Analyzing the college basketball game sales
by 
Throughout the community I’ve seen questioning of why the College Hoops and March Madness franchises don’t get the same support that other sports titles do. This has been brought up in areas such as budgeting, feature sets, improvements from the previous year, and the differentiation from the NBA games.
However by looking over initial sales numbers for these two games it becomes obvious why that is. Below are the numbers from the Xbox 360 versions. College Hoops had nearly a three week head start so I’ve posted the first week sales along with CH’s total sales to date.
College Hoops 2K8: 26,280 first week. 56,280 to date.
March Madness 08: 15,266 first week.
In comparison those come out to about 25% of what the NBA titles sold in their first week. The PS3 sales fare even worse selling about 1/3 of the 360’s numbers.
The scariest thing is the lack of growth over the previous year. Where sales for other sports titles went up significantly on the 360, last year CH 2K7 opened with 20,234 amounting to an increase of 6,046. Meanwhile March Madness actually dropped as 07 kicked off with 22,411.
Interestingly MM 07 launched in mid-January. Maybe there was something to the idea of releasing it mid-season at a point when fans were starting to get more into college basketball. I wonder if they’ll go back to that for 09 after looking over the numbers. Despite having a two month head start CH 2K7 didn’t end up outselling MM 07 by much.
Why do these two sell so poorly? There are three big factors to consider. The first is that they come out 1-2 months after the NBA games do and most are satisfied with having just one basketball game. Along with that the majority of people don’t know the players in the game, with the exception of maybe their favorite team. That lack of being able to identify with the sport that the game is representing makes it less appealing. Finally college basketball doesn’t really get popular until tournament time. General sports fans don’t pay much attention to it until then.
So this actually brings up the thought of whether or not both college basketball games can survive. With numbers such as these it becomes a concern. There is always the possibility that Take Two/2K, which has struggled with their unprofitable sports division, could drop the game from their lineup. It appears they’ve already scraped any idea of another All-Pro Football for this year as the state of their affairs grows worse. When looking at the numbers and considering the circumstances it wouldn’t be totally surprising or unjustified if changes did extend to other games that were struggling.
Hopefully this gives a better understanding of why these two games don’t get quite the same attention as others do. It comes down to the bottom line. They just don’t sell well enough and the potential for growth is minimal.
December 24, 2007 at 6:06 am
well i just bought college hoops 2k8 for my bro for christmass, so make that 56,281 to date.
playing the MM 08 demo on xbox made me suicidal. thats how bad it was. i got 2k7 last year and it was great so add in classic teams and 2k8 should be the pick for everyone. i dont even know why 15,000 people even considered MM 08
December 24, 2007 at 9:15 am
march madness is regreting dropping that price i bet, didnt help out the sales.
December 24, 2007 at 9:23 am
[quote comment="8069"]march madness is regreting dropping that price i bet, didnt help out the sales.[/quote]
well I don’t know, it depends. The question is whether or not the loss of $10 per sold is made up for by additional sales. Which we can’t tell because we don’t know what it would’ve sold otherwise. And maybe those extra sales are ones that don’t come in week one.
I’m not sure that dropping it to $50 was what they needed to do either, I think $40 like with NFL Tour is the price point that is going to push additional sales of secondary games.
December 24, 2007 at 9:44 am
If they made alot better quality basketball games with the graphics that is suppose to be used on these consoles from the guts of the game as far as editing, better player and coach models, better editing of the players, real life animations and other things like handling multi teams dynasties, these games would sell more. Alot of gamers qualify the games by the demos, which to say, they arn’t the best of quality. The economy hasn’t been the best either, it is worse than alot of people think it is. These gaming companies pay all these proffessional people if you would call them that because of a piece of paper, they also get paid alot of money to create and make these games, you would think they would deliver alot better video games than they do. They should also hire people that know what they are doing and knows the sport backwards and frontwards not these people that think they know the sport or in the learning process with a piece of paper. I know there are people without that paper can do a hell of alot better that what these gaming companies that don’t have the backing to do so.
