The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning in 2021

[mestevo]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

My expectation is an NFL version of 2k's The Bigs series. Something over the top, quick games or game modes, player vs player and party friendly. Could be free, or less than a full-priced game, with mtx for packs or players, balls, uniforms, elaborate team-themed stadiums, etc. An abbreviated style of game similar to Blitz but a lot of emphasis on other modes with caricatures of players rather than anything approaching photorealism.

Seasons of challenges and content a la Rocket League and other games to continue to drive revenue year-round.

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[Hooe]

Re: NFL 2K Coming Back in 2021!!

I mean, does non-simulation mean that they can't simulate the sport of football in an authentic manner? Does it mean the game can't be 11-11? Does it mean they can't have the exact same rules as the NFL ( like the same number a of challenges, extra points being the same distance, or kickoffs having the same rules? ).

The most direct answer to this is simple: we don't know! We'll have to wait and see.

I have a hard time believing that 2k would be interested with those kinds of limitations, but who knows?

The argument that overly critical folks in sports-gaming circles make whenever Madden's sales numbers are brought up is that any video game emblazoned with the NFL shield will move a reasonable number of units regardless of quality.

If that is actually true, then 2K is correct to have been very interested in buying the rights to use NFL intellectual property in their upcoming game, regardless of any other restrictions and limitations to their creativity or game design, as to guarantee their game commercial success.

[capnlarge]

Re: NFL 2K Coming Back in 2021!!

Imagine Mario Kart, except instead of Mario, you can pick Tom Brady!

[Blzer]

Re: NFL 2K Coming Back in 2021!!

Imagine Mario Kart, except instead of Mario, you can pick Tom Brady!

Not too far off with Baker.

[bigpat7676]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

You want the computer to deliberately miss calls to test whether the user sees it, but then, if the user does, overturn it with a 100% success rate?

You realize that's not only gamey as hell (you're basically manufacturing a false user interaction) and unrealistic, but also the definition of bad officiating, right?

Of all the examples you could have chosen to illustrate EA's opportunities to improve, you chose that one?

Man, I hope that's not the game 2k gives us.

Clearly you dont watch real football. If you are looking for a simulation experience then guess what? Refs miss calls and the NFL has an actual challenge system in place because of it. How old are you?Clearly you never played NFL 2K5 because they had this feature. A feature, might I add, that Madden has yet and will never replicate. Any way I chose this example, but I could go on for days with things Madden gets wrong and 2K gets right. Good day sir!

[GisherJohn24]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

2K is not hurting for money. Not only do they have NBA but they also have Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, which are some of the best selling games (And I believe all these games have tons of microtransactions that generate money after sale)

Rockstar has red dead and GTA I thought?

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[mestevo]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

Rockstar has red dead and GTA I thought?

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Which is owned by Take Two Interactive, who owns 2k.

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[Blzer]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

Rockstar has red dead and GTA I thought?

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Take-Two Interactive is the umbrella holding company above Rockstar and 2K Sports/2K Games.

[Vazione]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

My expectation is an NFL version of 2k's The Bigs series. Something over the top, quick games or game modes, player vs player and party friendly. Could be free, or less than a full-priced game, with mtx for packs or players, balls, uniforms, elaborate team-themed stadiums, etc. An abbreviated style of game similar to Blitz but a lot of emphasis on other modes with caricatures of players rather than anything approaching photorealism.

Seasons of challenges and content a la Rocket League and other games to continue to drive revenue year-round.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Idk why but I think you are spot-on with this.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

Clearly you dont watch real football. If you are looking for a simulation experience then guess what? Refs miss calls and the NFL has an actual challenge system in place because of it. How old are you?Clearly you never played NFL 2K5 because they had this feature. A feature, might I add, that Madden has yet and will never replicate. Any way I chose this example, but I could go on for days with things Madden gets wrong and 2K gets right. Good day sir!

Simulations should have a point. The entire nature of creating a bad call to challenge the user to overturn it is antithetical gameplay. You have to stop the game sit through cutscenes. You aren’t allowed, as they are in the NFL to watch the replay, as teams have guys in the booth that make the decision to challenge.

