Why is it that whenever news like this comes up everyone attacks EA for its Madden series and how it was bad for football games, but no one attacks 2k for their god awful attempts at baseball games after halting the MVP series? Honest question...
NBA extends EA, 2K publishing deals
By
Tom Magrino
Competing sports labels re-up multi-year partnerships with professional basketball league for sim, arcade titles; NBA 2K11 sells 5 million.
Unlike football and baseball, the basketball court is an arena in which EA Sports and 2K Sports are free to go head-to-head with officially licensed simulations. That level of competition will continue in the future, as the National Basketball Association announced today that it has extended its partnership with both publishers to continue producing games based on the league's teams and stars.
The NBA did not indicate when the new partnership deals are set to expire, saying only that they were multi-year arrangements. 2K Sports had not responded to a request for clarification as of press time, while EA Sports declined to comment. The deal allows both publishers to create traditional 5-on-5 hard-court simulations, as well as arcade-style games, for consoles, online services, and mobile devices.
2K Sports made the most of its license last year, after EA Sports canceled the Elite reboot of its NBA Live franchise. According to today's announcement, NBA 2K11 has now sold more than 5 million units, making it the fastest-selling title for both the franchise and Take-Two's sports publishing label.
NBA 2K12 may have another big year in 2011, as EA Sports doesn't plan to return to its simulation franchise until 2012. However, the publishing label does plan on releasing a new installment in its arcade-style NBA Jam series this year. Titled NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, the game is expected to be available through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network this October.
By
Tom Magrino
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
19 comments
LOL! Poor EA.. Luckily they got slick and got the NFL all for themselves.. Would love nothing more than for EA to lose that as well.
David Stern is no fool. He knows that more NBA products on the market are good for his league.
@godzillavskong The only reason that EA did that deal with the NFL is because 2K was kicking their butt. Who knows who good the NFL 2K series would have been now if they had did like the NBA and made you work every year to be the best.
EA needs to give up on basketball and stick to hockey. Live hasn't been good since god knows how long, and 2K is too far ahead in terms of quality and will only get further ahead with the next Live game cancelled again. Thank god 2K is a good game.
I wish the NFL had done this, with having a multi partner deal, so we could have 2K and EA compete in that area also. I fell in love with the NFL2K series and it was sad to see the license ripped away, therefore putting the nail in the coffin of that series.
so what you're saying is, competition actually helps the quality of products in the market place? (looking at EA & the NFL) ...who would have thought such a BASIC concept actually worked? hmmmm
Good for 2K. Going to be hard to pass up 2K11. Now if 2K Sports would let NFL 2K5 as a XBLA download and show up ea again.... just to see how it would sell!
this is going to be 2k's final strike to permanently put EA's Live/Elite game under. and i think this is the year to do it. they never really reveal anything during e3, it is leaked during the weeks after the finals. they do not have to do anything with it. 2k11 was amazing. a few tweaks here and there, and it is over for EA
They should of drop EA in 2001. That's when the live series took a dive,and 2k took off. Oh please give a NFL license back to 2k. I really miss NFL 2k5.
i bought nba 2k11 for " my player " mode, and all i got was bugs, retarded AI and much more
5 million, eh? I had no idea sports games that *weren't* football related could sell that well. I have 2k11 and I think it deserves all the praise it has received. Looking forward to the E3 reveal on what new features 2k12 will have.
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