College Hoops 2K no more

[nilodor]

From over at operation sports

hxxp://kotaku.com/344534/take+two-college-hoops-canceled
Responding to rumors we broke earlier today that College Hoops 2K9 has been canceled due to a breakdown in negotiations with the license holders for collegiate basketball, 2K Sports parent company Take-Two had this to say to Kotaku:

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.

I followed up with Take-Two to try and get more details and while the declined to talk about any roll EA might have had in the break-down, they did confirm that College Hoops 2K9 has indeed been canceled.

No word still from The Collegiate Licensing Company or Electronic Arts, but we'll keep you posted.



Terrible news if true as this was the one hoops game I really enjoyed.

[General Mike]

:(

[MJ4H]

christ.

[bhlloy]

Actually, the 2k Sports label could be toast. They lost money this year mainly because of All-Pro Football it seems, and Take Two could pull the plug on sportsaltogether. Even if they don't, it only seems a matter of time before EA pulls the NBA license out from under their feet.

Terrible, terrible news for text sim fans. 2k Sports are the only developer left even attempting to make realistic console games.

Big discussion about it here - http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=61833&page=8

[MJ4H]

ea sports can die in a snow plow accident

[Calis]

Horrible news to hear. The 2k Pro and College basketball sims were probably the best "Sim"-ish arcade sports games out there. I've logged more time on them than anything else on the 360 by far. I'll be incredibly disappointed to see those franchises die.

2k Sports had just announced that boxing game also which I had hoped might go a more sim route, but who knows what will happen with that now. Interested to see how this all unfolds, but if the sports division dies all together I've lost most of my reason for having a next gen console.

[RainMaker]

Yeah this kind of kills gaming for me. While I occasionally throw in a non-sports title, I'm primarily a sports gamer. Madden is pure garbage now and 2K College Hoops was really the only title that was good on the system. Sad day for sports gamers altogether.

[sabotai]

Even if they don't, it only seems a matter of time before EA pulls the NBA license out from under their feet.

I'm pretty sure the NBA has already stated that they will not give out an exclusive license, but that was a few years ago.

"googles" Here it is on Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6120864.html

So it looks like several publishers have deals locked up with the NBA for at least a few more years.

[Galaxy]

What about hockey?

I find it interesting that these deals make the NCAA look even more greedy in the face of it's football mess and hoops. It kind of hurts the "student-athlete" arguments they put out.

[sabotai]

What about hockey?

According to this: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nhl07/news.html?sid=6152906 , the NHLPA signed an exclusive deal with EA, but the NHL forced them to drop it.

[RainMaker]

What about hockey?

I find it interesting that these deals make the NCAA look even more greedy in the face of it's football mess and hoops. It kind of hurts the "student-athlete" arguments they put out.
The NCAA could care less about student-athletes. They've always been about money.

[Galaxy]

The NCAA could care less about student-athletes. They've always been about money.

Oh I know. I just pointing out another way they show it.

[Galaxy]

According to this: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nhl07/news.html?sid=6152906 , the NHLPA signed an exclusive deal with EA, but the NHL forced them to drop it.

A weird thought, but could one sign a deal with the NHL, and another with a NHLPA (one gets the league license, the other get player license). The NFLPA signed the deal with EA, not the NFL, correct?

[bhlloy]

NHL 93 had the NHLPA but not the NHL license. There were no nicknames or logos, hence the Islanders being "Long Island"

EDIT - actually it was called NHLPA 93. Obviously.

[sabotai]

For quite awhile, all of the sports games just had agreements with the player unions and not the leagues, meaing the games had all of the real players but not the real teams and such. I'm pretty sure most of the games for Nintendo, SNES, Genesis, etc. were all just player union deals and didn't have leagues.

According to Wikipedia, EA made a 5-year exclusive deal with both the NFL and NFLPA.

[tucker342]

Terrible news :( here's hoping that 2k sports doesn't drop college hoops completely and they just use the year off to make 2k10 even better...

[Icy]

I just hope this is not the definitive death of 2K sports, but when a company starts to cut on expenses... it usually means that it will end in bankrupt. College hoops was one of their best franchises, beating EA year after year, dropping one of their best franchises doesn't announce a good future.

[wade moore]

Ugh. I went the NBA route instead of NCAA this year just for a change of pace, but I agree that College Hoops was by far the best sports console game out there.

[ice4277]

This is not good. College Hoops is really the only console sports game I ever play with any regularity anymore.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm not terribly surprised by this move. Simply put, sports games are a really tough place to make money right now. Even if you secure a license, you've already spent quite a bit of money to get that license (see EA's acquisition of the NFL license). It's a lot easier to make money in another gaming genre where licenses aren't required. I think the writing was on the wall when 2K acquired developers like Rockstar and Bioware. They're looking to move to genres that don't require that up-front cost from a license. With EA overspending on some of these licenses, the cost is being inflated in a big hurry.

[CleBrownsfan]

It's amazing that EA is buying up these licenses but create these god awful games (at least compared to 2K). I stopped buying EA games a few years ago and now it looks like I'm going to stop buying sports games in general - sucks!

[Noop]

The only game I buy from EA is NCAA Football the rest I skip. College Hoops was the only other game I played besides the occasionaly rpg game or two. This is disappointing to hear because instead of making a better game EA would rather out bid the competition. I think I am going to either buy a wii or give up gaming all together because alot of these games don't appeal to me enough to justify have both consoles, guess I will go ahead and ebay my 360 since the ps3 has blu ray.

[Eaglesfan27]

This is terrible news as I posted already in the other thread. I'm surprised to learn from a thread on OS that so far College Hoops has only sold about 120k units which I imagine is somewhat disappointing (but still quite a bit more than March Madness has sold.)

[MizzouRah]

More bs in console sports gaming!