Is the loss of College Hoops a sign of things to come?
January 16, 2008 by pastapadre
Now that we know College Hoops 2K9 has been canceled, and that it didn’t have anything to do with exclusive license negotiation, it would make sense to look at the other titles in 2K Sports’ lineup. Relatively low sales, alarming lack of growth and potential, and the troubled status of Take Two appears to have led to the decision that the College Hoops series was expendable. What does this mean for the rest of their lineup?
NBA 2K: The only game that turns a profit it has become the flagship title for 2K Sports. Sales have been strong but it is tough to rely on just one game to carry the load. The NBA is not interested in exclusive licensing so there isn’t any worry about that happening. NBA 2K is going to be around unless the company folds and that seems to be an unlikely scenario with all the talk about a potential sale.
MLB 2K: The third party exclusive license has really been dragging 2K down. It should have been obvious when EA decided to pull out of negotiation having determined that it wasn’t a smart business decision. It seemed to be a sign of desperation following the loss of the NFL. Back when the deal was signed analysts pointed out that baseball games have never been huge sellers and combining that with not being a true exclusive it made for a questionable move. No matter with the license MLB 2K is definitely secure.
The BIGS/Power Pros: The BIGS is an example of taking advantage of having the license and trying to squeeze whatever possible out of it. It is the same idea that EA has used with the NFL license and games such as Tour/Street and Head Coach. There is a pretty good chance there will be a follow-up to The BIGS as the game sold relatively well on both the 360 and the Wii. Power Pros was published by 2K in the US but not developed by them so it is hard to say what will come of that, however the game definitely didn’t sell well at all.
NHL 2K: This would appear to be the most likely game to be in danger based on the circumstances. As with the NBA, the NHL has also shunned the idea of an exclusive license. In 2006 both 2K and EA signed multi-year deals with the NHL. Exactly how many years that deal runs wasn’t revealed, but when it comes up again 2K may face the same decision they did with College Hoops. Their NHL game doesn’t sell all that well and they have a competitor in a market that may not justify two competing games. Will it be worth it to continue down that path?
All-Pro Football: Another installment was already at best questionable, but given the latest developments it seems even more unlikely. Sales were poor and the cost of signing every legend individually dragged down potential profitability. Not to mention questionable marketing decisions such as seeking out OJ Simpson to be in the game. One thing that could give it a chance to return was some talk that the contracts for the legends in many cases were two year deals (although I don’t believe that was ever confirmed). If that was the case they may look to take advantage of not having those costs for 09. A rumor blurb in Game Informer, which was actually the magazine that got to reveal the first details about APF 2K8, suggested that the game wouldn’t be returning.
Don King: Prizefighter: The recent announcement of this game becomes even more baffling after the news about College Hoops. It may have actually provided the first sign of change as 2K revealed that the game would only be released on the 360 and the Wii cutting out the PS3 where low sales wouldn’t have been able to justify the costs involved. Regardless there doesn’t seem to be demand for another boxing game right now. Fight Night has established itself for the more sim crowd while others such as Wii Boxing have captured the casuals. They had to shell out for the licensing to Don King and the individual boxers which couldn’t have been cheap and is reminiscent of what happened with All-Pro Football.
So what could happen with 2K Sports? It could be sold, as has been long rumored, however interest may not be all that high right now. It isn’t really an appealing scenario to go up against EA, and there doesn’t seem to be much incentive to suggest that EA would want to purchase 2K either. The one rumor that makes the most sense is Microsoft purchasing 2K to have their own line of sports games to combat Sony’s. Even though the 360 has established itself as the premiere console for sports gamers this generation they would definitely benefit from some exclusives like the PS3 has with MLB: The Show. EA can’t afford to abandon the 360 regardless of whether MS were to have their own sports division or not.
The loss of College Hoops probably isn’t a sign that anything else drastic is going to happen in the near future. But it is a sign of the state of Take Two and how the 2K Sports division is viewed, and that doesn’t bode well for the long term.
here you go pasta… hmmmmm….
