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cdj
04-02-2011, 10:04 PM
http://thegamingtailgate.com/images/misc/NCAABasketball10.jpg

College basketball gamers find themselves without a college basketball franchise in spite of the immense popularity of March Madness and the Final Four. In recent years, both 2K Sports and EA SPORTS have dropped their college basketball franchises. 2007 marked the last year of 2K Sports' popular College Hoops franchise while 2009 was the last year for EA SPORTS' re-invigorated NCAA Basketball franchise.

Despite the gaming success of another college sport (EA SPORTS' NCAA Football) and immense NCAA Tournament viewership (across CBS & Turner Broadcasting as well as March Madness On Demand), hopes for either franchise returning appear slim. Forbes blogger John Gaudiosi weighs in on how we've reached this point and also the possibility of a college basketball franchise returning in the future.

After checking out Gaudiosi's blog, come back and share your thoughts with the community. What would it take for a college basketball franchise to be successful in the future (in terms of sales and community reaction) and why haven't they been so in the past?

With CBS and Turner experiencing record TV ratings for the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, the video game industry is sitting on the bench during March Madness and ignoring the Final Four and the massive fan base it attracts annually. And publishers like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive are leaving all of that potential money on the table.

2007 was the last year that both EA Sports and 2K Sports released NCAA basketball games under the NCAA March Madness 08 and College Hoops 2K8 franchises. According to video game tracking firm The NPD Group, 2K Sports sold 200,000 copies of its game for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 in the U.S. and decided to abandon the college sport completely the next year.

In 2008, Electronic Arts released NCAA Basketball 09 with UCLA star Kevin Love on the cover. Without any competition, the newly re-named franchise sold only 223,000 copies for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 in the U.S., according to The NPD Group. The company gave college hoops one more try in 2009 with NCAA Basketball 10, featuring Los Angeles clipper star Blake Griffin on the cover, before abandoning the sport altogether.

For the last two years, there have been no college basketball video games from any game company. But college sports still thrive on the gridiron. EA Sports has sold over 3 million copies of NCAA Football 11 since last July for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, according to The NPD Group. That annual franchise thrives and regularly competes with EA Sports’ Madden NFL franchise in the U.S sales charts for top-selling game of the year.

The recent push by EA in the free-to-play online space with titles like World Series Superstars, FIFA Superstars and Madden NFL Superstars is one possibility, since the cost of developing a current gen console game on a regular basis seems unrealistic. But considering the last two years have seen no new game, it’s likely March Madness will be relegated to the real hardwoods, rather than the virtual.

Click here to read the full blog from Gaudiosi (http://blogs.forbes.com/johngaudiosi/2011/04/02/game-industry-fails-to-capitalize-on-march-madness/).

Jayrah
04-02-2011, 10:38 PM
I am of the opinion that either one should make a comeback attempt in a late February Edition. Basketball games don't sell at the beginning of their season because football is in full force. But at the end of the season ppl are getting ready for March Madness with their teams, and nothing is more appealing than a bball game at this time.

Football sells so well because NOTHING else is going on (baseball is midseason but it's in a lull for most football fans), and ppl are back in the sports mood.

cdj
04-02-2011, 10:44 PM
I'm not sure I agree with Sanner's take that releasing the game at the start of the season was detrimental to either franchise. Sports games always spike in sales when their sport hits the post-season. NCAA Basketball 10 added features to help keep the game up-to-date (as much as possible - new plays, updated team data/info, NCAA Tourney pack) but EA SPORTS minimized post-release support as they decided to axe the title. (It seemed as if they put all of their resources into NBA ELITE which then was delayed and ultimately moved to a different studio.)

2K is losing money on their MLB franchise and still locked into sponsoring the early season 2K Coaches vs. Cancer Classic - despite not making their game anymore either. Lots of money down the drain on both investments.

It's probably a pipe dream, but maybe when 2K gets out of the MLB deal and if EA can get their NBA title on solid footing one or both will consider bringing back their college titles.

JeffHCross
04-02-2011, 11:12 PM
The only thing 'detrimental' to either NCAA Basketball or College Hoops was the licensing costs. March Madness gets a ton of attention, but, honestly, it's difficult for that amount of attention to translate into game sales. Outside of select schools and areas, people just don't generally follow basketball teams with the same fervor that they follow football. So the licensing costs from the CLC were probably too much to handle, given the sales.

