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Sports Titles Named Misleadingly?
According to an accusatory column in the sports section of the New York Post, naming the 2003-season sports videogame titles as 'Sports Game Title 2004' is dishonest. The writer suggests that "..when it comes to selling video games.. Major League Baseball and all big-league sports eagerly sell their licenses and logos to manufacturers who can't or won't tell the simplest and most significant of truths.." Have you been confused by this naming method, or do you think it's fair and understandable?
I worked at a used video game store for a couple of years, and saw thousands if copies of such games. I'd always thought of it in the same way as cars.
Not that I really gave a hoot anyway... I was more of an RPG guy. Of course, I think slapping "Final Fantasy" on the front end of "Mystic Quest" was a blatant attempt to lead you into the lie that it was going to be a good game.
Red Grange appears in Madden 2003!
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Seriously though, this has been standard pratice in the sports gaming industry for over a decade. Everyone who plays these games is well aware of which season's rosters are included, and even if they aren't common sense should hold that if the league's draft hasn't even happened when the title is released, the rosters aren't going to be correct for the NEXT year's season.
It's almost June, soon I'll be able to purchase a 2004 model car. Stupid? You bet. Confusing? Only to an idiot.
How's my typing? Call 1-800-eta-shut
There's no way anyone here can complain about the years. After all, they're basically version numbers. Slackware went from 4.0 to 7.0, skipping all in between, in what, under half a year? How much more sense does that make than releasing "Tux Racer 2006" today?
I thought I was getting technology from 2 millenia in the future! Those lying bastards!
What about Mystery Science Theater 3000, or even worse, the Gruntmaster 9000?! What about Warhammer 40000?!?!?!!!
It's worse than you can imagine!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
"YOU think it would make news if the salespersons at Bud Selig's car dealerships were trained to deceive customers into thinking that they'd purchased 2003 models when they actually bought 2002 models?"
Isn't it Ironic.
E3's over and this is what gaming news has to offer?
No sig for you!!
When you buy your games from the bargain bin you get Big League 2004 in 2005 anyway so it kind of evens out.
Besides, this is not exactly something people are unfamiliar with. I graduated from high school in the Class of '97, which means I began my senior year in the fall of 1996 and completed my senior year in the spring of 1997. This is exactly the same way sports games are numbered. Sports seasons are more formally called the "2002-2003 season," but if you want confusing, look at a couple of those next to each other. ("Do I want 2001-2002, 2002-2003, or 2003-2004?") Besides, "NHL 2k3" is much easier to say that "NHL 2k2 to 2k3." If you have to pick one year, at least for hockey, it makes sense to pick the second year, which is where the majority of games fall. Ditto for basketball, I think (but I'm not sure).
The guy who wrote this article is basically an idiot. You know what? I have never gotten the wrong sports game. Nor have I even come close. I looked at the box, saw one number, and then thought "Oh, it must be like graduation dates." I then confirmed my guess by looking at the price tag. A game that's a year old is not going to sell for $50. If it is, you're shopping at the wrong store. The EA Sports games sell for about $20 6 months after they come out. So it's very simple, even if you don't understand the reasoning at all: the most expensive product is the newest. Anyone who's spent more than $15 in his entire life should already be familiar with this rule, since it applies to everything.
If a gamer's buying a sports title in, say, 2003, and he's confused about which to buy, here's what's going to happen. He goes in to a store and sees:
Madden 2003 - 19.95
Madden 2004 - 49.94
Which is he going to think is the more recent title?
How hard is this to figure out? Please, show me one case where a gamer has been seriously swindled by this.
In other news, EA Sports recently reset their baseball franchise back a year to correct this.
To sum up: Yes, it's silly that sports games are usually named a year ahead of where they should. Is it really that big of a deal? No. Go find something more important to bitch about.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
I don't know if it's true for all the sports franchises, but I think the naming has to do with what season the rosters in the game represent.
So, MLB 2004 has what is supposed to be the 2004 season rosters... for college basketball where the season wraps the new year, the season is referred to as the ending year.
It doesn't have anything to do with the year the game was released or developed in other than that's usually right before a season starts.
This has always been my assumption and maybe I'm the one that's wrong, but I really don't think the author of the article buys sports games and I don't see some conspiracy to dupe consumers into buying last year's titles.
