Over the last couple months I speculated that the Bracket Pack would return for March Madness 08 and today came official word that is has arrived. It appears to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 at a price of 400 MS points and is available now in the Marketplace.

Not only does it include the 65 team NCAA Tournament bracket but also updated team ratings, 25 new alternate/third jerseys from tournament teams, and the authentic Alamodome Final Four court.

Curiously Oregon’s McArthur Arena, which was voted to be the free download offering, is listed as being included in the pack. That would make it decidedly not free.

The voting has been tallied and Oregon’s McArthur Court has come out on top and will be the free downloadable arena offered for March Madness 08. It beat out the arenas of Virginia, USC, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, and Purdue.

An ETA on when to expect the court has not been given but it seems likely to come this week along with other content. While nothing has been announced regarding the return of the Bracket Pack I think that’s a good bet this week as well considering how well it was received last year. If the same situation occurs it would arrive on Tuesday but if not then surely they’d be looking to get it out sometime prior to the start of the tournament on Thursday.

EA is holding an online tournament with March Madness 08 which will take place on Tuesday March 18th. The prize to the winner will be an autographed Dick Vitale basketball. For details and to sign up to participate click here.

With the voting on which of the six new areans will be offered as a free download closing off, there is that to go along with the likely Bracket Pack (although nothing has officially been stated on that as of yet) to look forward to on the downloadable content front. Last year the Bracket Pack was released on the Tuesday following Selection Sunday, which if the same holds true this year would slate it for the 18th as well. 

That pack represented possibly the best value out of downloadable content for a sports game thus far and the response was overwhelmingly positive. So hopefully they are bringing it back again after the tournament field is announced on Sunday.

Votes are now being accepted for the arena that will be offered as free downloadable content for March Madness 08. Email in your choice of the six options to mstephenson@ea.com

The options are USC’s Galen Center, Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena, Oregon’s McArthur Court, Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena, Purdue’s Mackey Arena, and Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The winner will have their authentic arena made available for free as downloadable content prior to the start of the March Madness tournament in March.

Profiles are currently available for Oregon and Arkansas with the other schools coming in the near future. Which arena are you hoping wins?

Last year March Madness had the well received “Selection Sunday Bracket Pack” downloadable content that included the official 65 team bracket with accurate seedings for tournament play, the Final Four court, and updated team ratings. That went for a very reasonable 250 MS points (approximately $3). There hasn’t been specific news yet regarding a “Bracket Pack” this year but it seems likely that it will be done again.

What I have found out is that an authentic arena is going to be added to 08 via downloadable content and that it will be free. It should be available prior to the tournament in March. One of the following schools will have their arena added to the game: USC, Virginia, Oregon, Arkansas, Purdue, or Georgia Tech.

The decision is being made through an online voting process. Visit the official website for the game to vote for your choice!

Utopia College Sports is coordinating a March Madness 08 online event that will take place Thursday January 24th and includes both the 360 and PS3. Meet up with fellow members of the March Madness community as well as some EA Sports employees and get some good quality games in.

To join in head online between 7pm and midnight eastern (4-9PT) and enter the created lobby room named Utopia. The password will be: challenge.

For more information or to post game recaps visit the thread over at Utopia.

While the news has certainly been rough on fans of the College Hoops series this week, there is one positive piece of news for those playing 2K8. Thanks to a posting over at Operation Sports we have the list of what is included in the patch that was released today for the PS3 (the patch has since been released for the 360 as well).

Continue on to view the full list of issues that the patch will address.

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Yesterday when the news broke that the 2K’s College Hoops 2K9 had been canceled a lot of people jumped to the conclusion that there was an exclusive license in the works that and that EA Sports was positioning themselves for it. However with the relatively low sales of college basketball games and Take Two’s statement, which specifically did not use the word exclusive, that seemed to be an unreasonable assumption.

Today EA has responded to requests from Kotaku, who originally broke the story about the end of the College Hoops series. It seemed odd that EA would be expected to comment on a rival’s business decision but they said enough to clear the air on the situation.

2k and CLC are in the best position to comment on College Hoops. EA is in the middle of a long-term license with the CLC and we expect to stay in the college basketball category.

So the NCAA license was up for renewal and Take Two decided that it wasn’t in their best interest to pay for the rights and continue to produce College Hoops. There seems to be a misunderstanding out there that if there is no exclusive license that anyone can make a game using the rights but that isn’t the case, it just means that multiple companies have the ability to negotiate contracts for those rights. This seems to have been solely a business decision that took into consideration factors such as low sales and the current state of Take Two as had been previously suggested.

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.

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.

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