Question for ESPN Football Fans....

[NovaStar]

What's up Graphik. I agree with you. VC needs to get it's product to the masses. I still think though that ESPN will play a major role in this. (or should play a major role) I remember when espn made those games with Konami, my first thought was, "since espn is on it, it should be a good game) Well, needless to say it was garbage. Now, you are dealing with a new generation of gamers, some younger, alot more informed. ESPN carries major weight now with todays sports fans. Name recognition goes along way towards selling a product, especially if you haven't played or don't know the game's history. Since most of us know VC and its rep for producing good games, espn really doesn't go along way toward convincing us to buy it. But for newbies? I think it espn will persuade more than some. Along with what you said about an all out advertising blitz.

[sportsgeist]

Actually 2K has sold well until having to turn third party 2 seasons ago. the NFL2K series has had sales around 2 to 2 1/2 million units on only the dreamcast. Madden2004 hit 4 mill on multiple consoles. I know Sega was hoping those same 2 mill+ people would buy their third party titles. That didn't happen because I'm sure people are still upset by Sega fazing out the Dreamcast after 4 years (which is the average life of a console).

The only way Sega and ESPN can start winning people over is keep making IMO the best sports games available and since ESPN's name is plastered all over the title it wouldn't hurt them to advertise these games like they were their top shelf hookers. It wouldn't hurt to have Warren Sapp going around talking about it either. I know if I was the cover guy for any game I would be trying to get as many people buying it as possible shouting shameless plugs everywhere.

[Graphik]

See thats VC problem. I'm sure they wanna advertise but i'm also sure that ESPN went way way overbudget. They dont have the money to advertise. If I was prez of VC I would hand whoever controls the budget because in the end, they'll end up spending more money than they earn. They could have saved the Crib mode and chain reacton and charge stuff for 2K5. The FPM would have been enough to get ppls attention but the had to go overboard and introduce all these new modes and features along with 1000 new animations. Thats stuff takes time and money and they should be in the hole. With all these new features and whatnot I cant even begin to contemplate what they have in store next year. To me, they played all thier cards this year. Now it seems as if they are playing Russian Roulet with an Automatic.

[Darth_Vader]

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Fetter21 said:
As long as they'll have the money to be back for 2k5 then no question the gameplay.

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ditto

[NYJets]

I see no reason why making a great game, would mean they can't advertise it and get good sales.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Like someone stated above, as long as it is economically viable to make ESPN 2K5 next year, give me that gameplay.

But as for advertising... What do you think (I posted it before)

"ESPN NFL Football... IT'S not in the game.... YOU'RE in the game!!!"

Hey if Sega got away with "Genesis does what Nintendon't," I think they could do it.

[CFL2K4]

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Graphik said:
I guess no one remembers those ESPN games by Konami. Even when they had the ESPN license those games did'nt sell well. I know things will change since 2K is a way better product then Konami's games but the point is, a name means just about didily squat.

What Sega/VC needs is in yo face! advertising...NOW. They need to make sure everybody and thier moma knows about this game. They need commercial after commercial on every channel till the point where you're tired of seeing it. They need to imprint images in your brain, they need billboard signs, card board cut outs, newspapers, magazines thats not even abot sports, they need a promotional give aways, sublemianl messages hidden on boxes of Fruit Loops, representatives to be on talk shows, bring back the Calafornia Rasins to sing songs about it, make a tv show, they need any and everything if they wanna sell that game. Word of mouth wont sell as much, they need to smack yo daddy in the face with flyers adn bumber stickers to put on his car.

Bottom line, they need to advertise not now, but right now. EA already started, why come they have'nt?

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I gotta disagree with the name thing meaning nothing. It means A LOT and will be a difference regarding sales for VC this year. What you have to remember when talking about Konami's ESPN game is that there was virtually no adverstising. Poor marketing campaigns will surely spell disaster for any product. People have to know that your product exists and then they have to be made excited about it by having a good commercial. Konami failed to observe those facts and so the product failed.

It did'nt matter that the game happened to suck on top of everything else, weak games sell well all the time. Again, unbelievably poor advertising was the downfall of the Konami project.

All Sega needs to do is have a better produced commercial then waht they've been offering lately (and if they're smart they will take advantage of a dramatic sequence style), spend the money to put it in heavy rotation, and make sure they appear at every demonstration venue humanly possible. That's all they need to do, nothing else.

[backbreaker]

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gooberstabone said:
Like someone stated above, as long as it is economically viable to make ESPN 2K5 next year, give me that gameplay.

But as for advertising... What do you think (I posted it before)

"ESPN NFL Football... IT'S not in the game.... YOU'RE in the game!!!"

Great quote man, and I think VC should pay attention with this brilliant quoute especially when marketing FPF