Competition is key. When businesses are forced to compete the consumer wins. In the case of video games publishers, gamers win. In the current state of sports games, each sport has a publisher who some see as monopolizing. And yes, it is bad as the friendship ruining, board game. For many sports, there is a single publisher who creates games for that sport. This leads to weaker games with no reason to improve because of lack of competition.
Madden is the only gridiron football series, MLB the Show for baseball, and EA’s NHL for hockey fans. In each case, 2K Sports ended the production of their franchise for various reason. In the case of football, the lack of available licensing for sports governing body and player’s union killed what some thought was the better franchise. In other cases, it was the smaller market share in the already small market that ended the run. But even in sports where multiple games franchises exist, one game is reconized as superior.
NBA 2K14 is miles ahead of its new this year competitor NBA Live, and in soccer’s FIFA series reigns supreme on the pitch against Konami’s PES. The newest generation of consoles that includes the Playstation 4, and Xbox One has seven sports series across the five sports series.
The Playstation 2 era had at least 18 franchises across the same five sports (not included college level or arcade games). What we need is more competition. Then we can all celebrate.
Sports Game Wishlist 