College Hoops 2K9 canceled
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A couple weeks back I wrote an article taking a look at the sales of College Hoops 2K8 and March Madness 08. One statement I made had to do with the future of the College Hoops series, which from the sales numbers and current state of parent company Take Two, seemed to be up in the air. Sales of college basketball games did not appear to support two titles long term and given the circumstances that would mean College Hoops was potentially in danger. You can read that article with all the reasoning behind it here.
Today Kotaku got confirmation from 2K Sports that the College Hoops franchise will be no more.
2K Sports has decided not to continue negotiations with the CLC for the license for its top-rated College Hoops franchise, which would have been released next in November 2008. We are committed to providing fans with high-quality, critically-acclaimed sports games, but given our disciplined approach to the business, we do not believe the current discussions would result in an acceptable outcome.
There has been nothing yet to suggest there is any type of exclusive licensing deal in the works here. The companies have to pay for the rights to the licensing even if there is no exclusivity. It appears that financially it just didn’t make sense for 2K to re-up with the NCAA.
This is certainly disappointing for fans of the series as it had become arguably the most polished and true to the sport basketball title. However the sales just couldn’t justify the cost of production here. With the combination of having a competitor in a market that didn’t have enough sales to spread between the two and the financial struggles of Take Two the College Hoops franchise was clearly the one on the chopping block.
January 14, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I can’t contain myself….
in before the fanboy tears
January 14, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Very disappointing in my opinion it was a great game to play with my roommates.
January 14, 2008 at 2:05 pm
NOOOO!!! college hoops was by far my fav bball game..i love college ball and march madness isnt even worth my time..this sucks
January 14, 2008 at 2:27 pm
This really sucks I will never play an ea sports basketball game.
January 14, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Wow this blows….hope 2K works something out. I dunno. But at least I’ll be remembered as the last coverboy of the College Hoops Series
January 14, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Hmmm….
January 14, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Regardless of whether you prefer EA or 2K’s version of the college game, this is terrible news. 2K Sports have forced EA to “try” and lift their game with their latest NBA and NCAA basketball titles, and I think everyone would agree that they made some progress compared to last year, even if (like me) you think they are still a long way off.
What this means is now EA can just once again take it’s foot off the pedal and mail it in, adding a feature, removing two, and updating the year and cover athlete on the box. You know, like they have since basically the (very) early 00’s.
Oh well. Hopefully College Hoops 2k8 still gets its patch, in which case it may have to just tide me over for… well… ever.
January 14, 2008 at 4:08 pm
this is terrible. i refuse to play march madness
January 14, 2008 at 6:04 pm
This sucks. This was one game I really enjoyed picking up year after year.
January 14, 2008 at 9:46 pm
hahahahahaha now you fanboys have to play March Madness lmao…ahahahahahahaha
January 14, 2008 at 10:31 pm
[quote comment="9304"]hahahahahaha now you fanboys have to play March Madness lmao…ahahahahahahaha[/quote]
Incorrect. Now we just have to play College Hoops 2K8 forever, rather than suffer through MM.
Nice try though anonymous troll.
January 14, 2008 at 10:42 pm
[quote comment="9304"]hahahahahaha now you fanboys have to play March Madness lmao…ahahahahahahaha[/quote]
You always get these idiots that think you have to buy whatever is on offer.
2K makes a much better game than EA. It’d take EA a decade to come close to making a game like 2K8, by which time I’m sure 2K would have reentered the fray with another college hoops game.
January 14, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Yeah because MM/EA Sports will no longer have NCAA licensed bball competition this means they will purposefully make a sh*tty game, yeah because that’s what they want right? to make horrible games? well now that 2K is gone i guess they can just send a blank disc out to customers, hell they got no reason to DO THEIR JOB and make a good game. Without turning this into a gay 2K/EA smack talk thread (which is impossible not to and it already is) i’ll just leave it at i hated 2K7 and that led me to buy MM08 and im not unhappy with the move. bye-bye CHOOPS, you were decent!
January 15, 2008 at 7:04 am
This is yet another blow to the sports video game community. I think this one kind of hurts the most because College Hoops 2K was the hands down best college basketball series and now it will be gone. Yes, I know some people want to talk about how NFL 2K5 was the best football game in history of sports video games, but that point is highly debatable and one for another day.
So in the last few years, football aside, we’ve lost the best baseball series in MVP and now what looks like the best college basketball game in CHoops. It just doesn’t sit right.
