Will College Basketball Return to the Next-Gen Sports Lineup?

Feature Article

Submitted on: 03/29/2013 by Jayson Young

If no college basketball game releases on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720, it will mark the first generation of consoles without an NCAA basketball game since the days of the NES, Atari and Sega Master System.

Starting with 1992's NCAA Basketball, multiple college basketball games have appeared in every console generation since the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

16-Bit

Super Nintendo

NCAA Basketball (1992)
NCAA Final Four Basketball (1995)
College Slam (1996)

Sega Genesis

NCAA Final Four Basketball (1994)
Dick Vitale's Awesome Baby! College Hoops (1994)
Coach K College Basketball (1995)
College Slam (1996)

32-Bit and 64-Bit

Sony PlayStation

College Slam (1996)
NCAA Final Four (1997 - 2001)
NCAA March Madness (1998 - 2001)

Nintendo 64

Fox Sports College Hoops (1999)

128-Bit

PlayStation 2 and Xbox

NCAA Final Four (2001 - 2004)
NCAA March Madness (2002 - 2008)
College Hoops (2K3 - 2K8)

Current Generation

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

College Hoops (2K6 - 2K8)
NCAA Basketball (2007 - 2010)
NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness Edition (2009)

College Basketball's Last Dance?

The steady production of college basketball games halted midway through the current generation, as a combination of mediocre sales, expensive licensing fees and rising development costs forced both 2K Sports and EA Sports to retire their collegiate basketball brands.

Sales of NCAA basketball games immediately dropped over 50 percent following the transition from older consoles to the current generation:

End Of Previous Generation

ESPN College Hoops 2K5 (PS2/Xbox) -- 700,000 North American units sold
NCAA March Madness 2005 (PS2/Xbox) -- 650,000 North American units sold

Multiplatform Releases on Current Generation

College Hoops 2K7 (PS3/360) -- 340,000 North American units sold
College Hoops 2K8 (PS3/360) -- 270,000 North American units sold

NCAA March Madness 08 (PS3/360) -- 260,000 North American units sold
NCAA Basketball 09 (PS3/360) -- 330,000 North American units sold
NCAA Basketball 10 (PS3/360) -- 550,000 North American units sold

Only by NCAA Basketball 10 did the genre begin to show any signs of recovery, but due to the inclusion of the CBS and ESPN audio/visual presentation, the added licensing expenses likely offset the game's 40 percent sales increase.

In the previous generation, a quarter-million or half-million units sold might have ensured the continued profitability of EA Sports' college basketball franchise, but with the company now paying fees to the NCAA, ESPN and CBS, those 550,000 copies sold probably were not enough for the publisher to break even.

Does A Buying Market Still Exist?

This year, March Madness' opening weekend averaged a 6.3 overnight television rating, which is the highest rating for the first weekend of play since 1991 -- Nielsen's "overnight" rating equals the percentage of American households watching the game.

"Prime time" tournament coverage running from 5:15 PM to 9:15 PM also was the most-watched since 1991, scoring an 11.8 overnight rating.

By comparison, last year's NBA Finals averaged a 10.1 overnight rating; this year's Daytona 500 drew a 9.9 overnight rating; the 2012 MLB World Series averaged a 7.6 overnight rating.

Ratings-wise, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has become America's most popular non-football sporting event. Clearly, Americans love to watch college basketball in March -- the rest of the year, not so much.

Starting in November and ending in April, college basketball games are televised nightly on ESPN. Non-cable subscribers also have access to weekly Saturday and Sunday games on CBS and ABC.

These regular season games draw much lower ratings, indicating that most Americans only care about college hoops during the season's exciting finale.

Viewership data for the complete 2012-13 season is not yet available, but for comparison's sake, take a look at where college basketball's regular season ratings stood as of 2011-12:

Less than 1 percent of Americans are watching college basketball from November through February. Yet the typical release month for college basketball games remains November, right before the real season tips off, and months before consumers start paying attention to the sport.

