The possible future of the 2K Sports titles
February 25, 2008 by pastapadre
With the EA purchase of Take Two seeming likely, and sooner rather than later, that brings up the question of what will happen to that which is now known as 2K Sports. After TT decided to drop the College Hoops franchise I took a look at the outlook for the future of the rest of their titles. However given the circumstances this would present a totally different scenario. While we don’t know some of the behind the scenes details of these games there is some reasonable expectations that could be made.
The potential acquisition of 2K Sports actually appears to be a secondary factor in the deal. Rockstar (which is also owned by TT) and their catalogue of big titles such as Grand Theft Auto is the main target as well as other studios such as 2K Boston with Bioshock. In actuality 2K Sports means more to EA (in removing competition) than it would mean to TT who has been looking for suitors to dump the unprofitable division off on.
EA’s official FAQ on the potential deal included the following:
Would you kill 2K Sports?
Any integration starts with our respect for the teams and people that make great games. Beyond that, it’s too early to discuss plans for managing Take-Two.
Continue on to read my analysis of the possible future of the 2K Sports franchises.
NBA 2K: The only one of 2K Sports main titles that is actually profitable. This is also the only game that really has earned itself name recognition that rivals EA Sports’ NBA Live. Would EA put resources into two NBA titles that would compete directly against one another? That seems unlikely. However I wouldn’t expect them to just scrap the 2K game entirely. They could add some of the talented developers to their Live team, or they could get creative and go a different direction such as releasing the 2K game at a different time of the year such as prior to the playoffs.
MLB 2K: The third-party exclusive license resides here (runs through 2012) and EA would be picking that up. That would potentially mean the return of the highly acclaimed MVP Baseball series. It would seem likely that would at first just be in name alone as it would be difficult to build a new engine up to their standards for the 360/PS3 in time for next year’s release. Regardless the license requires a release every year so 360 owners wouldn’t have to worry about having no baseball offering next year. But what may end up happening would be something similar to what MLB 2K9 would’ve been but with the MVP name.
The BIGS: While no announcement has been made as to a sequel it’s safe to assume that there will be based on the critical success and relatively good sales the first attempt brought. Blue Castle, another developer owned by Take Two, would come along in the deal. Interestingly several of the important producers from the MVP series had shifted on to this game. The BIGS would fit into EA’s plan of offering accessible titles to complement their sim offerings.
All-Pro Football 2K: Likely wouldn’t not continue. There is still question as to whether a 2K9 is in the works. However it would probably not see the light of day if it is. 2K8 did not garner much interest from consumers and the costs of signing the legends to individual contracts proved difficult and expensive. It would not surprise me however to see EA borrow some ideas or aspects of the game such as the customization.
Don King Prizefighter: With EA already having Fight Night and now Facebreaker this game would appear to have the worst future prospects. My first thought was that it would just be immediately shut down and never see the light of day, however the money invested in the game and that it is later in the stages of development would probably save it. After all Take Two reportedly paid a whopping $1 plus million to Don King for his rights and it would be tough to swallow letting that completely go to waste.
NHL 2K: After college basketball it was hockey that seemed the least able to support two competing products. The 2K hockey franchise would not have much appeal for EA as their NHL game has surpassed it critically and holds the advantage in sales.
Top Spin 3: EA does not have a tennis game so this franchise seems probable to continue.
College Hoops 2K: This franchise was shut down voluntarily by TT last month. No change here as EA’s March Madness will be the only NCAA basketball game.
Should the purchase go through it’ll definitely be interesting to watch the developments that take place. There is really no certainty as to what will happen with the 2K Sports games or the talent that works on them. While I don’t think it would be the slaughter that many people are suggesting, there certainly would be some significant changes to the landscape of sports gaming.
Other than having to deal with live’s poor gameplay from now on it is not that bad. We have to remember that we don’t know the time table of this takeover. The rejection could delay it for an unknown amount of time.