And it was pretty poorly done in 2K. Often I couldn’t challenge what I wanted, and they got it wrong often, too. But with 2K, people accept the explanation that replay graphics are not actually identical to what game is reading.

I loved 2K football. Played the hell out of it on the Dreamcast, only bought a GameCube because they had 2K football. Played 2K5 and ran a series of online leagues with 2K8.

Hated Madden. But with Madden 15, EA hot it’s stride and have had a series of great games. Madden 15 was when I felt like EA finally outdid 2K. There are things I still think 2K did better, but Madden got so much better in the recent games.

But the hate for EA is strong. Folks are literally acting like they know what kind of quality they will get from a developer that hasn’t put out a football game for 13 years. And I’ve gone back to 2K8. It does not have a modern game engine.

I have no reason to think a new 2K game will be better or worse than Madden. And if this announcement has you thinking you finally get a football game, then quality was never your issue with Madden, because we don’t even know the premise of the game. I’m hoping for an expanded APF. It might be a shell of what APF was.

All we know is that you will not be able to simulate an NFL season with this game. But that doesn’t bother me, as I quit trying to sim sports seasons 10 years ago. Text-based sims have issues, but console games, even as vaunted as The Show, are abysmal.

But 2K is the company that introduced me to the notion of a collectible card game as an action sports title with MLB 2K. It wasn’t monetized, and was nowhere near as feature rich as today’s versions by both 2K and EA, but I really liked it. So, I Will not be surprised if there is a really cool version of MUT that leans heavily in Legends.

You know what else 2K introduced me to? Pond hockey, which I ended up liking more than the base game, and part of why I like Threes and Chel in NHL 19 and 20.

I get what people want to believe about 2K and sim sports, but what I liked about 2K games was the gameplay and fun modes they added. I want a new MLB2K, but even I realize that whatever 2K did today would probably not be what I remember. It was nice to have a feature rich baseball game that was actually fun to play. It had a ton of sim aspects, including the use of Inside Edge and sabermetrics in ways SCEA still have not matched. But they always chose fun over sim in in gameplay, which is what I want.

So it is kind of weird to see what everyone’s expectations are, when I don’t think they match up with what 2K did before.

[illwill10]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

I do feel like there will be clear guidelines in the deal of what they can and can't do for a non-simulation football game. Might not being able to have 11-on-11 football. But, I do think they would build a console game that can be eventually be built towards a simulation game. I feel that since 2k's initial success will determine how NFL approaches license. NFL will be a wait and see approach. I do feel they want to test the market with 2k and that they are indeed interested in opening up the simulation license. They are obviously content with their EA relationship. But as a business, they will look to expand. They see how well received NBA 2k is compared to Madden.

It's funny that now we hear about the simulation license. For me, I thought that the EA-NFL was a total exclusivity. As EA said, anyone could have gotten a non-simulation deal a while ago. But, I guess most companies didn't want to invest in that. But, 2K now see this as a good opportunity compared to doing it years ago. 2k can make a lot of revenue using NFL brand and filling it with microtransactions. With the EA deal expiring within a year of 2k release, 2k knows that they have a chance to acquire a simulation deal as well.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

The notion that anyone is sweating Madden's sales is ridiculous. Yep, it got beat out by NBA 2K this past year. NBA 2K was the #2 selling game of the year, and Madden 20 was #3. Every corporation wants more, but at #3, there is not a lot of more to get, and that factors into what they increase their budget towards.

As far as exclusivity and such, I'm sure the NFL is willing to give it to whoever pays them the most. Nothing more, nothing less. Gamers tend to massively overrate how much the powers that be give a rats *** about the quality of the game they are being paid to be allowed to be made. This could be about as much as 2K trying to see if they still have devs in the house that can make a game, to see if they even want to try to outbid EA for the NFL license.

But, man, watching so many people here spin narratives like the NFL is looking for a better game or EA is scared are setting themselves up for disappointment. Some folks should maybe go back and read some threads about Joe Montana Football before buying into some narrative that was just made up in someone's mind.

