Is there a good reason for Madden and other sports titles to have a brand new game every year?

[duffmmann]

Over the past few years I've really been wondering about this. Does every new sports title in a series really add enough content to justify a full priced new purchase every year? Why can't the new season just be new DLC every year and charge for that? Keeping Madden as the example, have the core mechanics changed enough from each title released for this gen and added enough new options or whatever for you to feel that a full new purchase is justified? Seems like a scam to me (this is EA after all), but then again I have not played every title in the franchise so I don't know if they change enough between titles, but I can't imagine they do. What is your opinion?

 

[Depravo]

My opinion is:

If people keep buying it they'll keep selling it.

 

[duffmmann]

My opinion is:

If people keep buying it they'll keep selling it.

I understand the business side of it all. But beyond that, is it necessary? Is it simply the blatant scam it all appears to be, or am I just missing something?

 

[hippy dave]

Is it simply the blatant scam it all appears to be?

Yes.

 

[Depravo]

What exactly can they change? The real sport is the same year after year. Different faces, different teams at the top but the gameplay is the same.

What could they add? FIFA 2: Now with guns! Madden 4: Now an open world adventure! NBA 54: With dating elements!

 

[VinsCool]

Because people are dumb enough to buy them.

 

[wormdood]

ea response . . . players actual physical attributes very from year to year and technology improves allowing for a more accurate experience
real answer . . . money money money . . . money

 

[AxlSt00pid]

Easy CA$H mah friend!!

 

[Zero72463]

Fifa 15 had a lot more moves than Fifa 14 I really enjoyed that. At least they aren't giving us the exact same game on a platter. They add things (most of the time).

 

[Slattz]

It's kinda like iPhones; There's one new addition each year but it's the same thing overall :^)

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

What exactly can they change? The real sport is the same year after year. Different faces, different teams at the top but the gameplay is the same.

What could they add? FIFA 2: Now with guns! Madden 4: Now an open world adventure! NBA 54: With dating elements!

EA could include FIFA Street as a game mode with the yearly FIFAs but they refuse to because they know people will buy them individually no matter what.

 

[Depravo]

EA could include FIFA Street as a game mode with the yearly FIFAs but they refuse to because they know people will buy them individually no matter what.

Nintendo could include Mario kart as a game mode etc.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

Most sports games are like this. "New" release every year, just change some players texture/names to the newest ones, done.
The biggest BS tho is when they remove features in the "new" game. I mean, shouldn't sequels be improvement over the older game?
Why the fuck would you remove features? It just doens't make sense.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Usually the "major" differences between each of those yearly releases are technical "gameplay" mechanics, things that actually effect how the game is played I guess. I asked a friend of mine something similar to this just a couple weeks ago when he bought Madden, and he told me that various things get changed between releases that the "average gamer" wouldn't know at it's face value. Apparently, player rankings actually matter "more" in Madden 17 vs 16, some physics or something got changed with tackle dynamics, new plays are created etc etc. Stuff like that I guess is updated per game to give a "more realistic" representation of the game or whatever.

You also have to remember this yearly sports release thing isn't anything new, this has been going on since the days of the Genesis. I think that's the main reason it's continued as it has, it's just "always been that way" and people expect it to happen.

That said, I mostly agree it's a pretty shit move to continually re-release a game like that for full price when it could be easily done with updates, or even yearly "DLC" I guess if they still wanted to make money. Or hell, even release a new version every 3-4 years when devs can further "refine" the engine/graphics or whatever.

But people still buy it, so who cares really? It's not like the devs that make these game are some kind of "big loss" to the gaming community, they don't make anything other than sports titles AFAIK so I'd imagine any other game genre they'd try to develop wouldn't end up being that great (not that the devs are bad at making things, I just imagine they're too used to working with sports titles to create a successful non-sports genre game)

 

[Imacaredformy2ds]

Ehhhhh
THEY WANT THE $$$$$$ BOI ‍

 

[zoogie]

*devil's advocate warning*

I don't like sports games that much myself (obligatory tecmo bowl exception), but I know people who do and they play these games hours on end for an entire year until a new yearly version comes out. $60/yr for at least a 1000 hours of entertainment really isn't that bad and is probably less than what weebs spend yearly on various jrpgs that they just play for 50 hours and then trade-in to gamestop for more otaku-crack.

 

[RevPokemon]

Ya know EA did this with there NBA games once where since it got canned, they just released roster updates as DLC once....

 

[Imacaredformy2ds]

Ya know EA did this with there NBA games once where since it got canned, they just released roster updates as DLC once....

Sauce or it didn't happen

 

[Deleted User]

While I dont agree that releasing a new game every year is a good idea. FIFA 17, comes with Frostbite engine on Current-Gen and PC, The Journey story mode, new mechanics and new FUT gamemodes, also comes with updated teams which could most probably be added to the old games tho. Overall FIA 17 feels different to the older games and feels like a worthy upgrade in my opinion.

 

[grossaffe]

They make it because people will buy it. It would probably be better for consumers if only one was put out every so many years so more time could be put into improvements for each iteration. Charge a fee for DLC roster updates in the off-years.

But that's not as lucrative to a business as people paying you $60 each year.