Just when you thought you had a great launch, EA screws up

[njiska]

http://insider.ign.com/articles/666/666593p1.html

For those of you who aren't IGNorrant Insider members here the jist of the article.

Xbox 360 EA Sports titles have been neutered, in some cases quite severely. While the games look fantastic EA has cropped out a lot of prominiant features and left the games a shadow of what they once were.

For example:

- There are only 6 courses in Tiger Wood PGA Tour 2006
- No Create-A-Player or Owner mode in Madden 2006
- No Franchise mode, Superstar moves or All-Star Weekend in NBA Live 2006

What the hell happened? I understand that somethings may have to go but no Franchise mode in NBA Live? That's insane.

What's worse these bastardizations are going to set you back an extra $10 USD over their current gen cousins.

The 360 seemed to have such a great lineup but now, i fear, EA has given it one hell of a black eye. For shame.

[hezeuschrist]

Meh, a new coat of paint on a sports game certainly isn't worthwhile.

It doesn't really hit the launch much, as no one is buying it for the sports games. Perfect Dark, Kameo, and PGR3 will be the titles to move systems, and if someone is feeling like they need to waste money, they'll pickup the pretty EA titles.

EDIT: Oh, and my store was supposed to have our allocation quantities downloaded yesterday and they still haven't shown up. ARGH. We did get PGR3 in though :/

[pacmanhat]

In the case of Madden (the only one I'm really interested in), the stuff they took out isn't essential to me. But sadly, I'm in the minority.

[kainemaxwell]

Anthony1 might be the only one who cares...

[evildead2099]

Speaking as someone whose only taste for sports videogames concerns Hockey, I don't care what EA does; I'd rather play ESPN NHL 2K_ hockey than EA's NHL __ series.

[njiska]

Speaking as someone whose only taste for sports videogames concerns Hockey, I don't care what EA does; I'd rather play ESPN NHL 2K_ hockey than EA's NHL __ series.

Haha i know how you feel.

[stonecutter]

The 2k6 hockey isn't stripped down is it?

[Arkaign]

Well, this is dead serious for sports game nuts (I've met a lot!), I guess maybe half of gamers play sports titles? I never play sports games, I think the last one I touched was the original Joe Montana football on Genesis. Lol you could run up scores of like 150-0. Genesis was all over the sports games for sure.

Anyways, there are still decent titles for 360 launch, sports maniacs will certainly be better represented by summer '06.

And the other half of gamers couldn't care less

[Buyatari]

Honestly, I think you could slap the words Madden 2006 on an Atari 2600 football game and it would still sell.

[Arkaign]

Honestly, I think you could slap the words Madden 2006 on an Atari 2600 football game and it would still sell.

lmao, a sad but true statement that speaks volume on american consumerism

[rotten03]

Honestly, I think you could slap the words Madden 2006 on an Atari 2600 football game and it would still sell.

lmao, a sad but true statement that speaks volume on american consumerism

Amen. How many times can you buy the same game with different names on the jerseys?

[johno590]

Wow, thats a big shocker... no sarcasm either. The bad thing is the average buyer isn't going to know all of that about the games.

I've been a fan of the Live series back since the SNES days, and I've always just loved playing them. A Live game without Franchise mode is, REALLY boring... whats the point of buying it when it doesn't have that, superstar modes, or the all-star weekend... How lame.

EA can suck a you know what.

[Daniel Thomas]

It's 2005. We no longer have the luxury of complaining about EA's games policies, especially with new games consoles. We all know the score by now.

They habitually recycle the same product, year in, year out, offering token additions that either are unnecessary or should have been included from the start. The trick is to dump out the sports games with only the basic features at launch, then each year slowly add in all the old functions from the last consoles, hyping up everything to the hilt, and suckering poor fools who really shouldn't be in charge of their own money.

The prozines, true to their mission, will endlessly hype everything, and heap glowing praises on whatever free toys grace their offices. Heaven forbid any one of them bother to point out this tired shell game. Hey, they're getting paid to play games, not actually inform the public. The poor circulation numbers only contribute to this vicious chicken-and-egg scenario.

Sooner or later, the early adopters are going to have face some facts. The major game publishers don't look to them as loyal customers, or even devoted fans. They are seen as suckers and chumps. Why else would they dutifully pay more and more money, never imposing any real consumer demands? Buying a next-generation console, extra controllers, and a couple games now exceeds $500. Five hundred. That's more than I paid for my first car. And those precious games - the whole reason this money is being spent at all - are stripped down versions of last year's model.

No dice.

[kainemaxwell]

Not to mention these systems don't have a pack-in game anymore too..

[Haoie]

I think the majority of us 'serious' gamers ignore EA stuff in general.

It may be the case that the 'casual' people are those who actually care.

Sports titles too, cause a great divide. You either love them, or loathe them.

[njiska]

I think the majority of us 'serious' gamers ignore EA stuff in general.

It may be the case that the 'casual' people are those who actually care.

Sports titles too, cause a great divide. You either love them, or loathe them.

I try to avoid looking at any business situation from the hardcore angel because we are in fact the minority. The bottom line is that EA sport titles sell like crazy and when people start picking them up and seeing that they're missing the features of their last gen breathern, then it's not going to reflect well on the console.