They should also have better sales and marketing than what they have, they don’t do squat. They should also have better sponsorship and licensing. You would think these colleges as much as the public supplies the money for one way or the other would be more interested in different ideas of promoting their sport programs. Mens basketball is a big asset to colleges. My personal opinion this is where the gaming companies sales and marketing people would convince the colleges to really get involved alot more than they are. This would promote the games alot better to the public.
Another thing would be better advertising, I have not even seen one TV advertisement yet of these games. The gaming companies hardly advertise or promote any of these games hardly at all. The game stores would do more advertising if these games were better quality than what they are too.
Just for an example, look at Madden and the baseball games, how much advertising is done.
For some reason they don’t advertise basketball if at all or hardly at all.
December 24, 2007 at 10:13 am
jus boght three for ps3 1 for me 1 for friend and 1 for brothr
December 24, 2007 at 10:13 am
march madness 08 that is
December 24, 2007 at 10:19 am
will March Madness consider no more games either? I wasnt gonna ask but I couldnt resist (even though the numbers are before christmas when people cop games in bunches).
Something always has to be negative about that company no matter what they do (2K)… A good game is a good game.
Where is the Live 08 vs NBA 2k8 numbers bro?
December 24, 2007 at 11:04 am
NBA Live 08 sold ~90,000 on week one for PS3/360. NBA 2K8 sold ~130,000 in the same timeframe.
kpf48 – CH 2K8 aired quite a few commercials this year during early season games. Also, you’re right in that these companies can do better – but you’re missing a big point. If these games don’t sell, that’s less money that can be reallocated back into the future version(s). Poor sales for a year or two can really begin to start a vicious cycle. Poor sales, less resources for next version, next version doesn’t improve much (if at all), bad reviews leads to more poor sales, etc. EA has the capital to sink into improving MM, the question is whether or not they will. Does 2K have the same ability to drastically sink more resources into CH? Given Take Two/2K’s situation, I’m going to guess they may not.
December 24, 2007 at 11:33 am
all there is to say about this is that
1. Since NExt Generation Consoles were realeased, EA Sports has gone into hibernation mode with basketball games. We all remember the time when everyone played NBA Live and no one played 2K games. EA Sports has dropped the bomb with next gen bball games.
2. 2K games has recognized the dissapointing embarrassment from EA bball games and picked up the slack, making extremely good games
December 24, 2007 at 12:22 pm
im suprised the NBA games get so much more sales. I go to the University of Kentucky and everyone plays College Hoops 2K8. Its just as popular as Madden and NCAA
December 24, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I live in a big college city also (Ohio State), thats why i never care about the numbers because good is good (games)… When college football drops, cats stand in line to get it… For Madden the same, for college 2k8 the same… Even when APF came out, we are a sports town and state, if the game is good… cats will cop it.
As long as good games are made, I will buy…
EA or 2K
December 24, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I think it’s that the everyday person can’t identify with the players in NCAA games, being that it’s just #2 or #41 and not Nowitzki or James.
In places like Kentucky where there’s really no pro sports teams, I can see an NCAA title selling well, since they can identify more with college sports.
Also if you like to play a lot online and didn’t go to a school with a really great team, you have very little chance of winning with your alma mater (the one team you can identify players) online since you’ll always go up against teams like Kansas, Duke, UNC, Georgetown in bball, and Ohio State, Michigan and USC in football. I went to Seton Hall, and I know all their players, but if I play online with them, I won’t stand a chance against the online teams in the top 10 that people play with. So to compete, I’ll pick a team where I only know a few of the big name players, and then I’m playing with players who are just #’s for the rest of the team.
I guess NCAA rules preventing names are to blame.
March 22, 2009 at 10:33 pm
if u dont know who the players are then u obviously dont watch the sport on a regular basis and just the video game.. watch ESPN once in a while bro
December 24, 2007 at 4:02 pm
dear anthony,
there is a thing to buy for the xbox named a transfer kit where u download the names off the internet and transfer it to the xbox thru a ethernet cord, so COllege hoop games dont bother to waste the time and money on getting names when usually most people just download them.
