That's what I plan to explain. Why I think yearly sports franchise releases are a good thing.
These games come out yearly because they are meant to be played concurrently with the season of that sport. That is why Madden comes out at the end of August it's after pre-season football and before the regular season kicks off or NHL comes out in September because the Exhibition games are going on or done and the season is about to begin. Yes a lot of these franchises have deep modes that allow you to go past the current season in a sport but that shows that sports game fans are dedicated and they want the most out of the yearly installment.
I hear a lot of people still saying, "ya but it's still just a fresh coat of paint and some new rosters", no when you release that it is utter trash and look no further than my favourite example, NHL:Legacy Edition.
The game wasn't NHL 2016 which it was concurrently released with, no, it was NHL 2015 with updated rosters and a spit shine. What so many feel sports games should just be and the result.
It was awful.
Lackluster game modes, graphics, gameplay, every way inferior to its predecessors and to its PS4/XB1 counterpart NHL 16. There is a reason why it's not looked at highly and why I recommend that NHL 2014 as the one to get for last gen hockey games goes.
But why just hockey when EA Sports still released Madden 17 and FIFA 17 & 2K Sports released NBA 2K17 and WWE 2K17 on the PS3 and 360. Answer, as painful as this is to say, no one cares about hockey the same way they do about the other 4 sports.
That's exactly right, there better be, and there always is.
Sports games aren't arcade games anymore, gone are the days of Pro Wrestling as the Amazon or tearing up the field as Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl.
As sports fans, we hold that sport close to our heart and while we appreciate the hard work that these studios do year by year we expect big things from them to mimic the sports we love. We want to be that armchair quarterback, the one we always act like, that coach that looks absolutely stunned when a bonehead play gets called and you say, "I can do better". With simulation style games we get that, from the fancy graphics all the way down to the gameplay and game modes.
To me the graphics in sports games have always steadily improved and while I wouldn't mind the WWE wrestlers looking a smidgen better that aspect of these games is almost down-pat. Where these studios shine during these yearly releases (though they do fall flat occasionally) is that they are: always updating rosters whether it's team change, position change, trade, release into free agency, injury and they update tuning so that the gameplay is constantly tweaked to make for the smoothest simulation experience, changing commentary now for Madden, everything constantly changes.
And the best thing about yearly sports games, if it didn't work, take it out next year or fix it so it does, if no one likes it get rid of it, re-add things we took out that people want back. The amount of things THQ added, then subtracted, then added again for WWE before 2K Sports got ahold of it and did the same was astounding. Constantly modifying how much you were able to do with that game and it was A LOT.
As a sports game fan you can tell when the game is lackluster as well.
Which is what I'll call the 2015 series of games. These were the transitional games between the 360 & Xbox One and the PS3 & PS4 and you could tell, the games were gutted, missing a lot of modes, just shells of what they could have been on PS4 & XB1 because they didn't want to hurt last-gen console owners yet. They learned and moved on and the 2016 series of games was solid all around.
These are games for sports fans, sports fans love to keep things as up to date and current as possible so these developers provide them with that throughout the season and allow them to go beyond as well, it gives these same developers a chance to look yearly at what these die-hard sports fans loved and hated about the game or what they want back and change it. Sure you can miss a year and come back if you feel like it but sometimes you miss quite a lot as far as changes do go.
It provides a little something for everyone involved with the game and we all, as a community both fans & devs, gain a lot from each other during the sports season and look forward to working with each other in a way during the next sports season.