Aussie sports games: Win, lose or draw?

The history of video games based on Aussie sports is a long and varied one: from the early AFL games on the NES in the early '90s to EA's long-standing rugby union series and cricket series, all the way up to Sony's upcoming AFL Challenge and Rugby League Challenge for the PSP, and even new next-gen AFL games coming from Aussie developer Big Ant. But how much success have these games seen? And does association with a big publisher really mean a better quality game that will sell more?

There certainly seem to be more misses than hits to speak of. While cricket, AFL, rugby league and rugby union games all generally sell well, critical plaudits have been somewhat lacking. Why is this? Are all games based on Aussie sports ill-fated to live in the shadow of those polished and successful games based on other sports? In this feature from our colleague Laura Parker of GameSpot AU, we look at the history of Aussie sporting titles, from the ones that had an impact to those that didn't, and canvassed opinions from local and international developers to discover if things have gone stale, and whether there's any hope for change in the future.

The Aussie perspective

In an interview with GameSpot AU in April this year, EA Sports president Peter Moore talked about the challenges of developing and publishing region-centric games. Moore said EA has fewer opportunities to apply resources to games that do not have a global reach, making it more difficult to justify the costs of creating games based on AFL or rugby league as opposed to "true EA Sports next-gen titles". Simply put, there isn't enough money to get the former up to the standard of the latter, even if games based on Aussie sports do sell well in their market. Moore concludes: "We love all sports titles, but love doesn't necessarily transfer to making a game." But is the relatively small Australian market really to blame? Or are there other factors involved?

A large number of Aussie sports games have been developed right here in our own backyard. Melbourne-based Transmission Games (formerly known as IR Gurus) began working on local AFL sports games in 2002 with Kevin Sheedy AFL Coach 2002 on the PC for Acclaim. Transmission Games continued to work with Acclaim to develop AFL Live 2003, AFL Live 2004 and AFL Live Premiership Edition. In 2005, the studio signed an exclusive deal with Sony to develop AFL Premiership 2005, AFL Premiership 2006 and AFL Premiership 2007 for the PS2. In 2007 IR Gurus signed a deal with Codemasters to produce a series of cricket games, beginning with Ricky Ponting's International Cricket 2007 (known as Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 outside Australia) on the PS2 and the upcoming Ashes Cricket 2009 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

According to the studio, there is a big difference in sales figures between AFL and cricket titles. While an AFL title may sell a total of 85,000 units in a good year and around 40,000 units in an average year, cricket appeals to a broader market, selling in Australia as well as the UK, New Zealand and South Africa. A good year for a cricket title means in excess of 650,000 units sold. CEO of Transmission Games, Mike Fegan, says there are also other factors at play.

Cricket appeals to a much broader market than AFL and Rugby League. (Credit: Brian Lara International Cricket 2007/GameSpot)

"These figures are really dependent on timing of release, installed bases at this time, general status of the games itself standing with the community and the success of the team," Fegan said. "For example, with the Ashes series this summer, sales [of Ashes Cricket 2009] will be very strong in England. I should say this is the only time I would wish the English to beat the Aussies in any competition!"

Fegan believes budget is the most important factor affecting the quality and success of games based on Aussie sports.

"It really comes down to the production budget set by the publisher. Obviously if you are EA or Konami you can spend an incredible amount of money on a soccer game because you will have a huge audience who will buy the game. But a title based on an Aussie sport will always be constrained by the limited sales it's going to achieve in our small market, and the production budget reflects this," he said.

Publishers put larger production
budgets behind games with global audiences.
(Credit: FIFA/GameSpot)

"We will probably never have an AFL game looking as good as a FIFA or Madden game. Unfortunately, gamers expect the same quality without realising the constraints of the business. This will never be solved unless a game is published in multiple territories where the financial return for the publisher is going to be much stronger, like cricket or rugby union titles."

Fegan says it is difficult to develop Aussie-specific sports games for the local market because the local gaming community does not seem to understand the situation: a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". The other problem is local sporting licensors, who, according to Fegan, are not flexible enough on their licensing costs to allow a game to reach a high standard.

