SDS dropped the MLB The Show 26 gameplay trailer earlier this week, and they also gave us the first look at some of the high-level improvements coming to the game this year.
We could talk about those things, but I find breaking down that stuff more worthwhile once their streams start (and once the deeper breakdowns start, which began today with gameplay). Either way, it’s not really the point of this article.
A version of this story ran in the Not Just Another Update newsletter earlier this week.
Instead, allow me to get on my soapbox for just a moment and say something that’s not groundbreaking but probably needs to be said considering some of the discourse I’m already seeing around this game (see: very negative). I’m going to take all of you to Mordor for a moment and then hopefully bring you back to the Shire.
If you thought this was the year there would be some major graphical overhaul, come on man. This is not me saying you shouldn’t be disappointed in the graphics — SDS’ lack of growth in this area is more noticeable than most other sports games — but there was no indication something major was changing there this year.
If you want to be frustrated with no PC, I get that a lot more because it did seem like there was smoke there. Robert also talked today about the “debate” around yearly releases, but I think this goes deeper than that.
So to bring it back to the graphics, I will go to bat for you graphics folks, or anyone frustrated with the pace of improvements in this series, by saying developers do need to come to grips with the new reality for sports games.
And that new reality is that sports games throughout their history were built around big graphical leaps filling in the gaps every five years or so. But after we hit the PS4 generation, there was a change, and developers (and some gamers) have not accepted that change.
Graphical improvements are not coming to save you. NBA 2K maybe gave some false hope with NBA 2K14 at the start of the PS4 generation, and games like Madden and FIFA have gotten bumps from going to Frostbite from their old engines, but it’s been 10+ years since graphics have truly moved the needle in the sports genre (or most genres for that matter).
You can say that’s because companies stopped trying to push the limits, but I would say it’s more just an issue with diminishing returns with graphics. We get better frame rates, better textures, but games from 2014 still look awesome.
GTA V came out in 2013, and you know what, it still looks great. You could say that game came out last year, and it wouldn’t be that hard to make people believe it — ignoring the fact that everyone and their mother owns a copy of GTA V at this point. You can’t say that same thing about GTA IV, or Vice City, or San Andreas, or GTA III.
Now, part of that is obviously GTA V still gets updates and re-releases, but we’re talking about something that was a PS3/360 game. If I use Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s even easier to make the point about how good some “old” games look at this point.
Rockstar is obviously a massive studio with great tech, but the point stands. There is a limit to what is possible, and it’s very unlikely those NES to SNES jumps are coming back anytime soon.
You can see the same thing with movies and television. 4K sports look great, and so do 8K sports (even if it’s not really 8K), but most people are probably not noticing much after they just stop showing things in garbage ass 720p — which still happens somehow for way too many real sports broadcasts.
So I don’t take it too seriously when people say any major sports game today “looks like ass” because by and large they don’t. Maybe certain games lack style or freshness, or in the case of The Show they’re still using unimpressive texturing and tech for dirt and the like.
But going from the NES to the SNES to the PS1 to the PS2 to the Xbox 360 to the PS4 is way different than now going from PS4 to PS5 (or probably whatever comes next).
Games have clearly hit a ceiling of sorts on the graphics front, and while The Show could do a new graphical engine, I think what a lot of people really want is something that’s not attainable as of now.
SDS could absolutely re-do player models, add lots of tattoos, re-do lighting, re-do grass and dirt, spend more time on textures (and they should do all those things), and all of that would add up and matter. However, all of that is still not going to solve the problem some people have, which is trying to rekindle that feeling when you got a new console and were blown away by the raw resolution and detail.
Most of us remember seeing The Show on PS3 for the first time. We all remember seeing NBA 2K14 for the first time on PS4. I remember seeing Madden on the PS2 for the first time on Christmas morning and losing my ever-loving mind.
As of now, that sort of moment is not coming back.
Graphics are now more about the “little things” than anything else, and I think that can be a good thing for re-calibrating how we think about graphical leaps in games — get back to focusing more on crowds, animations, sound design, stadiums, overlays.
Still, the “big things” do matter. This is where sports game developers have not caught on to the new reality. Graphics are not a “true” selling point anymore, and graphics aren’t going to hide your issues elsewhere anymore. After all, it used to be a thing that when a new console was introduced we accepted some worse gameplay or things feeling a bit off because at least it looked so damn cool and real.
But when The Show doesn’t bring back carryover saves, or carryover rosters, or online franchise, or a PC version, then that’s the problem in the current environment. No, we shouldn’t expect all of those in on year, but these companies all know the “major” features that people want.
You have to deliver on some of these features at this point. This is not an SDS problem, this is a yearly “any game” problem. The focus has to be on hitting on some of these big things. You can’t just say you did some work on franchise mode and made some of the other modes 35 percent better as well without something bigger (and requested) to go along with it.
Because what happens then is what’s going to happen to The Show now for the next couple months. People are just going to say “well they’re still doing 3-for-3 trades, and there’s no team options, and there’s no deferrals in franchise mode,” and so on.
Yes, all that stuff would still be said even if you delivered on the big things, but it wouldn’t be the main talking point, even in the hyper-negative online environment of modern times.
Again, I don’t think I’m saying anything revolutionary here, and I’m sure all these companies know this stuff. It’s probably a matter of not having the staffing or just not knowing how to figure these things out on a truncated yearly cycle more than a lack of skill or not being aware of the problem, but it has to be figured out at some point because this is not a new problem. It’s a decade-plus-year-old problem.