December 25, 2007 at 5:08 am
So now 2K may quit publishing College Hoops?
Do you ever get tired of being a shill for EA? If you’re an EA site, just admit it instead of trying to hide it by “talking” about other games. Gets old and ruins your site’s credibility.
December 25, 2007 at 5:39 am
[quote comment="8140"]So now 2K may quit publishing College Hoops?
Do you ever get tired of being a shill for EA? If you’re an EA site, just admit it instead of trying to hide it by “talking” about other games. Gets old and ruins your site’s credibility.[/quote]
Not sure why that would upset you, the fact of the matter is 2K’s financial situation is what it is, and the sales of the college basketball games are what they are. Never said it would happen just that it wouldn’t be shocking if it did. If they were to drop a title it isn’t a stretch to say this would be it due to the circumstances. 2K just announced Prizefighter but left out a version for the PS3. There are different ways to go like they’re doing with that or they could stay the course. Its difficult to see a market there to support two different titles each year for college basketball across the board. On the other side EA can continue to finance titles that may not be pulling in a lot of money in order to keep up their branding and relationships.
Has nothing to do with the game, which I have pointed out as one of the best this year IMO.
December 25, 2007 at 8:22 am
2K sports is amazing in comparison to EA Sports. I can’t beleive that after the dissapointment of the NFL 2K series getting cancelled, even though EA strong armed them out the market by snatching up the licenses, that this could happen yet again with another terrific franchise CH 2K series. 2K is the only reason I bought an xbox. I play all of their franchises, and real sports gamers would concur that their gameplay if not their graphics, dominates any EA sports franchise. I really hope the numbers are not as gloom and doom as your have stated pasta.
December 26, 2007 at 10:56 pm
[quote comment="8140"]So now 2K may quit publishing College Hoops?
Do you ever get tired of being a shill for EA? If you’re an EA site, just admit it instead of trying to hide it by “talking” about other games. Gets old and ruins your site’s credibility.[/quote]
Don’t you dare go after Padre like that. It’s my job and until I retire will stay that way.
I am sure some EA employee is over at the CLC (The people who dole out licenses for NCAA merchandise) daily trying to buy up the hoops license and anything else NCAA related so they can attempt to kill off any competition in the college arena. That way they can retain all the sales and nudge 2ksports one more foot or so under the earth. To make it a profitable investment, they will pretty much trim down the development team to handle the very minor updates from 09 up to the end of this generation.
December 27, 2007 at 7:13 am
[quote comment="8265"][quote comment="8140"]So now 2K may quit publishing College Hoops?
Do you ever get tired of being a shill for EA? If you’re an EA site, just admit it instead of trying to hide it by “talking” about other games. Gets old and ruins your site’s credibility.[/quote]
Don’t you dare go after Padre like that. It’s my job and until I retire will stay that way.
I am sure some EA employee is over at the CLC (The people who dole out licenses for NCAA merchandise) daily trying to buy up the hoops license and anything else NCAA related so they can attempt to kill off any competition in the college arena. That way they can retain all the sales and nudge 2ksports one more foot or so under the earth. To make it a profitable investment, they will pretty much trim down the development team to handle the very minor updates from 09 up to the end of this generation.[/quote]
Ouch!
January 4, 2008 at 10:33 pm
The main reason that no one buys these games is simple.
College basketball sucks.period. I say this as a TRUE sports fan. The thing is, there’s no loyalty in college basketball. Most of the star players in college hoops race off towards the dollars of the NBA the second they get any attention. Tell me, what did Kevin Durrant do during his brief stint at Texas? At least in CFB, you know that your players will be there until their senior year. It’s plain and simple. the lack of loyalty is the reason these games don’t sell. These are not bad games at all.
January 14, 2008 at 12:40 pm
[quote comment="8140"]So now 2K may quit publishing College Hoops?
Do you ever get tired of being a shill for EA? If you’re an EA site, just admit it instead of trying to hide it by “talking” about other games. Gets old and ruins your site’s credibility.[/quote]
I’m not really one to say I told you so, but…