The NFL and 2K games have reached an agreement that will allow the gaming company to release numerous titles in the near future. Formerly EA Sports have maintained exclusive rights to all gaming associated with the NFL. That agreement was done in 2004, which marked the end to the NFL/2K partnership until now that the 15-year agreement is approaching its end.
2K’s NBA franchise has went on to become one of the most profitable and well-reviewed video games of all time and finished ahead of EA Sports’ Madden for sales in 2019. Combining elements of a traditional RPG game with both individual and team gaming modes, adding that to the hyper customization, co-op features, and significant strides in gameplay, and 2K has become the number 1 sports gaming franchise following years of domination by the Madden franchise. It has long been said that EA has taken its core base for granted…offering marginal improvements and a see-saw of adding, deleting, and adding again the same features while marketing the new game as unique every year. Also, in a world of micro-transactions, NBA 2K has made more off of in-game purchases than by the sales of the game itself.
It will be interesting to see what 2K is able to do in this space as the primary success has come off the individualistic aspects of its games. Football is a much more difficult sport to offer that approach to. Moreover, this does not give 2K the rights to do a simulation NFL video game yet. The agreement currently would only make it so it can produce 7 on 7 or arcade-style gaming as eluded to by 2K Gaming’s president David Ismailer who went on to say “We’re thrilled to be back in business with the NFL in a partnership that will span multiple video games centered on fun, approachable and social experiences.” However, that language is there for now because the EA agreement is exclusive until the end of 2021. Nevertheless, this marks an exciting step for gamers towards getting a better NFL gaming product as Madden’s monopoly over the industry has yielded such marginal returns and less innovation.
It should be noted that EA also has periodically attempted to produce a rival game based on the NBA with its franchise NBA Live. However, EA has found it difficult to compete with 2K and has pulled the game from production on several occasions.
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