NCAA Football 12 News Post

OS Roundtable: Could Another Company Succeed with Another NCAA Football Game?

11:33 AM - January 27, 2011 by RaychelSnr

OS roundtable question: Given the current hostile environment, lower video game sales and the question of licensing in NCAA video games, could another company succeed where no one else has for a decade (other than EA Sports) in making a commercially successful NCAA Football game?

Dustin Toms: If this question was asked a year ago, my answer would have been an overwhelming yes. But after seeing the improvements in NCAA Football 11, any team that could put out a game this year would be foolish to do so. EA has finally made a football game with replay value, and it should get better from here on out. Sure, the series may not improve much when '12 comes out, but the mere fact that '11 was well received should scare off other companies. And for all you 2K fans, even if the studio jumped on board to make a college football game, EA would still outsell the 2K title by a mile in year one.

So to put in bluntly, no.

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# 21 Gotmadskillzson @ 01/27/11 08:29 PM

Well of course FIFA would be number one, soccer is the number one sport in the world.

# 22 canes21 @ 01/27/11 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wEEman33


	I don't think anyone would argue that 2K doesn't have the ability to make a better college football game than EA. The question is how is 2K going to make that game sell? The NCAA sports games market is significantly smaller than the market for professional sports games. College Hoops 2K8, which I would argue is still the best NCAA sports game of all time, sold so poorly that the series was shut down for being non-profitable. Why would a football game be any different?

College Hoops was stopped because the NCAA was asking for a ridiculous price compared to the number of sales for a NCAAB game. I'd say for the size of the market, Choops 2k8 sold pretty well. It was under 100,000 less copies than NCAA 10 was, and that was the only game out that time.

# 23 fistofrage @ 01/27/11 10:31 PM

Now College Hoops 2K8 sales:

Quote:

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/brows...der=Popularity

360 - 0.18 million
PS3 - 0.11 million
PS2 - 0.18 million

total sales = 0.47 million

And NCAA Basketball 10's sales:

Quote:

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/brows...der=Popularity

360 - 0.29 million
PS3 - 0.26 million

total sales = 0.55 million

You actually should show NCAA Basketball 2008 sales along with College Hoop 2k8 sales to show total market size that year. It would appear that even though there were more 2010 NCAA sales than 2k8 basketball sales, the total college basketball buying market has shrunk as well as the NCAA football market.

# 24 elgreazy1 @ 01/28/11 12:35 PM

Of course someone else could do it but they can't since EA owns exclusive rights. Gotta love it.

# 25 khaliib @ 01/28/11 01:50 PM

What's sad is that people can be conditioned to think this is how things will always be.

There is always a changing of guard dealing with products in the market.
Comparing est. sales numbers from the past to look at the poassible success of a Sports game is voided because the Financial Market is totally different from when those numbers where gathered.

Strapped wallets always forces the buyer to look at buying another/similiar product. Brand names go out the window when you don't have the money to purchase that Brand name.

The truth is, if EA's College Football with a NCAA Brand was on the shelf for $60 and another College Football Game (that focused on gameplay/presentation with no NCAA Brand) was next to it for $30, most would buy the cheaper. Your wallet will decide what you will buy, not the Brand Name attached to it.

FYI, there is no such thing as Casual Gamer. When you spend $300 + $60 + Inernet cost for video gaming, you Officially become "Hardcore" because most folk who are not not gamers, see such an investment as foolish.

Another College Football can/would succeed in today's market, especially if gameplay/presentation/customization are there.

I like NCAA because I like college football, not because it has the NCAA brand attached to it. With that, EA's football is far below where it should be by now as the only College Football maker and to compare it to itself (past releases) as a means of determining how good of a product it is, would make me a "knucklehead" consumer.

I'm already foolish for spending such money for video games.
Can't go being a Knucklehead also

"Don't ever be conditioned to believe what seems to be the norm..."

# 26 fistofrage @ 01/28/11 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khaliib


	What's sad is that people can be conditioned to think this is how things will always be. There is always a changing of guard dealing with products in the market. Comparing est. sales numbers from the past to look at the poassible success of a Sports game is voided because the Financial Market is totally different from when those numbers where gathered. Strapped wallets always forces the buyer to look at buying another/similiar product. Brand names go out the window when you don't have the money to purchase that Brand name. The truth is, if EA's College Football with a NCAA Brand was on the shelf for $60 and another College Football Game (that focused on gameplay/presentation with no NCAA Brand) was next to it for $30, most would buy the cheaper. Your wallet will decide what you will buy, not the Brand Name attached to it. FYI, there is no such thing as Casual Gamer. When you spend $300 + $60 + Inernet cost for video gaming, you Officially become "Hardcore" because most folk who are not not gamers, see such an investment as foolish. Another College Football can/would succeed in today's market, especially if gameplay/presentation/customization are there. I like NCAA because I like college football, not because it has the NCAA brand attached to it. With that, EA's football is far below where it should be by now as the only College Football maker and to compare it to itself (past releases) as a means of determining how good of a product it is, would make me a "knucklehead" consumer. I'm already foolish for spending such money for video games. Can't go being a Knucklehead also "Don't ever be conditioned to believe what seems to be the norm..."

Believe me, there are casual Video game players. And there are especially casual football video gamers. Take a Modernwarfare player and there are alot of them. They already have the system, internet, etc. Say they get an itch to play a football game and they go out and buy NCAA or Madden. All they are concerned with is that the graphics are good and they can pick it up and play and that they can go online and score easily.

Just look at OS. Pretty much the main place you can find multiple sets of sliders for NCAA. Maybe 5,000 to 10,000 NCAA gamers are "hardcore" that actually analyze every facet of the game. Pretty much everyone else is an online gamer only or feels the game is good enough as is or just plays maybe a total of 50 games or less on it before they turn it in.

The other thing, most would not buy the cheaper even if you could have testomnies saying it was better. 2k sports tried the 19.99 price point and still got destroyed in the football market.

It would take alot of resources and dedicated resource plan over multiple years to steal signifiant market share away from the EA football franchises.

# 27 elgreazy1 @ 01/29/11 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fistofrage


	Believe me, there are casual Video game players. And there are especially casual football video gamers. Take a Modernwarfare player and there are alot of them. They already have the system, internet, etc. Say they get an itch to play a football game and they go out and buy NCAA or Madden. All they are concerned with is that the graphics are good and they can pick it up and play and that they can go online and score easily. Just look at OS. Pretty much the main place you can find multiple sets of sliders for NCAA. Maybe 5,000 to 10,000 NCAA gamers are "hardcore" that actually analyze every facet of the game. Pretty much everyone else is an online gamer only or feels the game is good enough as is or just plays maybe a total of 50 games or less on it before they turn it in. The other thing, most would not buy the cheaper even if you could have testomnies saying it was better. 2k sports tried the 19.99 price point and still got destroyed in the football market. It would take alot of resources and dedicated resource plan over multiple years to steal signifiant market share away from the EA football franchises.

That's an unfair assessment in a sense that 2K was able to cut very largely into EA's profits and significantly closed the gap on Madden in terms of units sold. While the profits to 2K weren't as strong due to the lower price point, the game was well received - by both critics and the purchasing public - and helped give 2K a stronger foothold in the football gaming genre. Had the NFL not gone the route of exclusive licensing, thus effectively killing the ESPN NFL2K brand, the trend showed that 2K's product would have continually shot up in terms of buyers.

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