2K Sports to return to the Football field
In late 2004, Electronic Arts shocked football fans around the world with the announcement of an exclusive agreement with the NFL. Soon after, the publishing giant saw two additional acquisitions; the NCAA Football and the Arena Football League. What was once a genre packed with competition from various publishers, EA’s aging football franchises took front center as a new monopoly in the industry. Now, Xboxic learns of a once formidable franchise returning to the fray.
Not willing to take a beating lying down, Midway returned to the field once again with its football title, Blitz: The League. Now that Midway has shown that you don’t need the NFL to have a successful football title, 2K Sports has announced their return to the gridiron, with All-Pro Football 2K8 on next-generation consoles (presumably the Xbox 360 and PS3) this summer.
Though the full details have yet to be released, Take-Two made their formal announcement earlier today claiming to bring hungry football fans “the legendary gameplay, innovative features, and outstanding visual quality sports gamers have come to expect from 2K Sports”. Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio stated:
“Football gamers have been awaiting the return of the 2K series. All-Pro Football 2K8 will deliver an authentic next generation gridiron experience and we are happy to give fans another choice in the football category.”
Visual Concept’s NFL 2K5 on Xbox
Known for their attention to detail and heavy football simulation elements, it will be interesting to see how 2K Sports and Visual Concepts handle the lack of authentic teams and players. Whether they will use retired players, fake players, or mutant players remains to be seen.
Regardless of which football franchise you prefer, this announcement is exceptional news for the industry. You, as the consumer, reap the rewards of what competition can bring. Here’s hoping the 2008 season titles will see tremendous improvements from all 3 franchises. We’ll also find out if 2K Sports can score a touchdown this summer with All-Pro Football 2K8. [Insert additional Football phrases]
Wonderful news! Can’t wait to preorder 3 copies for my friends and I. The football drought is nearly over! I cannot wait to play some football on my 360~
This is some of the best news for the last several years. I sold my copy of sorry Madden and can’t wait to get this. The NBA 2K series is awesome and I expect nothing less for this game.
This is great news….. but for now lets make nfl 2k5 B/C NOW. To have something good to play on the 360.
Maybe this’ll show EA how to do stuff properly…
Not that I care about American Football though, footie all the way
Should be good, but don’t forget that EA also stole/bought the ESPN licence (and then didn’t do jack shit with it), so a lot of the glitzy presentation from the last two 2k NFL games are going to fall by the wayside too.
I wish I could Play NFL 2K5 on my 360.Would that be sweet?
Thank god. 2k is so much better then EA.
For a football fan - this is awesome news. I am still skeptical since they haven’t made football in over 2 years, and 2k sports’ next gen games have been a mixed bag. The NBA game being good, the hockey and baseball being more like last gen ports.
Either way - a wake up call to EA!