The Future of sports games?

[shadobeni]

I haven't played modern sim-type sports games in a long time (at least not consistently) but after reading a 1up article http://www.1up.com/news/peter-moore-sees-fifa-evolving where EA's Peter Moore imagined a "disc-less persistent online franchise" it got me thinking about a lot of different things about what I'd like to see in future sports games.

The idea of moving from yearly disc releases to online-based makes sense. Particularly for online leagues being able to play a sports game no matter what gaming platform you're using at the moment sounds great.

Personally what interests me more would be a shift from the annual release schedule of games which barely change gameplay-wise but charge you full price for mostly a roster update to something more along the lines of a core gameplay engine that gets a genuine upgrade released every 2-3 years but with roster updates and presentation (graphics/sound) updates released annually which would be compatible on whatever version of the core gameplay engine the player owns.

Also considering how popular FPS are, could sports games that offer gameplay based on first person or third person perspectives also gain a similar level of popularity? Some sports games like baseball already do integrate some first person/third person view while others don't need it but I think some sports could be pretty interesting to play from a first person perspective.

I can also see a sports game that could take advantage of multiple screens on a future console that could combine ideas from the DS and Dreamcast by having a VMU-like add-on with a full color touch screen device for controllers or a console powerful enough to be able to display graphics on multiple TVs/monitors. You'd have the main screen which would show the the overall area of play but then each individual screen for each player might have for example a first person view of the player they are currently controlling or they may use that individual screen for selecting different plays secretly from their opponents playing in the same room.

Another sub-genre of sports that I'd like to see revived are the imaginary or highly exaggerated sports. Not necessarily licensed arcade style games (like the remake of NBA Jam) although I do like those too but games like Super Dodgeball, Speedball 2, Base Wars and Mutant League Football/Hockey. I think a new super dodgeball where you could have more than one ball in play could be seriously frantic multiplayer fun.

[Pulsar_t]

Multi-monitor games are few and far between, so keep the lowest common denominator in mind when anticipating future changes. As for perspective, first person limits peripheral vision and even with 'padlock view' conventional controls are too cumbersome. As for motion tracking the technology is in its infancy (MS even cheekily removed a processor from Kinect to cut corners) so don't expect anything more sophisticated than WiiSports for the time being.

[Quiet Flight]

Any kind of disk-less game future sounds horrible.

[Weekend_Warrior]

Every time someone asks me about the future of gaming, I always say "virtual reality glasses and body suits with full-motion capturing and shock vibration."

[jfrost]

A third person football game was recently released, Backbreaker. Supposedly, the camera gets locked on your player. Reviews have not been kind.

[Flake]

Freely updateable rosters?

Lol, j/k. EA sports is still around.

[saturnfan]

The future of sports games is to release the same game ever year with some slight improvements.

[arnold_the_bartender]

The future of sports games is to release the same game ever year with some slight improvements.

QFT

I like arcade style sports games like the ones made by SNK.

[DaGamingMonkey]

I think you will see a push towards the Be a Pro online modes. Where you play as a single player with teams of other real players.
EASHL for NHL at first was meh for me but lately I can't stop playing it.

[G-Darius]

The future of sports games is to release the same game ever year with some slight improvements.

I agree with this and it has been true for some years now,probably should just release patches to download for the game to update the team players at the end of each season as they are sold or transferred (regarding footy/soccer),but designers would not make the £/$ they normally do by releasing a yearly clone game