Could NHL 2K Go The Way of College Hoops?

by pastapadre
Posted December 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm

2K Sports has generally supported their more prominent titles with at least a patch and a handful of roster updates throughout the year. NBA 2K9 has already received a significant patch and effort has been made to provide more roster updates than in the past. On the other hand the lesser-regarded 2K titles have gone largely ignored post-release, one recent example being Prizefighter which did not receive a patch.

News comes now that there will be no patch for NHL 2K9 and to date there hasn’t even been a single roster update. While the game showed improvement with the studio move to Visual Concepts that hasn’t resulted in better post-ship support.

Last year just a few weeks before 2K canceled College Hoops I had an article about how the sales for college basketball games didn’t seem to be able to support two titles. While their MLB and NBA franchises are completely safe in this regard, NHL would appear to be in a similar situation. The market for hockey games is relatively small and this year EA Sports’ NHL 09 captured a large majority of those sales.

With Take Two struggling financially it once again becomes a question of whether the license and development costs support producing the game based on potential sales. The absense of support for the game following its release could potentially be a sign it is on the way to being cut. Even if the series continues the low level of support and concern isn’t very encouraging.

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Dave

LOL Sports games are dying? Let me guess you are one of these losers that only plays stuff like Final Fantasy or you are a 35 year old with a Wii playing Super Mario Sunshine? Yes sir YOU are in touch with reality. Sports games keep growing in popularity, Madden will always be a top seller and The Show always sells well in the spring. The NBA games do great as well.
Dave

LOL Sports games are dying? Let me guess you are one of these losers that only plays stuff like Final Fantasy or you are a 35 year old with a Wii playing Super Mario Sunshine? Yes sir YOU are in touch with reality. Sports games keep growing in popularity, Madden will always be a top seller and The Show always sells well in the spring. The NBA games do great as well.
swn

best sports games i've played so far,

nfl 2k5, nba 2k series, mvp baseball 05, mlb the show '08, 2k college hoops '08, and winning eleven series.

i'm not sure how some of you can call out 2k sports and blame them for being second rate when i see more support for ea sports that isn't necessary about their sports at all. business is business……whoever advertises their products better and dilutes the playing experience by catering to the masses is going to win the battle…….plain and simple…….because majority of sports gamers are casual gamers who look to play with friends or online……maybe franchise mode players included. when you can't make profit(s) as well or better than the competition, then you would normally want to part ways with your product(s) to make up whatever you have left. i think its smart business decision that 2k is waiving some of their games but very sad also……….you don't want to have more expenses that revenues, right? in my opinion, 2k sports has gotten down the technical side of sports better that other sports games i've played……ever. i've have a much more appreciation for watching and playing sports just by playing it virtual via 2k/sega…….for that, i truly thank them. thank you, 2k/sega sports. as for ea sports, hmm……..they sure know how to hype up their games, better than any company………..aside from that, thats pretty much it……….only the mvp 05 stood out for me as a quality game.
swn

best sports games i've played so far,

nfl 2k5, nba 2k series, mvp baseball 05, mlb the show '08, 2k college hoops '08, and winning eleven series.

i'm not sure how some of you can call out 2k sports and blame them for being second rate when i see more support for ea sports that isn't necessary about their sports at all. business is business……whoever advertises their products better and dilutes the playing experience by catering to the masses is going to win the battle…….plain and simple…….because majority of sports gamers are casual gamers who look to play with friends or online……maybe franchise mode players included. when you can't make profit(s) as well or better than the competition, then you would normally want to part ways with your product(s) to make up whatever you have left. i think its smart business decision that 2k is waiving some of their games but very sad also……….you don't want to have more expenses that revenues, right? in my opinion, 2k sports has gotten down the technical side of sports better that other sports games i've played……ever. i've have a much more appreciation for watching and playing sports just by playing it virtual via 2k/sega…….for that, i truly thank them. thank you, 2k/sega sports. as for ea sports, hmm……..they sure know how to hype up their games, better than any company………..aside from that, thats pretty much it……….only the mvp 05 stood out for me as a quality game.