ESPN Football 2K5: Wow!

[lendelin]

I didn't have the time to pick the game up yet; but after all of 'em debating I'll do it tomorrow. I'm almost obligated to buy it after the extended debate. :) At $16 it seems to be a real bargain.

If I could only mentally connect to football; I guess you have to grow up with it. At least it's not as bad as baseball where a guy throws a stone disguised as a ball and another guy tries to hit the stone with a big stick. (Am I narrow-minded? no way! :)

I was glad to get a couple of weeks ago Winning Eleven 6 for $10 at Best Buy! ...another great bargain.

[YoshiM]

::reads the debate::

Oh sure, lendelin, blame me. I just said the game was good then I get sucked into the hole you dug. Thanks :P The debate brought me back to our rounds on the 16-bit era.

Anyway, I see Sega's move to sell their sports titles at 20 bones not unlike Microsoft's move to pump out Xboxes at such a hit. Will they lose money? Possibly, but it may not be as much if 2K5 is just a polished upgrade of 2K4 (which I never played so that's just speculation). But it gets the name out there and if it's a quality product (which it is) people will buy into it even if to compare it with Madden. I wouldn't call the move "desperate" but "aggressive".

What Sega has to do if ESPN 2K5 is popular enough for a sequel is really put the effort into making over the game and then charge a bit more for it next year. People will spend more money on a familiar product if there is "more bang for the buck". For an example, see some of the sales of earlier Madden games during the mid/late 90's: as they progressed to 3D there really wasn't a HUGE difference and they still sold like hot cakes. If people will puke up $50 for a game with minor graphical updates and roster changes, why wouldn't they for another product if they liked it?

As for Sony and Microsoft and their dropping out of sports: well the games typically didn't get grand reviews. I know Gameday was pretty huge for a little while on PS1 but when it landed on PS2 it just got roasted, basically for looking and playing like a PS1 title but made for the "next generation" and haven't been able to pick themselves up since. The Fever games didn't seem to have a whole lot of depth and (to me) didn't know what it should be: an arcady sports game or a proper sportsl sim.

Point is we DON'T know what the future will hold. We have seen companies drop less known but decent titles to lower price points (Beyond Good & Evil a primary example) and still not sell overly well, so honestly don't think we'll have problems of a wild fire of $20 high profile games coming out.

[lendelin]

::reads the debate::

Anyway, I see Sega's move to sell their sports titles at 20 bones not unlike Microsoft's move to pump out Xboxes at such a hit. Will they lose money? Possibly, but it may not be as much if 2K5 is just a polished upgrade of 2K4 (which I never played so that's just speculation). But it gets the name out there and if it's a quality product (which it is) people will buy into it even if to compare it with Madden. I wouldn't call the move "desperate" but "aggressive".

What Sega has to do if ESPN 2K5 is popular enough for a sequel is really put the effort into making over the game and then charge a bit more for it next year. People will spend more money on a familiar product if there is "more bang for the buck". For an example, see some of the sales of earlier Madden games during the mid/late 90's: as they progressed to 3D there really wasn't a HUGE difference and they still sold like hot cakes. If people will puke up $50 for a game with minor graphical updates and roster changes, why wouldn't they for another product if they liked it?

As for Sony and Microsoft and their dropping out of sports: well the games typically didn't get grand reviews. I know Gameday was pretty huge for a little while on PS1 but when it landed on PS2 it just got roasted, basically for looking and playing like a PS1 title but made for the "next generation" and haven't been able to pick themselves up since. The Fever games didn't seem to have a whole lot of depth and (to me) didn't know what it should be: an arcady sports game or a proper sportsl sim.

Point is we DON'T know what the future will hold. We have seen companies drop less known but decent titles to lower price points (Beyond Good & Evil a primary example) and still not sell overly well, so honestly don't think we'll have problems of a wild fire of $20 high profile games coming out.

I completely agree. It is an aggressive move, but not a desperate one, as you said.. To try to get a high-quality game out at such a price makes more sense than just to can it. If Sega doesn't sell at least 3 times as many games than the prequel, THEN Sega should kiss the franchise good bye.


Oh sure, lendelin, blame me. I just said the game was good then I get sucked into the hole you dug. Thanks :P The debate brought me back to our rounds on the 16-bit era.

Well, I just like to blame others for my own mistakes, what can I say...isn't that the way to go nowadays?

Yep, we sure had our quibbles and quabbles, and now we agree about almost everything...it's so sad. ;) ...but our debates never got heated or personal. We always picked up the relevant reasoning of the other side, responded to it, and corrected each other. This way we never lost focus on the issue although we disagreed. That's why I truly appreciated our debates.