Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

[simbayless]

989 sports should try to get the College Basketball license
Since 2k and EA backed out.
Sony wouldn't compete or have any pressure with 2k because the game would come out Nov/Dec
This would be a huge opportunity

[youvalss]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Hard to tell how good it could be. 989's NBA games were ok at best, but I think they were mostly sub-par to Live, 2K, ITZ and most other basketball games. And Sony's NBA franchise from about 12-15 years ago was average at best, in my opinion. If they decided to develope a basketball game they would need to import talent from 2K and even EA.

I know people want a college basketball game, but do you want it at all cost - even if it plays like the old Sony basketball games with not much you can do about it?

If anything, then Konami might be the answer. Konami was finally able to release a decent product (after years of bad games with the NBA 2Night franchise which later become NBA Starting Five) with NBA Starting Five 2005, but it was released only in Japan. That game played really well, and had authentic accessories/likeness by default and even some signature animations as far as I can remember. If Konami can get that team together and join forces with Sony, maybe it could work.

[Dead2009]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

989 sports should try to get the College Basketball license

989 Sports hasn't been a company since 2005......

Also it's kinda hard to back out of a college basketball game when the NCAA wouldnt allow them to use anything until recently.

[illwill10]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

I'm not sure Sony San Diego is interested in doing other games outside of MLB The Show. Despite them not probably wanting to making The Show non-exclusive because that's what MLB wanted, it'll bring in a lot more revenue. So, it could allow them to expand what they do. I don't see Konami as a viable option. Outside of PES(which is now F2P), just not sure how commited they are making games.

When it comes to College Basketball games, only really logical publisher is 2k. The college basketball games didn't sell "well". It's the type of game that is almost a "passion project. It's not going to be a big seller, so you will need to have other games that you can count on financial to subsidize it. It doesn't make sense for EA without Live. It makes sense for 2k sense they can use the NBA 2k engine/assets and NBA 2k brings in enough revenue to subsidize the CBB game if it doesn't return much of a profit.

[Gamzilla]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Someone needs to make a new college game. I start getting the itch around this time of the year.

[MHammer113]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Someone needs to make a new college game. I start getting the itch around this time of the year.

It's only a matter of time. It is expected that NCAA Football will be available in July/August of 2023, it wouldn't completely shock me if 2K decides to take on College Hoops in 2023 as well. As a matter of fact, I feel like the popularity of video games in general it would be a bad financial move for someone not to do it. Especially with the basketball game framework in NBA 2K, this could be accomplished without building from scratch.

[Hello2022]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Man, I really hope you're right about this. I would love a new college hoops game.

[MHammer113]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

To keep this convo alive, when would we hypothetically hear of production or information on the potential of a new game? I have to assume college football either comes first or helps pave the way for how the game is created but I’m curious.

[boomhauertjs]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

I'll be shocked if we ever get a college game from the big studios. They never really sold well and it would take a significant investment to get it up and running. The best chance would be for an indie studio to make a game that wasn't licensed, but had great customization options, a la Legend Bowl or Super Mega Baseball.

[MHammer113]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

I'll be shocked if we ever get a college game from the big studios. They never really sold well and it would take a significant investment to get it up and running. The best chance would be for an indie studio to make a game that wasn't licensed, but had great customization options, a la Legend Bowl or Super Mega Baseball.

I have no concrete evidence otherwise, but I don’t buy this. There hasn’t been a college basketball game for 13 years, the appetite is absolutely there. Not only that, but 2k has the framework to build off the NBA engine. Not only that, but the ability to have digital downloads, more platforms owned and the ability to package it with the NBA product makes it much more appealing. I understand college football is more popular, but look at the social media buzz that came with the announcement of College Football by EA. Maybe it’s not a yearly installment, but I feel like it has a huge profit potential

[boomhauertjs]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

So, what about for college sports? While there isn’t much information on licensing costs for college basketball games, Kotaku’s Owen Good revealed information on how much top universities were being paid for EA Sports to use their trademarks in its NCAA Football series. According to a 2013 article he wrote, some colleges were being paid over $75,000 for use of their trademarked names and logos. He also drew a correlation between Associated Press (AP) poll ranking and costs of using trademarks. If a program was perennially ranked in the AP top 25, they would get “top payout level,” which EA Sports proposes is a minimum of $78,000.

By now it should be clear that making a sports game costs boatloads of money, so now let’s take a look at the sales. EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball 2010, the last college basketball game ever made, sold 155,000 copies across all platforms the year of its release. Yikes. Assuming all of those sold at the full price tag of $60 (which is unlikely), that means it made about $9.3 million in sales. That’s pretty pitiful considering it had no competition.

Now think about the fact that the game included 325 official teams. To break even on licensing alone, EA would’ve had to pay out an average of $28,615 per team. Since the series was less popular than NCAA Football, one could assume schools weren’t asking for as much money to use their trademarks. However, one could also assume that blue-blood programs like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas asked for well over $30,000. It’s all speculation, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the weak sales numbers weren’t enough to cover the costs of licensing, not to mention development. When you think of it that way, it’s no wonder EA put the kibosh on the series.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thevideogamevirtuoso.com/2019/04/09/march-sadness-what-happened-to-college-basketball-video-games/amp/

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[boomhauertjs]

Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Combine all of the above with the fact that the players would also need to get paid, I can’t see how an officially licensed college hoops game would ever happen.


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[MHammer113]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

Keep in mind the video game world was much different in 2009. There wasn’t the ability to create a game with expansive customization, there were millions less consoles and games were not downloadable off the internet. Combine that with the fact that there is a thirst for a game that has not been available for over a decade. I’m choosing to look at the pros, not the cons. Also keep in mind, EA shipped a broken product with NCAA 10 and never fixed it. People were not happy with it

[MHammer113]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

And as a follow up, College Hoops 2k5 sold about 700k copies so if the game is done, marketed and moved correctly, it can be profitable.

[canes21]

Re: Sony should take a shot with college basketball 🏀

And as a follow up, College Hoops 2k5 sold about 700k copies so if the game is done, marketed and moved correctly, it can be profitable.

I'd like to see what Choops 2k8 sold. It was enough for me to not buy the NCAA Basketball games, at least new. I bought a couple on sale or used, but never new because I always ended up going back to 2k8. I'd imagine I'm not alone in that regard.

I also wonder if EA was paying these schools for the ability to use them in both games. It's one thing if they were paying $75,000 to use a school in only the basketball game. It is completely different if that cost allowed them to use them in both the football and basketball games.

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