The games are named after the seasons for the sports. The leagues all designate the season by the year in which the 'final' is played. This september will see the start of the 2004 NFL season because the Superbowl for that season will be played in Februrary of 2004. As such the NFL videogames coming out at that time will be Madden 2004, NFL2K4 and so on.
Graham
First, if they change it, then what do they call the first title with the new naming scheme? The old one was "Madden 2k3", and the new one will be... "Madden 2k3"? That won't work. Will they call it "Madden 2k3 2.0"? I don' think that will work either. They can't call it "Madden", because most people would probably assume "Madden 2k3" (the older title) would be newer than the one named "Madden".
But more to the point, if one company changes things and names it correctly (so the game that comes out in 2k3 is called 2k3, not 2k4) then they are at a LOSS compared to the competition. If Joe Schmoe goes to buy a football game for his PS2/XBox/GCN and sees the following three things, which one is he least likely to buy:
I say he will be least likely to buy Madden (all else being equal to him) because it seems "older" than the other titles. So unless EVERYONE in the industry switches at once, it seems like it's not in the best intreset of any of the publishers to correct the naming problem. I think this is just something that we'll all just learn to accept like the naming of cars model years.
PS: Sorry to pick on Madden, it's just the name of the first football game to come to my mind, so I used it as an example. I haven't played ANY football games in years (not my thing) so don't go fanboy on me and take it as some kind of judgement.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
This is the first time I've ever heard of anybody complaining about the years in the titles of sports games. I was always under the impression that the year in the title referred to the year the game was released.
I wonder if the author feels the same way about car manufacturers. After all, a 2004 Jetta actually first comes out in 2003.
It's too late to change... if there is already a "Sports Game 2003" from last year, they can't call this years game the same thing...
"Sports Game 2003 - Really, We Mean It!"
I'm not a sports game fan, but surely it's obvious what the new title is and what the old title is? Besides, why not just look at the copywrite date?
Verne.
There are only two things in this world that smell like fish. And one of them's fish...
Acclaim released All-Star Baseball 2004 on just 28 February of this year. Unless Reggie Jackson was "Mr. January" and not "Mr. October", the World Series will be played this fall, in 2003. 989 Studios (PS2) has a current title: MLB 2004. 3Do's "High Heat 2004" is due out soon. Midway publishes MLB 20-04 for the GBA.
Contrarily, EA Sports' current offering is "MVP Baseball 2003".
MORTAR COMBAT!
"MVP Baseball 2003" is not baseball. Is there a ball? Are there any bases to run? A bat to hit with? No there is just media. The startling conclusion is "MVP Baseball 2003" is NOT baseball, but is a merely a video game about baseball.
What this guy fails to realize is that when referring to sports you say the year after they begin the season...e.g. the Lakers won the 2003 National Championship, the Kings/Nets/Pistons/Rockets won the 2004 National Championship in the 2004 season.
The 2003-2004 NFL season is about to begin, but the super bowl is in the year 2004 so 10 years from now they will refer to the team who wins as the 2004 season winners.
I dont see anything wrong with what the game companies are doing.
I immediately knew that it was Phil Mushnick. Basically, the guy is the resident Sports TV critic for the post (which at any newspaper is a job they give the old fart who's effectively retired). He's complained about the hits in sports games being illegal.
The guy's a crackpot troll...
First, MVP Baseball 2003 is not "the 2002 version." That is a lie. It has 2002 stats because the 2003 stats do not exist. Duh.
As to the others, they *all* take place in the 2002-2003 season. The seasons are all 2003, and the name of the game is 2003. He could say, "well, but the stats are 2001-2002," but that has already been dispensed with (and in the case of Madden, it isn't even true, since you can update the stats on the PS2 version to BE the 2002-2003 stats).
Yes, he has a point with High Heat 2004. That leapfrogs an entire season, and literally makes no sense. But logical arguments can be made for all the others mentioned.
They do this in the magazine industry too. The copies of Newsweek and Time that came out today are dated May 26. Monthly magazines are dated a month or two in advance. So I just think of the cover date as the date the magazine will be pulled from the shelf.
And of course the hard disk industry insists a megabyte is 1,000 bytes, not 1,024.
Just assume they're goosing the stats and you won't be pissed off when they do.
