A Brilliant Move

If anything, referring to the $20 price point of Sega's crop of ESPN 2K5 sports games as a "brilliant maneuver", as industry analyst PJ McNealy did yesterday, is an understatement. The move, initially dismissed by EA as being indicative of inferior quality products by Sega, quickly caused some substantial strategic retaliations from the publishing giant once the actual ESPN games hit the street. These retaliations included lowering the price of its latest NBA title, NBA Live 2005, and pushing up the release of the game by one week (which set off a counterstrike by ESPN, who similarly accelerated their hoops game's release date). EA's announcement of a buy 2, get 1 free deal further fanned the flames of the pricing war.

The real winners here are sports gamers. Far from being second-rate games, ESPN's 2K5 line of sports titles have been of extremely high quality so far, in some cases even surpassing the efforts of the competition. As an added bonus, because of the titles' lowered price, fans could more readily afford both games in a particular sports genre; a best of both world scenario that many gamers have embraced wholeheartedly.

The best news of all in McNealy's report is his prediction that the $20 price will continue for next year's line of 2K6 games, based on his contention that the games can remain profitable for the company even at the lowered price. Furthermore, there likely won't be a big enough graphical or features upgrade in next year's versions of the games to warrant a price reversal. If this prediction holds true, we may not see a price increase for ESPN sports games until the next generation of consoles hit stores. This could result in some substantial shifts in market share between the two publishers.

For EA, questions remain: How long before they retaliate in a substantial way? Could the publisher decide to even the current playing field, lower the price of their crop of 2006 sports titles, and throw the majority of their considerable development power into the next generation of console sports games, in the hopes of acquiring a head start on the competition? What would that mean for the quality of the remaining entries in this console generation's sports franchises? Do they even need to do so? Despite the in-roads made by its competition, EA's dominant market share is not the result of accident; but rather a combination of quality sports titles and extremely adept marketing.

Certainly EA has more than a few tricks up their sleeves to ensure they maintain their lead in the sports gaming world. The recent moves by ESPN, and the resultant shockwaves that continue to ripple throughout the sports gaming industry, however, are certainly accelerating those plans.