It’s Time For EA Sports To Revive Its Most Entertaining Era of Video Games

Highlights

• EA Sports should revive its ‘BIG’ label games for a breath of fresh air in the oversaturated sports gaming market.
• The nostalgic and unique arcade-style gameplay of ‘BIG’ games offers a stark contrast to EA Sports’ current titles.
• Reviving ‘BIG’ games without microtransactions would not only please gamers but also help build consumer trust.

Gamers generally agree that EA Sports titles have long been stagnant in terms of quality. If the EA Sports division wants to revitalize the label, it ought to look back to the past—to a point that many agree to be its golden age.

EA Sports has seen declining interest in its many annual releases. Though some new series have recently entered the fray, such as WRC, the deluge of sports games EA is releasing every year tends not to stick the landing. Madden is a great example of this; the heyday of the franchise is agreed to have been in the former half of the 2000s, whereas today its games are plagued by cookie-cutter gameplay and microtransactions in what is already a premium product. With multiple sports franchises doing the same thing annually, it’s easy to see how the market is becoming oversaturated.

EA Sports Should Bring Back Some Of Its ‘BIG’ Label Series

With calamities ranging from Madden 24‘s glut of negative reviews to the loss of the FIFA brand, EA’s sports division could use some revitalization. One way in which this could manifest is in the form of EA Sport’s ‘BIG’ labeled games, which ran from 2000 to 2008. The ‘BIG’ branding encompassed a variety of games, kicking off in 2000 with the snowboarding series SSX and including sports such as rally racing, motorcross, snowmobile racing, and more. Whilst ‘BIG’ games have ups and downs, as any offering of games is bound to do, their status as fondly remembered titles cannot be ignored.

The ‘BIG’ Brand Was Hugely Popular

The arcade-style gameplay of ‘BIG’-labeled releases, emulated by reboots like FIFA Street, is married to vivid imagination. This came out of an earlier iteration of EA’s philosophy, where creative freedom was less restricted and employees like Steve Rechtschaffner were able to start up franchises like SSX. ‘BIG’ games deviated from FIFA and Madden titles with their aforementioned arcade-style gameplay, a wider variety of sports to play, and an aversion to strict realism. This led to stylization, experimentation, and hugely successful IPs—including SSX and NBA Street.

Moreover, the lack of microtransactions does a lot to make gamers look back on ‘BIG’ fondly. EA Sports games have gotten ludicrously expensive; even as the industry moves away from loot boxes, microtransactions in premium products remain in place. Despite game prices rising to $70 in addition to microtransactions, many titles have not delivered on meeting the expectations such a price-point demands. Bringing back these classic titles without these extra fees would go a long way to building back consumer trust.

EA Sports Needs A New Injection Of Life

Players who take a look at the catalog of games under the ‘BIG’ umbrella will notice how unique they each look. Their covers are each distinct, with unique fonts and colorful box art. This is an aspect scarcely found in the current slate of EA Sports titles. The basic use of repeated fonts, plain white coloration, and copy-paste player art is invasive across the vast quantities of yearly sports releases. It reflects the factory-made connotation that comes with many of these games, such as the bug-laden Madden 23. EA really should bring back some of its older ‘BIG’ titles to add some diversity to its shelf space. At the very least, it would be a good idea to take some aesthetic cues from them.

‘BIG’ Games Need Modern Preservation

By bringing back ‘BIG’ games in the form of a remaster or re-release, not only would EA Sports recapture the excitement many gamers are nostalgic for, but it would also help preserve games that aren’t often discussed online nor are easily accessible on modern consoles. The issue of game archival is becoming sharper in the era of game streaming and digital ownership, highlighted by instances such as the closing of the Wii U and 3Ds eShops.