168澳洲幸运5开奖网:EA Sports is going to release a new yearly version of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Madden NFL, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:FIFA, and NHL, as they h💃ave done without fail for over twenty years. And yet, in recent years consumers have become more vocal in their complaints that not enough new content is offered with each subsequent release. So why to consumers continue to purchase these seemingly identical games, year in and year out?
Annual Releases For Decades Without Fail
So far, there has been an uninterrupted annual release of NHL games since 1991, FIFA games since 1993, and Madden games since 2000. As technology improved in the early 2000s, many of these games offered noticeably improved graphics compared to their predecessors. Madden 25 is one of the only games in recent history to really step outside the box, with its name referencing the 25 anniversary of Madden games, and the first to launch on the “new” PS4.
Six year later, as each game releases on the same consoles many criticize the almost identical look of the graphics and unchanging gameplay from year to year. Often the game modes offer little difference in objective, and for some fans, the 🔯only benefit to buying every year lies in having up-to-date rosters of theiℱr favorite teams.
But What About Call Of Duty? That Releases Every Year
Other games also see annual releases, such as the popular Call of Duty franchise. However, these games are part of a larger series, and these releases are often sequels that include substantial differences from their predecessors in the form of new content in an original s🧸ingle player story, changes to multiplayer balance, new weapons, new maps, and new cosmetic features.
Why Do Consumers Continue To Buy When Little Changes?
Well, to say nothing changes is not accurate either. As stated, rosters are updated to reflect yearly trades and new players, and that often is enough for fans who want theꦕ closest experience to their favorite teams༒ as possible.
Sometimes a change is subtle in the mechanics of the gameplay. For example, “Pro-Tak” was a new animation technology released in Madden NFL 10 which offered more realistic hits and had the unintended consequence of making running the ball up tꩲhe middle of the field more difficult as defensive linesmen now were tweaked to aggressively take𓆉 down a player. The change was somewhat small, but it would have refreshed the way players engaged with their plays.
Madden 16 was an odd year for ꦦthe series, as perhaps the most innovative and celebrated change was to its old menu system. Before, using the menu was always rough and clunky, and the new menu simplified things, and the fact that fans were excited about that over the gameplay goes to show hไow little we see changed each year.
How Could The Process Improve?
The companies that make these types of sports game🌌s understand there is consumer fatigue with the franchises, and in the long-term this model of offering little substance at the cost of a AAA game is not likely to be sustainable.
As a result, some are looking other options that would negate the buying of a new game every single year in favor of other methods of monetization to push the newest features and roster changes. Bloomberg recently sat down with EA chief Andrew Wilson to what some of these ideas might look like. One option is to replace a yearly release with updates, paid DLC, or subscription services, essentially turning the game into a "365-day, live 🌼service.”
That type of move may be popular with some consumers, and less so with others. However, so many of today’s top games engage in such practices themselvesಌ. AAA title fighting games are possibly the best example where the base game is released, and then additional characters are drip-fed into the game in DLC packs, each needing to be purchased, that help susta🥂in interest in the game by offering shifts in the meta.
Tekken 7, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mortal Kombat 11, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Street Fighter 5 all sport a long list of content created for a post-release market, and there is no reason to suggest this w𝓰൲ill change any time in the near future.
With what Wilson describes, we could consider sports series games like MMORPGs, which is to say, a world that stays the same but from year to year that sees slight changes, whereby a subscription service would make perfect sense. We do not see a new 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:World of Warcraft or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elder Scrolls Online game release every year, instead we see subscription models keeping the world up to date with i🔯ncremental changes, and then large content additions in the form of paid expansions.
Ultimately, since EA oversees how to monetize the sports series each year, we should not hoꦐld our breath for anything that might drop profits to benefit the consumer. It will likely take a slump in sales as customers get tired of buying games with too little changing each year for any real shift to occur on their part, if that ever happens.