However, I’m sure people will be anti-EA about this one, but again, it’s not their fault 2K doesn’t have the funds to maintain the license. 2K’s advertising has been less than stellar and they haven’t done much to heighten their brand awareness. Secondly, Take Two as a company isn’t all that slick and basically leaves VC/2K Sports out to dry.
I think this one falls on the shoulders of 2K Sports, or Take Two, themselves. Face it, 2K never did well with college titles. This is the same company that ditched their college football title as well.
That being said, I actually think that March Madness is starting to come around. It’s not there yet, but I do have confidence in EA Canada’s ability to turn the series around much like the way they did with the NHL series. Heck, I saw some very solid improvement from NBA Live to March Madness 08. I don’t think EA is going to mail it in just because they will have the NCAA BBall license. March Madness isn’t Madden and isn’t the juggernaught that it is. They will have to stay on top of their game in order to sell units, especially to pay off their licensing fee they will have to pay to stay exclusive.
All that being said, variety is the spice of life, and unfortunately in this day and age, I guess we don’t get that opportunity with sports video games.
January 15, 2008 at 9:25 am
They REALLY should have beefed up the graphics engine this year. and they didn’t…i don’t blame the public for not buying it the publics shelling out money they either can afford or not afford into next gen gaming and they expect something more now. CH 2k8 played BEAUTIFULLY but looked no diff than 2k6 for 360. at least it was nice to see the jerseys moving
January 15, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Stuff like this makes me glad i haven’t played sports games since Super Tecmo NBA Basketball and Super Tecmo Bowl 3. That and the games themselves.
January 15, 2008 at 5:10 pm
[quote comment="9338"]Stuff like this makes me glad i haven’t played sports games since Super Tecmo NBA Basketball and Super Tecmo Bowl 3. That and the games themselves.[/quote]
Isn’t that a little short-sighted? It’s nice to look nostalgically at the old Tecmo games, but you’re missing out on some great games.
January 16, 2008 at 12:52 pm
It’s not like i haven’t played a single minute of sports games since, i meant that I haven’t played enough to invest anyting more than say 5 or 10 minutes into any of the the new games, because they’re plodding and boring. Even Blitz was a pale imitation with a load of XTREMEEEEE makeup painted on that pig.
February 22, 2008 at 5:42 pm
this is upsetting considering 2k8 was incredible.
July 6, 2008 at 11:01 am
is there gonna be anyway we can still get the updated rosters or draft classes for the 2k9 college hoops so we can at least use that for the nba2k9…if not thenn its gonna take away from the realism of the nba2k9 franchise mode. I wanna continue to draft real college players….does anyone know!
October 7, 2008 at 7:58 pm
(NEW 2K9 ROSTERS UPDATE) FOR COLLEGE HOOPS 2K8- I got the roster updates for college hoops 2k8 -2k9 up on xbox live my gamer tag is
mrhotlineking (thats right all teams an every player) FRESS NEW FACES (new update rosters 2k9)
THE ROSTER UPDATE IS UNDER (LATEST FILES) ROSTERS OR TOP 100 FILES
MAKE YOUR COLLEGE HOOPS 2K8 GAME A COLLEGE HOOPS 2K9
MADE BY A TRUE COLLEGE HOOPS FAN IF 2K NOT GONA MAKE A COLLEGE 2K9
GAME WELL HELL GUESS THE FANDS GOTA DO IT THERE SELF AND I DID IT
SO LOG ON TO XBOX LIVE WITH COLLEGE HOOPS A DOWN LOAD THE NEW (COLLEGE HOOPS 2K9) ROSTERS AN LETS PLAY SOME 2K9 COLLEGE HOOPS
THINK GOD FOR THE 2K SHARE FILE! SORRY (EA MARCH CRAPNESS) 09 I WILL JUST PLAY 2K8 WITH UPDATE ROSTERS 2K9 HAHAHAHAHAH
November 20, 2008 at 11:25 am
This sucks 2K8 was great college basketball real life recruiting kids was so much fun I didnt even play just sim it out most of the time… I am not happy with the EA power play not cool ..
December 10, 2008 at 2:30 am
do u got the rosters for ps3 version of 2k8
March 26, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Damm I really liked ch 2k9
April 5, 2009 at 5:54 pm
yea im not buying MM since 2K put in the file share for 2K8. I can just download new rosters every year so technically im playin a new version of the game evry year