EA vets create a new with the goal of bringing back that NBA Street energy with a new... IP!
Game Industry Biz, spoke to CEO Scott Probst and creative director Mike Young about what the sports games market is missing while serious simulations dominate. Clearly they're viewing a problem they hope to be a solution for, but... we can't overlook other studios like Playground Sports and their contribution to the arcade sports genre in recent times.
It is interesting to see EA vets form their own studio for the sake of releasing their own version of NBA Street. It will certainly break away from what EA would target legally if they aren't the publisher, but one thing I scratch my head about is will they have official players or... are they going their own way in terms of creating their own characters.
If they choose to take this route, the fun factor will have to be through the roof, because a number of people don't simply play these games just to play with... Jammin John Doe with the double dunk. They play sports games usually because they love gaming + sports and want to be a part of the experience when it comes the league and their favorite teams and players. All it took was inviting my parents to a Heats game back when the big three called the team... home, and they were hooked. Playing sports games of the past, just like the present, is also motivated by the fanfare a good chunk of the time. I won't say it's doom and gloom, because some of us grab arcade sports games just because they're fun (I've played some no name titles back in the day myself)... but there are also other options Play by Play can take if they approach the player associations rather than the league (i.e. What Playground Sports did with Wild Card Football).
I didn't see anything in the Game Industry Biz article about not grabbing the license to make things official, but... the way they use examples like "Nintendo's Mario-fronted sports games" and mentioning fighting games who got their start with unrecognizable characters, it's easy to assume that the characters won't be recognizable during this first go round.
Will it matter? We shall see, but... I wish them the best either way if gamers are satisfied.
