guys at?!, honestly what we need is more CRAZY sports games.

 

[bjork]

It may be an old man take, but I feel like it was more exciting back when they had to fit the game they wanted to make within the limitations of a given hardware. It's a hard thing to go back and show someone who has only played newer stuff, but seeing a game even implement something as simple as a player substitution was a new thing at one point. Things like Sports Talk for the games on Genesis, or even when individual players were finally the right color, these were all noticeable new things they added to a game. "You mean this baseball game has Julio Franco's batting stance? Holy crap" times. We're well past that point now, and I'm not sure what new features they could add to keep it fresh each year. I guess for a lot of players out there, that doesn't matter as long as you can see Lebron's sweat or whatever.

 

[tenkaistar]

Those franchises don’t have competition anymore, so they’re not forced to innovate to keep their customers. NBA 2K nosedived in quality soon after NBA Live was cancelled. I remember laughing at Lives failure with everyone else. Turns out I played myself

 

[Yousef]

One thing that I miss in the sport games genre is that before those games had a lot of insane and awesome things in them to discover: the character creation/customization on Smackdown: here's comes the Pain View attachment 7849
Or even the cheats codes in PES 2006

And Fred Durst in Smackdown here's comes the Pain

And I also miss when copyright wasn't such a big problem in that time and thanks to that a lot of sports games had very good OST. For example the Final Fight games. So yeah I want back sports games with less realistics mechanics and instead more fun in them like the Tony Hawk games or SSX.

PES2006 js textbook comedy sports game

 

[DunkeyKong]

Tsubasa games are one of the best football games to enjoy. Even though there's FIFA and PES back in the day, those games feels like a scripted game more than actual tactics and skills to pull off

 

[BinaryMessiah]

I'm not a sports fan really. The only sports game I played is golf. Then extreme sports of the 90s and mid-2000s. However, I do follow the sports game scene on the side and I miss seeing the zany arcade style sports games. Now everything has to be serious and simulator like.

 

[Virtuafighter]

The lack of competition and constant strive for realism really hurt the genre.

 

[7eve70rd]

What's the story about why arcade like sports-like games ended production?

NFL Blitz
NBA Jam

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Stand aside and let the man go through

Super Dodge Ball. Super Dodge Ball.​

 

[ZeroDuplicate]

I miss EA Sports BIG. They made fun games.

 

[OrpheusT-ELOS]

Football Manager still peak tho

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Along with the already mentioned lack of competition. I really miss some arcade sports games, the kind midway, snk, etc, used to make, over the top, simple to play and lots of spectacle.
The "lost art" of the "fake sports genre", like windjammers.

 

[ATenderLad]

The points been made already, but the franchise's licensing deals really killed competition. I don't have a good timeline, but I think the growing fan base for fantasy leagues back in the mid-aughts coincided with the monolithic imposition of games like Madden.

There's also something to be said for the motion control craze that the Wii sparked, in regards to non-team sports. Wii Sports was huge, and the glut of titles that came out to capitalize on the idea basically replaced the arcade fare of things like Windjammers, as was mentioned above.

 

[bjork]

What's the story about why arcade like sports-like games ended production?

NFL Blitz
NBA Jam

I think the revivals they had about a decade ago didn't really take off and so that was the end, at least for now. I'm surprised there wasn't a 30th anniversary thing for Jam, given how huge it was.

 

[Waffles]

Yeah, some baseball and football games are pretty insufferable these days.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Kunio Kun needs to make a comeback with their sport subseries

Oh ell, at least the Racing game still has Mario Kart clones to keep it wacky

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Kunio Kun needs to make a comeback with their sport subseries

Oh ell, at least the Racing game still has Mario Kart clones to keep it wacky

 

[sblueman]

There's always the rom hack scene. You have edits that keep great games of the past fresh, like NHL94, Tecmo Super Bowl and others.

 

[OWG]

i dont have much to add but i think EA might have to give up the f1 and wrc license soon due to how much of a bubble the mass popularity periods of motorsports usually are and just the big burden of developing racing games in the current market, their f1 entries are also just selling less and less as time goes on which is why i think this as usually with sportsball games' series while they get worse and worse critical reception they still sell well because sportsball usually has mass appeal and these people will just eat up any buggy mess because its nice to play with friends or whatever, motorsports are simply nowhere near as popular so you are going to be left with an audience that is hesitant to spend 60+ dollars each year for a game they know sucks and is simply not worth it