EA Sports used to be one of my favorite video game developers. With hits like Madden, NBA Live, Tiger Woods, FIFA, and Fight Night. The EA company hit it's peak during the PS2/Xbox generation acquiring exclusive licensing for the NFL, NCAA, and ESPN all but guaranteeing the company sports supremacy for years to come. In 2006, EA Sports gave us a peek into the future of sports gaming with target renders for Madden and NBA Live. Since then EA Sports has become the bane of my sports gaming existence.
EA Sports has become a company of glamorous promises and broken dreams. The copy and paste development style never truly innovates. The entire next generation 2006 line up was broken, with the PS2/Xbox versions delivering better game play and almost equal features as their counterparts. Fight Night Rd 3 was EA Sports saving grace. 2007 brought another Madden disgrace, No NBA Live, No Fight Night and FIFA and NHL started to become the top sports franchises for the company.
Sports and competition go hand in hand. Well why would a sports Dev. add Madden IQ to help lesser skilled people compete? The casual movement has started in the game industry, but every game cant be for everybody especially sports simulation games. In the new Fight Night Rd.4, the game play problems are everywhere from fighters being stuck together at the knees to regular punches not being effective at all. NBA Live hasn't had a learning curve since its next gen debut, not to mention the game's countless glitches.
Then there are the business practices being pulled by EA. The acquisition of ESPN and the NFL is the holy grail of sports. Most sports gamers to this day consider NFL 2k5 as the definitive NFL Sim. Back then I was a hardcore Madden Fan, in retrospect NFL2k5 had Chris Berman, Sportscenter, On-line Franchise and a Sportscenter halftime show which in the franchise shows highlights of games being played around the league. All of which I figured would be put on Madden once the deals went through. Now present day the NFL and ESPN licenses are severely underused. It's seems as if the licenses were only acquired to keep them away from the competition not to better their own franchises. Madden 2010 is just now reaching the presentation level of NFL 2k5 and we have yet to see them perfect a simple running motion which is embarrassing.
In 2009 its painful to see EA Sports franchises sell well. No competitors in most sports genres leave gamers running to EA sports to get their NFL, NCAA, boxing, and golf games. Games like Backbreaker, NBA2k, PES, and NHL09 shows us you need to compete to thrive. The other choice is to become complacent and let legendary titles become mediocre. Unfortunatly due to their name recognition and the exclusivity deals people will continue to buy EA Sports titles. Until they get competition everyone will coneinue to see the lack of innovation in sports titles.
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Prominent N64 modder HailToDodongo has released the first version of N64 game engine and editor, Pyrite64, alongside a short highlight video.
The chances of a Switch 2 version of the isometric action RPG No Rest for the Wicked have just significantly increased today, with the developer Thomas Mahler sharing footage on social media of the game running on a Switch 2.
In other words, it seems to be just a matter of time before it's officially confirmed for Nintendo's new hybrid platform. Mahler further notes how the game just needs to "run well" on the platform
( Thomas Mahler: "Oh hey! It runs. Now we just need to make it run well!" )
Oh hey!
— thomasmahler (@thomasmahler) February 17, 2026
It runs. Now we just need to make it run well! 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/u6Xg7V34oA
Good read. i really don't like sports games cause there all the same
with better graphics. The only good EASports series i like is FightNight