This is a scary prospect. Look at what has happened to Madden since the NFL license has become exclusive. Now imagine what will happen to every other sports title. With this deal, the decision to purchase a sports title has become acclamatory as opposed to a choice.
Just wait until next years madden. Maybe Randy Moss will actually be given a jetpack and Chad Johnson will be given a rocket. I bet all the 12 year olds will love that!
Mr James wrote:
If EA keeps the developers NFL 2K and MLB 2K (which is weird since the lead developer for MLB 2K used to work on the MVP series for EA) gamers may finally see EA progress in terms of innovation.
I see nothing but positives….
Looks like we will be playing NBA 2K8 for a long time b/c live does not have half the detail of 2k8 and the animations in live are so awkward. I honestly dont know how the government allows EA to buy everyone out
Im getting tired of EA.. Whats wrong with competition? I will never play NBA live. This is so stupid.
To me this is like Mcdonalds buying Burger King, Then taking the Whopper off the menu. This isn’t good for the consumer, I dont know about you guys but i like choices. I hope this doesn’t happen….Damn it EA put your money to use on making better games
i was disappointed when NFL 2K and MVP Baseball died but i got over them, just not worth stressing out over. so i’ll play whatever comes out if i think its going to be fun and not worry about what could have been
Eski wrote:
So - what do you think the odds are that EA will keep the developers and release one game (thus assuring that the development costs double while revenue remains relatively the same)?
Hey pasta, Reyes is on MLB 2K8, not Jeter.
My thinking with this acquistion by EA is that maybe the possiblitly of integrating the 2ksports team into Tiburon would be a plus. We could actually get the features that hardcore gamers have been wanting. Being that the 2k guys have experience implementing some great features that have only been found in NFL2k5 could only help Madden get to the level of quality that it needs to be at.
To me this could be very interesting. Just think of the possibilities that would come along. Every gamer out their has said at one point or another “what would happen if we had both games merge and create one great game”. I look at MVP on MLB 2k games and think what would happen. MVP 05 will go down as probably the best baseball game in awhile. And with MLB 2k getting better and better each year it would be nice to see what would happen to that series.
Theres maybe another option in this story.
The article that pasta wrote about the posibility of XSN Sports coming back http://www.pastapadre.com/1981/the-return-of-xsn maybe makes sense that XSN owns 2k sports and we can still have direct competition with EA, and more variety of sports titles instead of just one. Thats a posibility that I can think of, so we can still have some option of sports games.
There’s only ONE solution to this, and that’s to boycott EA Sports titles. It probably won’t be enough to sink EA Sports, but it would definitely make a statement if the sales are lower than expected.
Craig wrote:
My point is that everyone is already thinking negative about this potential transaction when, in fact, it could be made to the gamer’s advantage. Again, I am going to hold my opinion, if this thing goes down, until I see product.
EA would be stupid to let any of 2K’s talent walk. Also, people are upset at EA for purchasing everything. It takes two sides to each transaction. I understand the fears because EA has not pushed the envelope on the next-gen systems.
From what I have read, this thing may not go through anyhow….
Now I understand how all of the NFL 2K people felt when EA got the NFL license. Damn I’m gonna miss my NBA 2K
everyone is missing the main point that even started this EA buyout process in the first place…TAKE2 is sinking right now and will probably be sold by the end of the year as it is…is EA buying them a good thing? maybe or maybe not, but honestly no other video game company has the resources that EA does…with that being said…TAKE2 seems OK with EA buying them, except they would rather wait to negotiate until after the release of GTA IV (which is the problem at the moment, because EA wants them now so they can start planning for the year)…games such as NBA 2K8 are huge moneymakers and they won’t be going anywhere, but imagine if NBA 2K8 character models had the look of NBA LIVE…that would be a gamer’s dream…furthermore, think for a moment that EA has not included some of the features of the NFL 2K franchise into their Madden franchise for fear of being labelled a copycat and having to concede that NFL 2K excels in areas that Madden does not…by aquiring TAKE2, EA can now combine the best features of similar franchises into one incredible game…imagine the potential of a game that has the best of what MADDEN and NFL2k have to offer and putting them together in one complete package…there are a LOT of benefits in this deal for the consumer…yes, maybe there won’t be two football games every year…but i would rather pay $60 for one awesome game, then pay $120 for two games that have OBVIOUS flaws in them…think of it this way…EA isn’t simply buying the competition and putting them out of business…they are buying the competition, employing them, and providing them with more resources than they ordinarily may be accustomed too…
Jonathon wrote:
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Finaly someone understands the ramifications of this. This could be the best thing that has happened to world of gamers. Bravo son! Bravo!
