EA SPORTS VOLLEYBALL GAME?

    Hello!


    I believe most of us have ever thought at least for once: Why there isn't any decent volleyball game? I'd buy and play one.


    EA Sports was asked about it a few times, answering there's not an Indoor Volleyball game planned.


    The reason might be the market of the volleyball, still too small to invest money in creating something brand new.

    However, is it really true?

    I can't believe there would be vastly more NHLs or NFLs sold in a year than a brand new, professional volleyball game. As long as American football and hockey market is based in USA and Canada, mostly - the volleyball market is world wide.

    Volleyball is hell of a popular in Brazil, Poland and Italy, more and more popular in Russia, Turkey, Germany, France, Argentina or Australia, USA and Canada. Iranian society loves volleyball. Due to drafts and foreign players, there are a lot of new fans in Korea, Japan and China. There's a lot of countries all around the world that would be interested in a game of this type.


    And to be fair, it could involve only 5-6 strongest leauges in the world and it would be perfectly fine for the start (Italian, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Brazilian, German or French, maybe some Asian leauges) + national teams involved in the VNL.


    Adding the possibility of creating your own club, adding it to any leauge and the feauture of making transfers would surely be tempting for the players, too.


    I know creating a realistic, dynamic volleyball game might not be easy but doing something better than "Spike Volleyball" shouldn't be that hard for the studio like EA.


    I'm wondering, what EA has against the volleyball game because I'm pretty sure, if decent, it would sell out just fine.


    What do you guys think?

    Maybe because the US don't treat volleyball as a pro sport, or as much as other countries with established leagues do... NHL and NBA are huge, with a lot of money involved. Volleyball, on the other hand, is basically just a mean to go to college. It happens that they do really well there, because they are good in all sports, but they don't treat volleyball serious enough... Maybe a European company could be able to do such game...

    Quote from Polish96

    NOOOO!
    Please, if anyone is going to make a professional volleyball game, let it not be EA! Nearly all of their games suck nowadays, even the sport ones. Madden NFL was one of their biggest titles some years ago, and now, well... https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/madden-nfl-21

    Madden has the same problem as FIFA. There's no competition on the market because EA bought all the rights. So the games are essentially the same each year, just as money grabs for the pay-to-win modes.


    I don't think EA would ever make a volleyball game though, it wouldn't earn them the same amount of money

    Quote from avid

    Madden has the same problem as FIFA. There's no competition on the market because EA bought all the rights. So the games are essentially the same each year, just as money grabs for the pay-to-win modes.


    I don't think EA would ever make a volleyball game though, it wouldn't earn them the same amount of money

    I mean, I kinda agree with the original poster. Volleyball is actually a VERY popular sport worldwide. Poland, Italy, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Russia, Serbia...the level of competition in both male and female volleyball is becoming better and better, so we also have totally new countries (like Slovenia) joining the scene.

    According to Google Trends, when it comes to popularity of Olympic Team sports during the last 5 years, only Football (obviously) and Basketball are bigger than Volley. People were generally searching for more info on volleyball than on Ice Hockey, Handball or even Rugby. look here


    I think if they developed a Volleyball game, it would actualy sell pretty well. I mean, if they find baseball or even NCAA games affordable, why not volleyball?

    Quote from Polish96

    I mean, I kinda agree with the original poster. Volleyball is actually a VERY popular sport worldwide. Poland, Italy, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Russia, Serbia...the level of competition in both male and female volleyball is becoming better and better, so we also have totally new countries (like Slovenia) joining the scene.

    According to Google Trends, when it comes to popularity of Olympic Team sports during the last 5 years, only Football (obviously) and Basketball are bigger than Volley. People were generally searching for more info on volleyball than on Ice Hockey, Handball or even Rugby. look here


    I think if they developed a Volleyball game, it would actualy sell pretty well. I mean, if they find baseball or even NCAA games affordable, why not volleyball?

    That's fair. (I would highlight they don't make NCAA or baseball games anymore) but that can be altered with their hockey game.


    I think the problem with volleyball, is that the actual audience isn't big enough to justify the costs of creating the game for EA. There's nothing on the market to compare to, get ideas for mechanics, etc. They would be starting from scratch. Volleyball, I feel, is just a hard game to create a video game for. They don't want to be grouped alongside the producers of tennis video games (which have all been horrible as well) (Alongside their biggest or second biggest market having little interest in it).


    FIFA is the gem of the international market for EA. They earn *so* much money from that product. Domestically, Madden is their money maker. They have two cash cows and don't really need to do more work, even though some of us would wish they would.

    There's a lot of videogame producers, Ubisoft, Codemasters, Konami, Milestone and others that could (potentially) invest on a volleyball game but in the end no one can afford the risk because, as said, creating a volleyball game from scratch is very hard and it easily could be a flop. It's even true that if nobody starts, nobody can be able to produce a complete and valid volleyball videogame one day in the future.

    Sony is the only one I can trust with this type of investment.


    They have the best mocap production in the gaming world and they made MLB popular again despite the sports being just US-centric.


    Considering they lost MLB exclusivity although they're still producing the games, wish they just branched out to volleyball now. I'd honestly pay for it and I hope there is a story mode to make me feel for the characters.


    The only hurdle to a volleyball game is gameplay. Like how do you even do it. I'm thinking of Turn Based RPG elements for SP because fast paced multiplayer is going to be highkey chaotic if ping is accounted for but could be engaging if perfected.

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    There was Spike Volleyball about two years ago. It was iffy, but didn't have staying power.


    There was one of PS2 called Women's Volleyball Championship. It was decent, but I never could get into it after some of the good 16-bit entries (Super Volley, Super Volley2/Hyper V-Ball, Volleyball Twin/Dig-n-Spike Volleyball).


    There are some good beach games (Unbound Volleyball, and Power Spike volleyball on PS1). What I really liked about Power Spike is that it actually used real players.


    What made FIFA such a huge success and led to football/soccer being so successful here in the United States was that it had the license to real teams and players.


    That is what volleyball games are missing. They miss the chance for players to use players they see when they watch the Olympics.

    I dream of having a volleyball game developed by EA Sports. I'd like it to have Club and NT tournaments and also have a sort of RPG mode where one could create, train, and develop players. That would be really exciting! But I'm also aware there's not enough interest in the game for it to be profitable. I hope I'm wrong though. For now, I content myself playing Spike Masters Tactical Volleyball and Volleyball Championships by Sirocco Mobile.

    Volleyball Championships on the mobile is a fun game. Can’t play it on the higher levels because it just doesn’t seem to allow points to be scored against the AI.

    Sadly can’t really use the middle either on the game.