[illwill10]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

The notion that anyone is sweating Madden's sales is ridiculous. Yep, it got beat out by NBA 2K this past year. NBA 2K was the #2 selling game of the year, and Madden 20 was #3. Every corporation wants more, but at #3, there is not a lot of more to get, and that factors into what they increase their budget towards.

As far as exclusivity and such, I'm sure the NFL is willing to give it to whoever pays them the most. Nothing more, nothing less. Gamers tend to massively overrate how much the powers that be give a rats *** about the quality of the game they are being paid to be allowed to be made. This could be about as much as 2K trying to see if they still have devs in the house that can make a game, to see if they even want to try to outbid EA for the NFL license.

But, man, watching so many people here spin narratives like the NFL is looking for a better game or EA is scared are setting themselves up for disappointment. Some folks should maybe go back and read some threads about Joe Montana Football before buying into some narrative that was just made up in someone's mind.

I agree with all said. Madden will continue to always being a top selling game just off of brand recognition and NFL license alone. Also could be situation where NFL will give 2k chance to outbid EA for license. I'm still not sure NFL will drop the exclusive license. Madden has a strong brand where I don't see it going away. Plus EA has the money to outbid 2k.
I'm just hope that EA steps it up. Competition is always good. Even NBA2k has gotten complacent without Live truly pushing it

[Rocky]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

The notion that anyone is sweating Madden's sales is ridiculous. Yep, it got beat out by NBA 2K this past year. NBA 2K was the #2 selling game of the year, and Madden 20 was #3. Every corporation wants more, but at #3, there is not a lot of more to get, and that factors into what they increase their budget towards.

As far as exclusivity and such, I'm sure the NFL is willing to give it to whoever pays them the most. Nothing more, nothing less. Gamers tend to massively overrate how much the powers that be give a rats *** about the quality of the game they are being paid to be allowed to be made. This could be about as much as 2K trying to see if they still have devs in the house that can make a game, to see if they even want to try to outbid EA for the NFL license.

But, man, watching so many people here spin narratives like the NFL is looking for a better game or EA is scared are setting themselves up for disappointment. Some folks should maybe go back and read some threads about Joe Montana Football before buying into some narrative that was just made up in someone's mind.

An NBA game should NEVER beat an NFL game in regards to sales. I'm a huge NBA fan but even I recognize that the NFL beats the NBA in almost every metric...TV ratings, merchandising, streaming numbers, etc. Historically, Madden has crushed every sports game with the exception of FIFA since the PS2/XBOX era.

NBA2K consistently outperforming Madden in sales (including microtransactions) and critical reception is definitely a factor (to the extent that video games are a factor at all to the NFL). I don't see how anybody can plausibly deny it isn't.

[UFCMPunk]

Re: The NFL and 2K Are Back Together, 'Non-Simulation' Games Will Release Beginning i

It's funny that now we hear about the simulation license. For me, I thought that the EA-NFL was a total exclusivity. As EA said, anyone could have gotten a non-simulation deal a while ago.

All we know is that you will not be able to simulate an NFL season with this game.

But, man, watching so many people here spin narratives like the NFL is looking for a better game or EA is scared are setting themselves up for disappointment. Some folks should maybe go back and read some threads about Joe Montana Football before buying into some narrative that was just made up in someone's mind.

This whole 'Simulation' vs 'Non-Simulation' thing is insane. We need a video game lawyer who could define this for us so we can stop speculating. I agree with the first point that it does seem odd this is the first time we have ever heard the term 'Non-Simulation', the first time in over a decade since the exclusive license was given to EA. Within minutes of the 2K/NFL deal, EA had a nice press release ready to go to remind us that they are the only company who can make a simulation NFL game. That reaction was very defensive, and 100% it's a bit overboard to say they are scared, but to have a press release ready is more than just the NFL informing them of the deal.

We won't be able to simulate a NFL season? That again is such a vague term, because if so Axis Football would have been shutdown considering you can do a Draft, and sign free agents. Does that count as simulating a NFL season? Does having a Franchise Mode, which is a mode used in most sports games mean being able to simulate a NFL Season?