College Hoops 2K9 ejected

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Jan 14, 2008 12:18 pm PT

2K Sports officially cans next installment in collegiate basketball sim after negotiations with Collegiate Licensing Company fall apart.

Annualized sports franchises are the closest games to sure-thing money makers in the industry, and publishers in the past have gone to great pains to wrap up exclusive access to the licenses. Most notably, EA in 2005 secured exclusive rights to the National Football League through 2010, and Take-Two owns the sole third-party rights to the Major League Baseball until 2012. Aptly opting for a five-man roster, the National Basketball Association licensed out its rights to Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Midway, Sony, and Atari in 2005.

With nearly all the major players able to take to the professional basketball court, the NCAA license bench has today for the time being lightened by one. As initially reported by Kotaku, 2K Sports has canceled College Hoops 2K9, which was sketched in for November 2008. The call was reportedly made due to a standoff in licensing negotiations with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), which holds the rights to college trademarks for more than 200 college and universities.

"2K Sports has decided not to continue negotiations with the CLC for the license for its top-rated College Hoops franchise, which would have been released next in November 2008," said 2K Sports in a statement. "We are committed to providing fans with high-quality, critically acclaimed sports games, but given our disciplined approach to the business, we do not believe the current discussions would result in an acceptable outcome."

2K Games provided no other details on the negotiation climate, but Kotaku reports that the reason for the breakdown in talks was outside influence from Take-Two rival Electronic Arts, which releases its own multiplatform annualized college hoops series, NCAA March Madness. EA and the CLC had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Sports of all sorts have been a sticking point for Take-Two recently. Reporting on its fourth-quarter revenues in December, the publisher noted that its 2K Sports division failed to turn a profit in 2007, despite a "very, very solid performance" by NBA 2K8. One of the primary drains on the division was 2K Sports' return to the gridiron with All-Pro Football 2K8, which featured a heavily loaded cast of NFL legends instead of current-day stars. As of the end of November, All-Pro 2K8 had only managed less than 159,000 copies on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the US, according to the NPD Group.

143 Comments

  • Jakesta7

    Posted May 6, 2009 6:23 pm PT

    Best sports games:
    EA: Football and NHL
    Sony: MLB
    2K: NCAA and NBA Basketball

  • roman23_8

    Posted Apr 2, 2009 5:42 pm PT

    mna im gonna miss college hoops. I've had everyone in the series and i loved playing every aspect of it. The only reason EA bought it out was because it was killing hteir sales. I will never in my life play any march madness games becuase their plain garbage.

  • CANuckSSS

    Posted Jan 31, 2009 5:46 am PT

    this sucks, i was hoping i can get this year CH2k9 since i loved the nba2k9. i think i know how to get even ......... LET US NOT BUY or EVEN RENT March Madness 09 and let EA loose great money. that way, they will be forced not to this crap again.

  • Jorrdan32

    Posted Jan 2, 2009 6:51 pm PT

    First off the only reason ea is buying these companies out is because their games are terrible, and are afraid that they are going to lose all of there business. Think about it they havent made a descent NBA game since NBA LIVE 05 on regular xbox, and as far as their college basketball game goes, 2k sports have made the best college basketball game since they arrived. When EA purchased the NFL license the 2k football games were closing the gap on madden so they decided to buy them out to force gamers to buy their product. Not to take anything away from madden it is a really great football game and so is Ncaa Football. Just think about how much better they would be with a little competition. But as far basketball goes this is a tragedy. When I play the new Ncaa basketball game it makes me sick. Its the same thing every game, the dynasty mode is terrible, the animations suck . Id rather player March Madness 1997 on sega genisis than this one . EA u need to quit trying to buy having the best games and compete like everyone else and just make them!

  • JorgeBorges

    Posted Dec 25, 2008 9:49 am PT

    Sincerely , 2K should get a FIBA license instead CH2009. European Basketball , today , is very interesting .It's just a suggestion . If it's true , is a bad attitude from EA Sports . The sports games (mainly NBA ) have been worst year after year . EA NBA sucks and 2K is much better .
    Pitty!

  • Surreal33

    Posted Dec 21, 2008 8:52 pm PT

    Why is it that these companies seem to buy the exclusive rights to the sports they suck at? Bottom Line: EA should be making Football and Baseball (MVP baseball was AWESOME) , 2K should be making Basketball, and NOBODY, i repeat NOBODY should b touching NASCAR except for Sierra (NR2003) because theyre the ONLY ones who have been able to get it right so far.

  • fupa24

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 11:29 am PT

    The only problem with this is that when EA is the only one producing the game they they dont try as hard to make the game what it could be.. But to be honest 2K sports sucks and the only real reason to keep them around is to keep EA sports working harder to make the game better every year... So go ahead and play CH2K8 its your loss..

  • nyballaknicks

    Posted Dec 1, 2008 7:42 pm PT

    Wow this is pathetic.... The only way EA can make a better sports game than anyone else is ...... if no one else makes a sports game.

  • Bdjohnst

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 4:04 pm PT

    Dumb. 2k is so much better at basketball games than EA.

  • TriangleHard

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 12:56 pm PT

    WNBA!!!!!!!!!!!

    Use that money for WNBA license!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • konartist67

    Posted Oct 31, 2008 4:51 pm PT

    THIS HAS TO BE WORSE NEWS BY FAR!! EA sucks in all ways possible. Their games don't even come close to matching 2K. Without Madden EA wouldn't even be relevant. EA all of you are a**clowns

  • ROLLTIDE06

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 9:02 am PT

    People should boycott NCAA Basketball 09. It will never happen, but that's what should be done. This is garbage. I remember when competition was a good thing. Thanks EA for ruining that.

  • Qui21

    Posted Sep 20, 2008 12:57 pm PT

    Im starting to hate EA sports, their basketball series suck anyway. If it wasn't for madden and college football they would even be in the game.

  • Tydog5

    Posted Aug 30, 2008 7:29 am PT

    This really sucks, the 2K basketball series was a million times better than the Madness series! I remember the 2007 season, everybody bought March Madness 07 because of the online, but 2K7 was by far the better product! If CLC was going to drop a franchise, it should have been March Madness!

  • roman23_8

    Posted Aug 23, 2008 9:50 pm PT

    wow that sucks...i bought every single college hoops game, because it always feels more realistic and true to basketball...this kinda sucks, especially seeing how good 2k8 was...


    awww no more pre-season recruiting camps...

  • Von-Dozier

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 12:47 am PT

    Absolutely horrible. For all who haven't experienced the College Hoops series, buy 2k8. Stunning game, and, apparently the last. Gotta love monopolies and corporate greed.

  • brooklynallday

    Posted Jul 30, 2008 8:54 am PT

    wow i cant believe this

  • xunhallowed

    Posted Jul 8, 2008 5:42 pm PT

    I am sorry, but to the guy who says NHL 2K8 is better than NHL 08, you obviously don't know what you're saying. I bought 2K8 and then I bought 08 due to peer pressure, and I played it. I haven't played 2K8 or looked back since.

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jul 8, 2008 1:20 pm PT

    Why do the worse things always happen to the good guys.

  • gates18bil

    Posted Jun 11, 2008 10:10 am PT

    I have to admit that I am a big fan of the 2K College Hoops Series. It will be sorely missed. I will have to start playing the NBA game on 2K unless EA sports monopolizes that too. I liked the more realistic rebounding aspects and the player of the game tracking and the adjustments that you could do. EA Sports would be wise to incorporate them into their game for hardcore sports fanatics that like a little realism in their game-play.

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