2016 Sports Game of the Year: Best Franchise/GM Mode (Reader's Choice)

The 2016 Sports Game of the Year Awards roll on today with the best Franchise/GM Mode Award being awarded today.

For the purposes of this award, we gave it out to individual games versus individual modes since there were different varieties in some games but the differences weren’t too huge. With that said, let’s get to the results of this category!

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Best Franchise/GM Mode

1. NBA 2K17 (41.41%)
2. Out Of the Park Baseball 17 (21.88%)
3. MLB The Show 16 (17.19%)
4. Madden NFL 17 (10.16%)

NBA 2K17 is on this list for a very good reason: Both MyLEAGUE and MyGM are fantastic. They offer slightly different takes on the GM/Manager mode, one that’s more traditional and hands-off and the other that’s more intensive, GM focused. My personal take is that MyGM is a much more enjoyable experience because of the managing of personalities and expectations and such — but MyLEAGUE has a charm all to itself as well.

Out of the Park Baseball 17 made the list because its simply darned fun and deep. A text-sim on the PC/Mac Platforms, OOTP 17 is deeper than any current AAA sports game. If you ever wanted to be a baseball GM and didn’t want to bother with the managerial aspects of the on-field action, OOTP 17 is a perfect way to get the most realistic experience. And hey, you can manage your team too if that’s your cup of tea!

Both MLB The Show 16 and Madden NFL 17 are on this list for solid but not completely great efforts. This year, The Show went even deeper than before and has great features like the trade finder which make playing the game much easier. However, advancing and finding your way through what is still a pretty confusing menu system will leave you somewhat wanting.

On the other hand, Madden NFL 17’s franchise mode lacks the depth that MLB The Show 16 has — but is more accessible in almost every way. The new Play the Moments feature allows gamers on a time crunch to get through multiple seasons and still have a big impact on their franchises future — but the lack of some realism and depth in the roster management (plus that darned trading system) means Madden isn’t quite up to the level of the other two games.

What do you think about the Franchise/GM modes from the 2016 crop of sports games? Did the reader’s pick the right winner? Sound off!