Jonathon wrote:
This is wishful thinking at best. EA is doing this to make more money, not to offer 2K employees a better working environment and help them meet their lofty goals by “providing them with more resources than they ordinarily may be accustomed to.” 2K Sports is the only competition for EA Sports. It is not cost effective for EA Sports to spend more money doing research and making drastic changes to their existing game engines, and the only way EA Sports can get away with delivering slightly upgraded versions of the same sports games we’ve been playing for the last 5 years, is if there is no more competition.
[…] Investors bet the deal will happen: Take-Two Shares Soar in Pre-Market : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online PastaPadre’s speculation about the future of 2K Sports: The possible future of the 2K Sports titles | pastapadre.com […]
There’s not a single takeover in the history of the world where the purchasing company retains the workforce of the purchased company and its own people. Again, this goes back to my single game, double the developers just isn’t going to happen.
“It would not surprise me however to see EA borrow some ideas or aspects of the game such as the customization.”
It would surprise me if they did. NFL 2K5 is loaded with great ideas that EA has ignored for years.
I think EA is so full of themselves that even though 2K has better sports titles, EA might just scrap them and continue to implement their own bad ideas into their sports games…..
Mark wrote:
woah woah woah. i’m not a EA homer but I can only think of 2 titles better than ea. NFL 2k and NBA 2k.
EA wins: NHL, MLB, Boxing
2k wins: NFL, NBA,
EA over 2k 3-2.
Hopefully EA can take some developers from 2k and mix them with their own and create great games.
Mark wrote:
Exactly. EA isn’t trying to buyout 2K to be added to EA’s payroll. EA just realizes that in the long run, 2K Sports’ existence will cost EA much more than the $2 billion. They want to snuff 2K out of the face of the planet, plain and simple.
whoa whoa whoa Matt… just to clarify the score here. 1st off, we haven’t even seen 2Ks boxing game yet. Secondly, I only played the demos of NHL this season while EAs seemed nice and fluid, everyone was saying that once you get used to 2Ks new control system it’s more realistic, so I’d call that one a draw.
Thirdly, I know everyone swings on MVP’s jock strap around here, but I’ve been playing it for the last 2 months and while I’ve enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say it was better by a long shot. The ONLY two features I liked that MVP had that 2k didn’t are the complete minor league teams and the fielding throwing meters… BOTH of which Brinkman brought over to 2k8.
The commentary and the presentation are boring at best. I actually don’t mind the announcers they used, it was just implemented badly. And the owners mode was a disaster. That I may try again with different tactics, but starting a team off with only 10000 seats while the rest of the league had full stadiums was a mess. My team ended up 28mil in the red after one simmed season! That was even after trading away all of my good (expensive) players! oiy…
Anyway… I think that those of you thinking that great collaborations will come of this are a bit delusional. I’m just thinking the downsizing will put a lot of good people out of work and the 2k stockholders walk away with a shit-eating grin on their faces.
rich get richer…
popsting this again in case pasta deletes the previous post:
whoa whoa whoa Matt… just to clarify the score here. 1st off, we haven’t even seen 2Ks boxing game yet. Secondly, I only played the demos of NHL this season while EAs seemed nice and fluid, everyone was saying that once you get used to 2Ks new control system it’s more realistic, so I’d call that one a draw.
