Rob's Rants: Sports Games Shouldn't be released every year

Filed in archive Features on December 6, 2007

The other day, the detroit tigers, my baseball team of choice (and genetics, as it were), made a blockbuster trade. So, as a result (after annoying my wife, child, and two cats by running around yelling about how great it was), I went back into MLB Power Pros on Wii to update my roster.

In my college days, when, you know, I didn't have real responsibility yet, I wouldn't bother. Because I would just buy the latest version of that sports game at the beginning of the baseball, football, hockey, and basketball seasons (well, ok, maybe not all four sports at once!).

Life has a way of instilling pragmatism. So, tired of the endless process of buying the latest sports game, I decided that this year, I would adopt a "every two years" policy. Hence, when my teams make moves, I gotta go in there and add them to my team, in order to have an up to date roster.

It isn't a perfect process. The other teams don't have their new players, and of course I'm too lazy to go through EVERY team to make them correct (especially when they often have the scrubs I traded TO THEM in order to get the players the Tigers got in real life). So you get really bizarre scenarios like Ichiro Suzuki playing for the New York Yankees.

So here's the rant: EA and 2k Sports really need to consider going to an every two year format, while offering internet enabled roster updates.

"NO WAY! They like to make money!"

Yes, I know. But, fortunately for EA and 2k Sports, I have the answers!

You wouldn't stop releasing a "form" of your sports product every year. Just not the main game. For instance, instead of Madden 09 next fall, re-release Madden 08 with updated rosters at a slightly reduced price, to encourage those who haven't adopted yet to do so.

But wait! There's more.

In addition to that, release some kind of "bonus pack" during the off year, maybe offering something like classic stadiums, additional play modes, etc. This is how you can make some money during the off years when you aren't releasing the main game.

The result of this change would be an immediate increase in quality of sports games all around. One year is too little time to make significant changes to a game. Two years, however, and you'd see all of those annoying bugs finally fixed, like in Madden 08 on Wii, where the coaches on your team CELEBRATE after you make a BAD play.

They'll probably never enact this change, but I hope they do. After all, I don't want to see Ichiro Suzuki on any other team but the Mariners.

Unless, of course, I trade him to the Tigers for Timo Perez.

MLB Power Pros Review on Videogamecritic.net (it's the PS2 version, but it is almost the same game as the Wii version).