Madden scores $100 million hit

[TeeDogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesurfshop19

More than anything, I'm most disappointed that 2K Sports didn't believe in their own product enough to offer up anything once EA made their masterstroke of a move with the NFL. I felt that 2K had the superior product, and truth be told, I feel that despite all the major flaws of NFL 2K5 it's still the best playing football game I've ever seen. Once things got tough, though, 2K Sports threw in the towel. That's a shame, because they could have taken the money they saved from not having to pay the NFL and ESPN and really stepped up the experience. Instead of replicating what Madden already does, we could have had totally new ways to play (e.g. career football player game, where you start in high school and work to get to the pros; built-in trash talk mode where your player can psych out opponents with trash talk, go too far and your player loses focus; player gains a rep around the league as a cheap shot artist, prankster, born leader, etc.). But no. They gave up. Their only response was out of spite, and that ruined yet another video game sport (baseball). I'm not happy with EA for taking the NFL license ("it's just business" doesn't mean a free pass from criticism when it's bad for consumers), but 2K gets at least the same amount of blame as EA, if not more. Yes, of course, an unlicensed game won't sell as much as a licensed one. Yes, they clearly did their cost-benefit analysis and the numbers told them that it wasn't a +NPV. But what's the clear, end-of-day message? That despite what many consumers thought, they didn't believe in their product.

Im not sure they gave up. I have never heard of a company putting a gag order on employees over a game that doesnt exist. the standing no comment from 2k and the programers who are not alowed to talk about a football title at all, gives me hope.

[sroz39]

Quote: Originally Posted by TeeDogg

Im not sure they gave up. I have never heard of a company putting a gag order on employees over a game that doesnt exist. the standing no comment from 2k and the programers who are not alowed to talk about a football title at all, gives me hope.

Sadly, because of the gag order/no comment, drawing our own conclusions is the only hope we have. I understand 2k not wanting to show their cards to EA if they ARE making a game, but something, ANYTHING would get some of us to stop overreacting like we do to things like seeing a football player among the other sports players in 2k's intro scene in their games.

[TeeDogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by sroz39

Sadly, because of the gag order/no comment, drawing our own conclusions is the only hope we have. I understand 2k not wanting to show their cards to EA if they ARE making a game, but something, ANYTHING would get some of us to stop overreacting like we do to things like seeing a football player among the other sports players in 2k's intro scene in their games.

IMO, as 2k started to look into their options (arena, NCAA) more exclusive deals started to form at the hands of EA. with the final one being EA signing as many HOF'ers as possible. you almost cant blame them for going top secret. if its anything involving trying to get a license is in the picture EA will probaly sign that company just to keep them going back to revise their game..... seems like corporate childishness to me. but this is JMO based on what ive read and seen after the first deal wast signed.

[grunt]

I think the NFL will eventually make thier own games. Sound crazy but I can see the NFL buying their own developers to make NFL games. Sound crazy right but I also see the NFL using their own network as the primary vehicle for their games. It started already.

[bears5122]

In fairness to EA, I think one of the issues game makers are going to have over the coming years is the lack of competent developers. From all that I've read, it seems that finding people to develop on a system as complex as the 360 is difficult.