[SoulBlazer]

EXACTLY.

You sports haters and EA haters out there may not care, but I (as a lover of both) DO care quite a lot. Considering how hyped that these EA sports versions were on the 360, to hear they are stripped down so severly is VERY bad news.

A LOT of casual gamers just buy sports games and if they don't know about this when they get their 360s they are going to be PISSED. And probaly at Microsoft, NOT EA, which is where the hate SHOULD go.

Actually, this is old news. I read a article somewhere on these 'stripped down' EA sports versions a month ago.

[KingCobra]

What happen'd to EA? They were soo good back in the 16bit days IMO, and I like Sports games in general.

EA has suck'd the big one since the PS2 came out, 2001 Madden blew! They didn't support the DC, port up's to Cube and Xbox :/ They blew off Xbox live for what, like a year or more?

And now a week 360 launch line-up? Microsoft better watchout they don't taint their image.

[Nez]

I think the majority of us 'serious' gamers ignore EA stuff in general.

It may be the case that the 'casual' people are those who actually care.

Sports titles too, cause a great divide. You either love them, or loathe them.

I try to avoid looking at any business situation from the hardcore angel because we are in fact the minority. The bottom line is that EA sport titles sell like crazy and when people start picking them up and seeing that they're missing the features of their last gen breathern, then it's not going to reflect well on the console.

Its only a matter of time before those same people blame the lack of a hd dvd drive.

[Anthony1]

Anthony1 might be the only one who cares...

Not me. I'm a sports game fan, but I give a crap about all that extra stuff on the sports games. The only thing that bothers me about all the sports games for the 360 is the fact that I don't think any of them have any built in league system for XBOX Live play.


But it's all gravy. I'm all about the actual in game gameplay. I do wish that Madden had challenges available. That's kinda weak. 6 courses is kinda weak in Tiger, but you have to imagine how much work it takes to simply do one course, much less 6. I don't mind that too much.



The thing about E.A., is that they are deliberately leaving out features this year, just so they can say that they are adding all this new stuff next year. It's a pretty lame tactic on their part that they think they need to do that. I bet even next year they don't throw in all the other features. Probably about 60 percent of them, and then they are going to save the other 40 percent for the year after that. Pretty wacked.

[mregashu]

I think this does matter from a financial standpoint. Madden IS the system seller, like it or not. Many like to say that it's updated rosters and a new coat of paint but it's a helluva coat of paint this time around and I think gamers are gonna bite no matter what is left out.

As a fan of EA Sports, I could make the comparison of a certain praise heaped rpg that has had far too many incarnations to ever be called "Final" anything, but I digress. Not a flame - I like FF - I've just never understood why in a world of roughly 9,843 incarnations of Street Fighter Madden gets such a bad rep.

Still, I don't see this hurting MS too bad. I seem to remember some shoddy titles at the PSX onset (NBA Live 96 anyone?) but EA did right the ship. My guess is the same will happen here. Next year, EA Sports will be up and running.

[Griking]

EXACTLY.

You sports haters and EA haters out there may not care, but I (as a lover of both) DO care quite a lot. Considering how hyped that these EA sports versions were on the 360, to hear they are stripped down so severly is VERY bad news.

A LOT of casual gamers just buy sports games and if they don't know about this when they get their 360s they are going to be PISSED. And probaly at Microsoft, NOT EA, which is where the hate SHOULD go.

Actually, this is old news. I read a article somewhere on these 'stripped down' EA sports versions a month ago.

Honestly I look at it as a total smack in the face to all of you hardcore sports fans who keep buying the same game year after year after year. How much more clearly can EA make it that they believe that that they can put out any old shit and people will still buy it?

Also, isn't it funny how the first real Madden since EA bought the NFL license (Madden 2006 was likely mostly designed by this time) turns out looking to be a stripped down shovelware release?

[Anthony1]

I seem to remember some shoddy titles at the PSX onset (NBA Live 96 anyone?) but EA did right the ship.

WTF


NBA Live '96 for Playstation was the freaking bomb! Man, that game had 2-D Sprites with 3-D backgrounds, and it was the shit as far as I was concerned. I remember that game very well. They took the Super Nintendo version of Live and put it on the Playstation with 3-D arenas and great sound, and it was awesome. I hated when they went to polygons. The first system to really handle polygons decently for sports games was the Dreamcast.



Sorry to get off topic, but I have very fond memories of NBA Live '96.

[Anthony1]

Honestly I look at it as a total smack in the face to all of you hardcore sports fans who keep buying the same game year after year after year. How much more clearly can EA make it that they believe that that they can put out any old shit and people will still buy it?

This isn't the same game year after year. The 360 is a new platform and they had to totally redesign the game. Finally, they were actually forced to create a new engine. It took the release of a new console to actually force Tiburon into creating a new game engine. So this is a totally new game, and believe me, sports game fans will be all over this puppy. (if it's any good)


The lack of the features and all that is a mild dissapointment compared to the joy that hardcore football fans will feel from experiencing the first next gen NFL game of this new round of consoles.

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, I've TRIED to explain why I buy Madden each year, but you haters never get it. Poo on you all.