Essentially the only way one could justify the licensing costs for a NCAA game would be a low-cost game, a la a downloadable PSN/XBL game from a small developer. Maybe then the licensing cost wouldn't be as great? Maybe make the game tournament only, to capitalize on the attention surrounding the tournament. That's the only chance at this point.

ram29jackson
04-03-2011, 12:05 AM
........online feature...16-32- or 64 teams tournament

morsdraconis
04-03-2011, 12:25 AM
I wouldn't even go as far as 16 teams. Limit it to 8 and let them play out the season. Brings back the discussion a while back about basketball getting online franchise/dynasty/whatever and the issues with that, but that would REALLY open up the market as you know part of the reason why NCAA is selling so well is the invention of Online Dynasty.

Bring something as in depth as 2k8 an OD feature and you'd have one of the best college basketball games ever.

JeffHCross
04-03-2011, 09:11 AM
8 teams? Season? What? That wouldn't be realistically possible, unless I'm totally misunderstanding what you're meaning.

shockscape
04-03-2011, 09:27 AM
I think the big problem with the college basketball franchise vs the college football is that there are too many teams out there in Division I, as opposed to exactly 120 teams in the FBS. Also, too many regular season games to play before you get to the postseason and you have the invitationals in the early part of the season that is missing in the basketball games. I can play 3 football season to 1 basketball season in the college sports when they were making both. I quit playing the college basketball video games b/c of this...the game play was alright, but, as was mentioned before, including an online dynasty mode and creating a player and following him through his college years MIGHT help....I doubt it. The college football season in real like is bigger than college basketball b/c every game counts. College basketball is showing us right now that you can lose 9 games and still make it to the championship game....just like UConn and Butler did.

CLW
04-03-2011, 10:21 AM
There are multiple issues/problems with a NCAA Basketball game:

#1 The sport simply is no where near as popular as NCAA Football. Yes people follow/love March Madness. However, the average fan ONLY follows college hoops in March. There are simply not enough people like me who literally follow college hoops 365 days a year.

#2 As previously mentioned above there are so.... many teams it is more difficult for EA/2K to get all the teams done properly correctly. This doesn't even address the Same Keller lawsuit. IF that is successful I cannot see any company wanting to open themselves up to 3600 Plaintiffs each year.

#3 EA just cannot seem to get basketball sims right. 2K has done a fabulous job. I still play 2K8. NCAA 10 was a solid game but it had HUGE bugs that EA never really addressed.

#4 College Hoops games simply do not sell enough to be an extremely profitable title.


IMHO, the only hope for a college hoops series is for 2K to get back into it and basicallly just give us a less polished version of their upcoming 2K NBA game with real life rosters. I think 2K could make $ off of the game if they basically use the same team (plus a minimum number of guys to simply create the areans and rosters).

Jayrah
04-03-2011, 10:41 AM
IMHO, the only hope for a college hoops series is for 2K to get back into it and basicallly just give us a less polished version of their upcoming 2K NBA game with real life rosters. I think 2K could make $ off of the game if they basically use the same team (plus a minimum number of guys to simply create the areans and rosters).

As silly as it sounds. I would freaking love that! The bball games for 2k right now are off the chain. Transferred to a college game without CAP and with a little bit of decent announcing would be awesome.

jaymo76
04-03-2011, 01:45 PM
Say what you will but I still play NCAA BASKETBALL 10. Simply put, it's a great game of basketball. The game is a lot of fun, the presentation is stellar, and dynasty mode has a lot of options. With zero post release support and no advertising, sales were pretty decent. Had this game been given a few patches (rebounds, post play, etc) I think this game would have a lot more love on ths forum.

morsdraconis
04-03-2011, 06:12 PM
I actually only played it a few times and never really gave it a thorough try. 2k8 was just so great, I didn't see how I could enjoy '10 anymore than 2k8 so I never really dove into it much.

Sinister
04-05-2011, 02:47 PM
EA would have had lawsuit gallore. The whole point with the issue around college football was the likeness of it all. To give a patch and update for current year I'm sure may have ruffled some feathers, especially if they could have got licensing.