Thirdly, I know everyone swings on MVP’s jock strap around here, but I’ve been playing it for the last 2 months and while I’ve enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say it was better by a long shot. The ONLY two features I liked that MVP had that 2k didn’t are the complete minor league teams and the fielding throwing meters… BOTH of which Brinkman brought over to 2k8.
The commentary and the presentation are boring at best. I actually don’t mind the announcers they used, it was just implemented badly. And the owners mode was a disaster. That I may try again with different tactics, but starting a team off with only 10000 seats while the rest of the league had full stadiums was a mess. My team ended up 28mil in the red after one simmed season! That was even after trading away all of my good (expensive) players! oiy…
Anyway… I think that those of you thinking that great collaborations will come of this are a bit delusional. I’m just thinking the downsizing will put a lot of good people out of work and the 2k stockholders walk away with a poopie-eating grin on their faces.
rich get richer…
you have seen 2k’s boxing (ie. Rocky)
NHL 08 = sports game of the year for 2007.
^fact.
How was MLB 2k when the MVP series was still going?
= it was alright, but not as good as MVP.
Matt wrote:
No, Rocky wasn’t “2K’s boxing.” Rocky was based on the Rocky films and catered to an arcade fanbase. You can deny Prizefighter all you want, it won’t change the fact that it’s a different game suited for sim fans.
It’s really pathetic and funny to watch posts of EA employees in disguise all over the net.
Actually, I think Rocky was a Codemasters game. I could be wrong, though. 2Ks boxing game, Don King, is due out later this year.
I also know that EAs NHL game was very well received.. I just think that 2K over-complicated the controls (from what I read). Those that got used to them really liked it.
I played a lot of MLB 2k5 and don’t think that MVP was that much better, with the obvious exception of the minors and the fielding throwing meters. But perhaps you’re right, I should play a game of both, one after the other. One thing that definitely swayed my decision at the time was 2Ks $20 price point. I bought all 2k5 games that season. I’d never done that before or since.
For what it’s worth… I don’t think that Matt is a subversive EA troll.
Darkheath wrote:
thanks you sir. and no i don’t work for EA, lol. I’m not out of high school yet.
I’ve played all the games you’ve mentioned.
Liked them all but prefer MVP over MLB 2k anyday. (played the life out of this game.)
NHL 08 over NHL 2k8 because of the great controls and awesome online play.
IDK about prizefighter and FNR3, because nobody has played prizefighter. yes it could be good but honestly do you think it live up to what the FN series has brought to the table in one game? I don’t think so.
they better not get rid of nba 2k..what they should do is create a game called Nba Live 2k9 and team up to make a good game, nba live graphics with nba 2k8 gameplay would be crazy
This is bad for gaming in general, 2k fan or EA fan, for too many reasons to even touch on here.
The only silver lining to this cloud is the possible resurrection of MVP baseball (greatest baseball series ever made), and the idea of NBA Live graphics with NBA 2K gameplay.
Aside from those two things, if this happens, it is a dark day for gaming- not to mention a monopoly.
How come EA’s way of dealing with competition is to simply buy them insteadofimproving their products to compete?
EA is simply in it for the money with no regard to the consumers’ wants. If they put their $2 billion towards research to improve their games and to hire better talent, then they might be able to surpass 2K Sports in terms of quality. But the smarter business move for EA is to eliminate the competition–literally.
I can’t believe that you people keep talking about the MVP franchise coming back. At this point it’s nothing more than a title on the box. The heir to MVP baseball will be coming out in 2 weeks… whether it says “MVP” on the box or not.
I will play NBA 2K8, and College Hoops 2k8 for as long as I possibly can. In terms of basketball games, nothing EA puts out in 2009 will be better than any 2k8 game. EA just has too much work to do. (my opinion)
College hoops 2k8 will never get old because people will keep posting updated rosters every year on 2k share, so that is a positive. (my opinion)
I really hope EA keeps some of TT’s talented staff members, just for the sake of putting out a game that may actually be enjoyable. I have not enjoyed an EA basketball game since live 04 and march madness 04. (my opinion)
pasta, thanks man. keep up the great work.