Insert witty sig here.
With the exception of baseball, all sports games are named depending on when the season ends. Madden 2004, while it comes out in August of 2003, is replicating the season that finishes with the Super Bowl in January/February of 2004. NBA Live 2004, while it comes out in November of 2003, replicates the season that ends with the NBA Finals in May of 2004. The only exceptions are baseball titles, which, by the way, EA Sports is trying to curb. They tried to do the same back with Triple Play Gold for the Sega Genesis, but sales went down because people would see a "1994" product and a "1993" product. The consumer would obviously go for the "most recent" title. EASports latest baseball game, "MLB MVP Baseball" was given the yearly title of "2003". Sales were expected to be lower, because it was going up against titles named "High Heat 2004" and "All Star Baseball 2004", but the buzz of the new series brought back former EASports baseball fans. Eventually, the baseball year will be the right year for all games... It's just a slow process. As for everything else, it's legitimate. Mike
I've spent too much time chasing windmills.
Or sport.
You know what I like ? Beer and pizza. Where are all the beer and pizza games ? Remember that one where the kid delivered papers ? That was a stupid game, I hated that game and you could never quite control him properly and he kept hitting the mail box and I think there were little dogs maybe I don't know but sports games I know about and I don't care for them at all, didn't I used to get beat up by sports guys at school ? And now I'm supposed to relive my worst memories of high school by immersing myself in simulations of the activities these boneheads held sacred ? That blows goats. I liked the one on the Intellivision with the baseball. The crowd cheering sounded a bit like a crowd cheering. Or like a radio tuned to no station in particular playing static. But a bit like a crowd. The capital of Finland is Helsinki.
Now wash your hands.
...is trying to explain to customers that MVP 2003 and MLB Slugfest 2004 came out at about the same time. And for those of you who think the average consumer is intelligent, work in retail sales for six months and see how you feel then. :)
My job is only easy when you aren't doing it right....
How is this different from selling a 2004 car in 2003? The 2004 Acura TSX came out last month (-ish). It's a brand new car! They couldn't call it a 2003?!?
Sports games make absolutely no sense to me. People play FPS games because it's illegal or too expensive to shoot people in real life, or RPG's because there's no such thing as magic. But sports? Someone please explain this to me.
Someone hates these cans.
Cars for the next year were offered for sale the year before (EG: '57 chevy offered for sale in '56) because it took longer to make cars back then and it was a matter of pride to be one of the first people to own that 57 chevy at the begining of 1957.
Cars are now made extremely quickly compared to the 50s and available before the year is half over but the original concept still remains (even though the ideals are long since dead).
As for the sports game naming it's completely pointless. There is absolutly NO WAY a software company could know what is going to go on in the next sports season. If it's NHL 2004, you can bet that JS Giguere is going to be in it BUT if this game is released during the begining of summer and Giguere dies in car accident or such (may the Great Hockey Gods forbid) the game is then no longer accurate.
The moral: if you're going to name sports software in the future tense put the word 'Fantasy' in front of it...
(PS: I used the 50s throughout because I like the style of cars from that era. To quote Al Bundy - 'Back then all that mattered was going fast and looking cool. Who cared if you couldn't survive a head on collision.')
The GEEK shall inherit the earth...
I used to sell these things. When you're out of 2K3, if someone buys 2K2, you're happy as a clam because old editions don't sell. The article is right on the money when mom is in charge of the Christmas list. Yep, she'll be confused.
The real way out of the dilemma is to create downwardly compatible software that can read the players and stats of the previous year's edition. Throw in things like collectible uniforms (they change), insignia (they change, too), and special game-only features (different for each console, of course), that can also be uploaded into the latest edition. Imagine and 80's Ripken Orioles team vs. a 90's Ripken Orioles team. The only problem is, when Cal hits the ball to the 80's team, all the players dive for it.
This could get really cool if they'd publish a Baseball 1900 edition.
Cars, magazines, video games -- everyhting is dated forward for appeal. It doesn't matter, and anyone that gets confused easily by the dating of a video game is really ****ed.
The newspaper journalists are only bitter about this because today's newspaper only has yesterday's news.
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
Tax programs are named after the tax year, which is the year previous to the year you buy it. So you go to the store and buy Turbo Tax 2002 and Baseball 2004 and both are current.