EA vs 2K sports games rambling

The sports video game battle between EA and 2K has raged on in gamers' hearts for years. IGN recently posted 10 pages of reader emails and opinions to a few questions about the series, sparking more debate about favoured games, exclusivity rights and company ethics. The majority of it was biased rubbish and probably requires my loose change opinion to settle the score.

As pigheaded as fanboys can get, I think that both EA and 2K are doing a good job. Both are highly playable games and for a number of reasons, people seem to start with one game and fall in love with it, totally dismissing the alternative (if there is one). It used to be a case of arcade vs sim, but in recent times the divide between them seems to be closing. Aspects such as team chemistry have appeared on both ice hockey games, so any little innovation or improvement is likely to be integrated into the opposition pretty quickly.

The NFL signed a big money deal allowing only EA Sports to exclusive team and player licencing rights at NFL and college level. Consequently, last year's NFL 2k5 was the last version of SEGA/ESPN/2K Games until 2011. The series had been well appreciated but I'd only played a little bit of 2k3 a long time ago, so it didn't come as a huge loss. Madden is a 5-star game and although there's more work to be done, particularly non-quarterback positions, it is a complete football package that will bring fans to Madden and NFL in general. I am against exclusivity, but it hasn't yet truly bothered me.

However, if Madden was lacking, that would be a disaster for football fans. Unlike many IGN readers opinions, I don't think it allows them to be lazy per se. I don't believe the EA board gave the development money to buy the rights and will just incrementally rebadge the series as Madden NFL 200x. Gamers always seem to demand new features or gameplay and I demand bug fixes, so the work will continue. As the incumbent, they are unlikely to make radical innovations in case of a flop, so the face of the game probably won't change much in the next few years. That may well suck.

I am delighted that the NHLPA (players association) recently shot down the idea of awarding exclusive hockey rights to EA Sports, an idea the NHL supported. This is where I got a little more animated. It's about the greater good of the game. Playing great sports games will inevitably get you interested or involved with the sport and the NHL needs all the viewers it can get right now. They could not afford to be screwed over by the exclusive rights holder. As it turns out, my favoured 2K series is testing my patience. I've enjoyed the past two efforts immensely, despite 2k4 being plagued with bugs or freezes. The gameplay is fantastic and with the help of sliders, you can customise the game to the way you like it played.

But 2k6 still hasn't been released here and isn't due until late February! This is ridiculous considering the season started in October and EA's effort was out around then. For the second year in a row, the PAL version has been utterly neglected and it really hurts. Even if it's only $40 or $50 when released, that's not good enough. At times I still can't believe I haven't cracked and bought NHL 06, because it looks a perfectly playable game, even if a tad arcadier. I just get the impression that EA invests more in Madden or NBA Live than in their NHL series, but I still loved NHL 99 and 2003 simply from a fun (non-critical) standpoint.

Ultimately, both companies have made decisions to piss me off. Both have strong games in their lineup and both have strengths and weaknesses. EA gets the nod on presentation, but 2K games are probably more true to the sport. I'd give 2K the nod if I had to, but to give a true indication I think I'd have to try them all out for good. To decisively choose one without all the experience would put me on a par with the poorer submissions to IGN. For another day.