No More K in NFL2K4?

[IntvGene]

Gamesarefun (http://www.gamesarefun.com/cgi-bin/newspro/fullnews.cgi?newsid1054814293,4761,) reports some bad news for Sega sports' NFL title.

The game will be changed from NFL2K4 to ESPN NFL Football. They acquired the rights to the name last year, but it was too late to change the title. The game will also be pushed from August 1 to September 2, a full month later than Madden. A Sega spokesman said that they had a couple of surprise announcements to make in regards to their football title, hopefully they will be big ones.

Anyway, I liked the 2K name in the series. It differentiated them from EA. Who knows if this will affect the other sports titles. I like Sega's sports more than EA's generally, but this news does nothing for Sega who is already getting killed in the sports arena by like a 10:1 sales margin. They will have online play on their side, hopefully. I think that an early release would have helped them. Now, the late one will do nothing for them this year.

[Achika]

I think the new name will hurt them. Especially to unsuspecting fans that don't read gaming magazines or internet gaming sites. Compare any of the ESPN games out to the EA & Sega ones. Fans will usually pick EA & Sega and not give ESPN a chance. Now, take out sega and put in the Sega/ESPN hybrid, now fans just think Sega dropped out and there's only ESPN and EA. Who gets the sale now without a retail employee in-the-know about the change to tell the buyer?

I could be wrong, but I thought Madden & NCAA had online play already?

[zmeston]

I think the new name will hurt them. Especially to unsuspecting fans that don't read gaming magazines or internet gaming sites. Compare any of the ESPN games out to the EA & Sega ones. Fans will usually pick EA & Sega and not give ESPN a chance. Now, take out sega and put in the Sega/ESPN hybrid, now fans just think Sega dropped out and there's only ESPN and EA. Who gets the sale now without a retail employee in-the-know about the change to tell the buyer?

I could be wrong, but I thought Madden & NCAA had online play already?

I agree with Achika; the ESPN brand, thanks mostly to Konami, has a sad reputation with sports gamers. Then again, the NFL2K brand had zero impact with non-Sega fans, so maybe they figure the casual/mainstream-gamer recognition of the ESPN name will outweigh the disdain of hardcore gamers.

You're also right about Madden and NCAA already having online play, A., although it's exclusive to the PS2 this year, as EA doesn't want to use Live for Xbox online play, amd Microsoft doesn't want to relent and set a bad precedent for other publishers.

-- Z.

[Nature Boy]

I read recently that sport titles account for 25% of game sales. Who knows how much of that pie EA has (but it's a *big* slice, we all know that).

If Sega is going to take any of that pie away from EA they definitely needed to brand themselves better. If they do it right the ESPN name is a good way to get there. It's better than the "2K" idea - which is kinda tired and doesn't resonate with sports fans anyway (as has been mentioned). Remember, a good chunk of that 25% are gamers who probably own more sports titles than non sports titles. These are sports fans first, not game fans first.

[kevincure]

Sega needed to make changes. I don't know a single person who plays 2k football instead of Madden. Madden is a tough one to beat, simply because after the Gameday debacle, EA is, I'm sure, not going to let the franchise slip, and right now it's an almost perfect football game. I think there are very few people who associate "best football game" and "sega 2k", so the name change shouldn't hurt much.

Basketball, hockey and baseball are a different story, though. EA is vulnerable in soccer, too (ISS). And Sega has tennis locked up.

[Daniel Thomas]

It's too bad the 2K name is going away, it had real flash. I think it fit the football games well, which just ooze with style and panache. But Sega paid the bucoo dollars to get the ESPN liscence, and since name-brand recognition is most important element for casual gamers, it will only help Sega.

It's not a problem for us. We, after all, already know about Visual Concepts' masterful sports games; we're locked in already. It's tragic that the NFL 2K series doesn't sell the numbers that Madden does, but, again, it's all about having the name. Seeing John Madden use the videogame every week on Monday Night Football is just free advertising -- who gets to watch footage from 2K?

Personally, I always preferred the 2K games to EA Sports. The overall package -- the brilliant animation, the back-and-forth color commentary, the "total control" passing, the ability to knock down players after the play ends (one of the greatest drinking games of our time), the referees' conference call, and so on -- is far more complete for the whole football experience. And I remember being able to play online games on my Dreamcast way back with NFL2K1; funny how online play is still being touted as something new. Where were all these people two or three years ago? Just goes to show how ahead of the curve Dreamcast was (but that's another topic).