How The Death Of NBA Elite 2011 Will Help Sports Video Games

When EA decided to bench their NBA Elite 11 game a few months ago when it was deemed the game’s quality was sub-par and could potentially sink the franchise in the long run, there was a lot of media coverage, some schadenfreude, and a whole lot of gossip.

In the fallout, EA decided to extend the life of the previous year’s release - NBA Live 10 - with continued roster updates and online supprt. They also made the reboot NBA Jam a full-fledged console release for the 360 and PS3, as sort of a consolation prize (it was originally slated to be a download bonus that came with Elite 11).

I’ve often said that in the age of Down-Loadable Content (DLC), there was really no reason to keep releasing yearly iterations of Sports games. Ideally, you could release one game in 2011, and support it for 2-3 years with updates and expansion content you could purchase, much like many other genres of games enjoy currently.

What EA inadvertently demonstrated was that the lifespan of a sports game can be extended for 2 years, but they also accidentally ushered in a new business model: Alternating releases of sports games.

This means the full-on simulations like NBA Elite, NHL, Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, etc. could alternate a biennial release schedule with an arcade-flavored variant, like NBA Jam.

With Sports sims getting 2 years between major releases, they’d have more production and planning time to take the game to the next step. The same could be said for their arcade counterparts, which would also get two years to improve upon their last release.

And with an extended lifespan for both kinds of games, people would be willing to make that $60 investment if they know they’ll get 2 years out of it. And by alternating the release schedule, you won’t be flooding the market with multiple sports games every year, but focusing on a single high-quality title every year.

I really hope EA adopts this kind of model and soon - the yearly iteration of sports games is starting to wear out it’s welcome in the age of DLC. Plus it’s getting harder and harder to advance the game on a yearly basis. Even if there is a plethora of new features, many gamers just dismiss the game as providing only a roster update. A 2-year absence may help to highlight the advances in a more evident manner.

One thing I’d like to see, is a big departure for the arcade games that clearly separate them from the sims. NBA Jam is a great example of this, being very arcade-y and having a lot of personality.

One such example is using the Lego license. I think releasing a Lego variant of a sports game every other year would be huge. I’m already quite surprised no one has done this yet.

With alternating releases. the Publisher will not be left with a gaping hole in their release schedule. And with DLC content, there is actually more money to be made over the course of a 2-year lifespan.

In the long run, NBA Elite’s death may have started a few new trends that will benefit the sports genre and the consumer as well.