It’s a real shame that the better the consoles get over the years, the less choice consumers have when it comes to sports games.
All-Pro Football 2K8 is the most realistic and most fun football game on the market. And what’s the reward? There may not be a 2K9. Sad.
EA gets to underwhelm and disappoint the gaming world yet again without any competition. (Think you’ll be able to use alternate jerseys online in Madden 09? What an innovation!)
I hope I’m jumping the gun on this post. I hope there is an All-Pro Football 2K9 and then an NFL 2K10 down the road. As Morgan Freeman says in The Shawshank Redemption, “I hope.”
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. APF2K8 is a fine football game and I enjoy it greatly, but I won’t say it’s definitely more realistic than Madden as a whole. Sure, some things are more realistic, but others are not. Like Screen Passes, they don’t work right in APF and the animation system NEEDS branching animations big time.
just keep nba2k series… i cant lose that!!!!!!!!!!!! i wont let myself go to nba live.
But if you compare madden 06 Ea’s first shot at a next gen football and then look at apf 2k8 2k’s first shot at next gen football I think hands down it goes to 2k, Apf 2k8 is a great game and I hope to GOD there is a 2k9!
You’re not comparing apples to apples, though. Due to Microsoft wanting EA Sports games for the 360 launch, they had to release Madden and NBA Live on an extremely shortened development cycle. So, basically they just released the game at whatever point their were in the dev cycle. They didn’t port their already dated XBOX engine up to the 360 like 2K did, and still does, with their games.
Secondly, how long did 2K have to work on APF? I would say the feature set of APF is a little light, don’t you think? Not to mention that the graphics aren’t nearly as sharp as they could be on both standard def TV’s and HDTV’s.
Again, don’t take this as me not liking APF2K8 because I do like the game. In fact, we have a league going on our site with it, but I’m just trying to be realistic about the games here.
that sucks that they are cancelling the college game….especially since it was the only college basketball game that let you upload your rosters into the nba game
pasta padre is incapable of having a positive opinion about 2k sports. Why would you question the release of another boxing game? I welcome it, and FN has gotten stale, I still think 1 is the best of that series. What if Prizefighter ends up being better to play?
2K competes in the NHL because until this year they have made better hockey games w/o question every year dating back to 2000.
Don’t compare Power Pros and the Bigs to Tour. Power Pros is an amazing wii game (maybe THE best baseball game of the last 5 years). The bigs was well-recieved and made GOOD use of the license. Tour IS A JOKE, and a good example of how NOT to make a sports game.
So a better question is TOUR a sing of more bad things to come from EA?
Everything you care about is EA related, even Live you post stories about while 2k8 is CLEARLY A MUCH BETTER BASKETBALL SIM and you have zero news related to it. Do everyone a favor and call this site pasta padre EA and don’t comment on other company’s products because you are obviously an EA fanboy and want them to do better financially than other companies and want the competition gone…why i don’t know.
take two/2K/whoever needs to merge with EA Sports. Imagine what kind of Sportsgames we would get!
I’m not sure why my other post was deleted…
There is no question as to whether APF2K9 is in the works. The board of directors indicated in their last conference call that they were looking at release dates and pricing points for the title. In addition, we (2K Football Strategy) are in contact with an employee of 2K Sports who has confirmed that the game is actively in development.
Please keep in mind the following regarding APF:
1. The cost of hiring the Legends was not expensive as you have reported, in fact, it was minuscule when compared to the cost of licensing the NFL license. There was only a 6 month development cycle, and very little money spent on advertising. The overall budget for the game was very, very low.
2. As of December there were 250k units sold, which was within expectations.
3. APF2K9 game is green lighted, and currently in development. Anything can change from now to release, but it’s rare for anything to get canned when it’s this far into the development cycle. Please note that confirming it is in development, and confirming it will be released are two completely separate things.
4. Official information on 2k9 should start surfacing around the time of E3.
Time to pull out the PS2 port machine for the Wii. At worst, they will know if it is profitable to bring games over to the Wii. At best they can continue to make money on the older hardware while getting new businiess from Nintendo fans.
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