"It always comes down to the gameplay and to a lesser extent the visual quality. Ideally you want the game to look and feel like a TV broadcast and also to be very accessible from a gameplay point of view, so even if you're not a big fan of the sport or particularly skilful in playing games, you can immerse yourself in the game. Unfortunately, these licensors don't realise how much a game like this can be used to promote their sporting code to a broad audience, so the games often fall short," he said.

Fegan believes gamers want realism and smooth gameplay in a good sporting title, two things that are dependent on a good budget and time. Unfortunately, budget and time are difficult to achieve for local developers selling products in the Australian market. When Transmission Games was still operating as IR Gurus, the studio was never fully satisfied with the final outcome of its AFL titles. As niche games in a very niche market, these titles simply could not compete with internationally renowned game developers and become a world-class product.

"We took one step back and looked at a sport that could not only work in Australia but also in other key markets," Fegan said. "From there we knew that the only major national sporting code that all Australia followed on a major scale was cricket. Thankfully, we were able to convince Codemasters to hand over their successful Brian Lara/Ricky Ponting franchise. We have spent the last two years working on it and are very happy with the results to date, but we will wait until we get direct feedback from the fans come July this year," he said.

Towards the future, Fegan believes the only viable option for games based on Aussie sports is to move away from consoles and concentrate on PC releases.

"The future is in PC 3D web browser-based versions which are free but laced with in-game advertising and micro-transactions to buy the latest players or resources to move the game up the pecking order within a total online world. This will come in time, as Australia rolls out faster broadband infrastructure," he said.

New Zealand-based Sidhe Interactive is a well-known developer of Aussie-centric sporting titles, including Rugby League, Rugby League 2 and Rugby League 2: World Cup Edition. According to Sidhe's managing director Mario Wynands, the studio's rugby league titles have had strong sales success in Australasia. Rugby League even set a games industry world record for pre-orders in a single store at an EB Games location in Sydney with 1169 copies, only to be broken later with pre-orders on Rugby League 2.

Wynands agrees with Fegan that budget is the most important factor that contributes to a title's polish and success.

"With respect to quality, content and features, sports titles based on more popular sports such as American football, basketball or soccer have access to much larger budgets because they have much larger sales potential," he said. "A publisher just can't put the same development budget behind an AFL or rugby league title because the market is much smaller and they would lose money.

"On the sales side, the console market for rugby, rugby league and cricket games is limited primarily to Australasia, the UK and some European countries. AFL, unfortunately, has even more limited international appeal. North America is currently the largest game market, and without success there, it is hard [for games based on Aussie sports] to reach the sales success that franchises like Madden and FIFA have."

EA Sports head Peter Moore says the publisher’s focus is on creating
games with a big market, like the Madden series.(Credit: GameSpot)

Wynands recognises that Aussie-specific sports titles can, and have been, successful locally, although that success has been inconsistent as quality varies from title to title. He believes in order to maintain consistency developers working on these titles need to produce quality products.

"Developers need to be very switched on in the development process and adopt a multi-title approach — don't bite off more than you can chew all at once, and focus down on a few key features and innovations," he said.

"Any sports game is challenging to create, especially when those sports are team based. There is always a lot of content and data that has to be very accurate and detailed, you have to replicate the sport in a way that feels authentic but fun for one or more people to play and you need it to complement what is happening in the real world. Sports fans are very passionate, and if there is any area of a sports game that isn't up to scratch they will let you know about it. Sometimes Aussie sports titles have delivered on this core experience. Other times they haven't. Inconsistency in quality is the downfall here, which has made gamers cautious.

"I think Australian gamers are very critical of Aussie sports titles, and rightly so. They are more emotionally invested in a local sport, and an Aussie sports title is going to end up on the shelf at the same price as Madden or FIFA, so why not compare directly. But at the same time we need local gamers to understand the challenges on working on smaller budgets, and that improving the quality if products will require long-term investment and support in the various franchises."

Wynands says bringing Aussie sports titles to market is becoming much more viable with the improved graphics, sound and online functionality of consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"What we need to do when developing Aussie sports is pick our battles. We need to pick out those things that are important and make sure we deliver those things to their fullest potential at the highest quality possible. So while we might never match the scope of titles like Madden or FIFA, we can certainly match the quality in what we do have."