Sports video games are a genre often defined and criticized by stagnation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still trends to identify when you see how series progress. With a new year approaching and a new batch of annual releases to come, we decided to look forward and see what trends seem likely to take over sports gaming. We’ve identified four things we expect to see a lot more of in the next generation of sports franchise entries.
Ultimate Team Modes
Unfortunately, one trend that seems certain for the years ahead in sports gaming is also the trend that has dominated sports gaming over the last two generations of releases, too: a prioritization of online card-based modes. Since its first introduction in FIFA 09, Ultimate Team mode, in which players build their teams out of players opened in packs of virtual cards, has become a must-have in any sports franchise.
Before getting into the cynical reasons, it’s important to look at what this means for players, and the reality is that these modes are very popular. The system in place by developers wouldn’t work if players didn’t enjoy the thrill of building a team from the ground up or the excitement of opening a pack and discovering a massive pull inside. This can be fun, and players who enjoy the online modes should not be worried that they are going away anytime soon.
Of course, the main reason these modes are so prevalent and here to stay is the darker reason: they separate a lot of money from gamers’ wallets and hand it over to the bottom lines of EA, 2K, and the like. For all the criticism about how these modes can be predatory, and attempts in some regions to regulate them, so long as they remain a money-printing machine, they will continue to get more and more resources devoted to them, to the detriment of solo and offline modes.
Free-To-Play
In a similar vein, it’s hard to look past gaming trends that have the ability to make games more lucrative for developers as the decision makers atop video game companies have repeatedly shown there is no dollar they won’t chase. The free-to-play approach is one which offers the highest ceiling on possible earnings with Fortnite still holding down a place atop the gameplay charts after nearly a decade.
For sports game developers, the appeal is easy to see. With a successful free-to-play title, you create a constant source of income that can extend for years and years with nothing more than iteration. For an industry often criticized for only offering “roster update” style new releases every year, it’s not hard to envision a world where simply throwing out some new skins or player downloads is all it takes to keep fans thrilled as an appealing one.
Free-to-play is not entirely new to sports games, with the beloved Rocket League having grown through inclusion in subscription bundles like PlayStation+ before going free-to-play in 2020. For every successful game, however, there have been several flops, as well.
In recent years, however, the trend has started to spread out from more arcade-style games like Rocket League to games seeking to more traditionally replicate classic sports game styles as free-to-play. EA’s latest entry in the .skate series has taken the free-to-play approach, and longtime FIFA/EA FC competitor Pro Evolution Soccer has gone free-to-play with eFootball. While not a surefire winner like card-based modes, it would be surprising not to see more attempts to nail down free-to-play as a sports game delivery method.
Mobile Gaming
Not to establish a trend, but this is another trend that hardcore sports gamers may blanche at, which seems likely based on the broader trends of the video game and tech industries. Ultimately, the belief that more mobile action is coming to the sports world in the years ahead comes down to two beliefs: phone technology continues to get more and more impressive, and video game executives still like big numbers to present to their shareholders.
As far as technology goes, the power within our mobile phones now is light-years ahead of where it was when the idea of mobile gaming as an industry first came into prominence. While your phone may not be running the latest ray-tracing and like-real graphics, many popular games like the previously mentioned Fortnite are already popular on mobile devices, and we have seen more and more effort from sports franchises to make mobile versions available, and those versions grow closer to what we’d expect from a PC or console experience every year.
To the studios making the game, the appeal is once again one of the bottom line. No console in history can come close to the reach of the mobile phone industry, and mobile gaming is a booming industry. It’s only reasonable to think sports game developers will want to get further invested in the field and carve off a piece of that pie.
Virtual Reality
Another situation where the expanding technological capabilities on offer seem set to shape how we are served games in the future, VR technology has become more powerful in recent years, allowing for the potential application in sports games to progress accordingly. The ability to provide an enjoyable and smooth experience that puts you in the head of a player on the field or rink becomes less of a pipe dream every year.
Of all the avenues game executives are likely to look down on in the years ahead, this feels the most optimistic. For starters, the idea of moving fully over to virtual reality seems unlikely enough not to merit serious consideration, so instead, VR implementation would likely be an additional feature in sports games or developed as its own standalone game. If done well, the feeling of really dropping back, reading a defense, and firing off a pass would be incredible.
This is what we expect in the years ahead, but maybe you disagree.
