Upcoming 2K Football Game Delayed Until at Least 2022

[Steve_OS]

Back in March of last year, 2K mentioned their 'non-simulation' football game would release in 2021,...

Written By: Steve Noah

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[SolidSquid]

Brutal but I kinda figured it would be delayed with every thing else getting delays due to COVID.

That being said I hoped off the hype train for this a long time ago. Still interested to see what exactly their multiple games turn out to be

[canes21]

Makes me wonder if it is just a playgrounds game. Cannot imagine that game would be so complicated it would need a delay unless I am missing something.

[illwill10]

Not too surprised despite them saying a few months ago that they still expected to release this year. Hopefully with the outlook of pandemic looking somewhat positive, normal development can start happening for gaming companies.

I didn't have high expectations. Just sucks from the standpoint of was hoping there could be a viable alternative football game.

[malky]

As long as they keep refining it and giving it that 2k touch, I'm ok with it.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

Makes me wonder if it is just a playgrounds game. Cannot imagine that game would be so complicated it would need a delay unless I am missing something.

Eh. Making games is hard.

Ignoring the specifics of the game mechanics entirely, we can reasonably agree that 2K's game is most likely one featuring:

- striking (possibly not photo-realistic) 3D graphics which will impress on PS5 / XBOX Series X
- motion-captured animations
- real-time physics calculations when in-game actors collide
- original foley and licensed library audio for sound effects
- prominent placement of licensed assets (the NFL teams and NFLPA players) which require third-party approvals
- either licensed audio for music (which requires more third-party approvals) or original music composed in-house
- online head-to-head game modes with real-time gameplay (as opposed to turn-based or asynchronous)
- a live service which frequently delivers new content into the game, and
- a microtransaction-based in-game economy

Even with just those things - we haven't even put the specifics of football in that feature set, whatever style you want it to be, much less a season or a franchise mode - you're for sure looking at a two or three year dev cycle and a dev team of at least 100 people, likely more.

Anyway, I anticipated this game would get delayed in the E3 thread, so this announcement doesn't surprise me at all.

[Kanobi]

Interesting news. This leads me to believe, now more than ever before, that Visual Concepts is behind it.

[VCdolphin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kanobi

Interesting news. This leads me to believe, now more than ever before, that Visual Concepts is behind it.

That would make the delay worthwhile, IMHO.

From a business standpoint though, does 2K have to pay for the NFL and NFLPA license for 2021 or can they roll it to 2022? It would be a major hit to pay for a license you don't use for a year.