Choosing The Right Release Date

NCAA basketball video games typically launch a month after October's NBA video games, and by November, most players have already purchased their one basketball game for the year.

When March finally rolls around, and 6-11 percent of Americans are watching daily NCAA basketball action on TV, those November NCAA basketball games are sitting in bargain bins for $10 to $20.

Ideally, a college basketball video game should launch in February, a week or two after the Super Bowl.

Some benefits of a February launch:

Football, America's dominant sport, is dormant
Conference rivals clash all around the NCAA
Many basketball fans are tired of playing their October NBA video game
Baseball games won't launch until next month
The flood of big-budget holiday releases has subsided

In fairness, publishers have tried launching NCAA basketball games in every conceivable month: October, November, December, January, February and March. Changing the release date has not shown any noticeable correlation to sales numbers.

An argument could be made, however, that the ever-changing release time for college basketball games has hurt the genre's long-term sales, as consumers have no ingrained "yearly purchasing ritual" like they do for Madden NFL or NBA 2K, which continue to launch in the same month, around the same week, year after year.

If Not Retail, Why Not Try Digital?

To their credit, EA Sports did experiment with a $15 downloadable edition of NCAA Basketball 09, published through Xbox Live. The game flopped, currently resting at number 384 on the all-time Xbox Live Arcade sales chart.

EA Sports' digital experiment failed because it cost about the same on its March release day ($15) as a used copy of NCAA Basketball 09, which released in November and was gathering grime in bargain bins by January.

With smarter release scheduling, an à la carte downloadable format could be an interesting way of separating the components of an NCAA game into smaller, purchasable parts, allowing the player to pay only for the modes he or she likes:

$15 -- Offline/Online Exhibition mode all D-I NCAA teams
$15 -- Offline/Online "Big Dance" mode
$15 -- Offline/Online My Player/Team Up Mode
$15 -- Offline/Online Franchise Mode
$45 -- Full Game (Includes all Modes)

Give EA Season Ticket owners a free 48-hour trial for all modes, plus an automatic 10 percent discount, and the company might bring over a few fence-sitters who wouldn't normally consider buying an NCAA basketball game.

For 2K Sports, who already has a fine NBA product in place, their College Hoops brand could return as a downloadable, total conversion mod in the next NBA 2K game. Fan-made college mods remain popular with the PC versions of NBA 2K, so an official add-on from 2K Sports seems like a smart extension of the 2K basketball branch.

2K already offers a discounted "Combo Pack" that bundles MLB 2K and NBA 2K together for $80, so simply swap out the critically derided MLB series for a new College Hoops release and you have a great value to sell to basketball fans.

Arguably, NCAA basketball's days of being a full-priced, $60 retail game may be over, but with some creative thinking, plenty of opportunities remain for collegiate basketball products to bounce back into sports gaming's lineup and take advantage of consumers' March Madness.

Member Comments

# 1 SpergLordStuntn @ 03/29/13 10:46 AM

i believe there is a market for college hoops simply because the nba 2k series has really evolved into a great game. arguably the best game on the sports market and if they just apply what they have done so far with nba into college ball it would sell. that combo pack is even a great idea at first

# 2 chi_hawks @ 03/29/13 12:38 PM

I hope so. College Hoops 2k8 ws awesome.

# 3 ozzy57 @ 03/29/13 12:50 PM

I disagree you would screw the customers releasing the game in February. A lot of people don't start following it until around February I know the hardcore fan follows it at the start of the season but it has to compete with the NFL, NBA and NHL all games that release between August-October. Most people buy the pro game because of the names in the game, however if they made a quality College Basketball game and release it around February but do something they haven't done and make the draft classes able to import onto both the preceding NBA game and the upcoming unreleased pro game I think they would have good sales.

# 4 TreyIM2 @ 03/29/13 01:04 PM

Just seeing that SNES box got me all misty eyed. Lol. I had that game and swore it was the ish...

# 5 Kentucky_Wildcat23 @ 03/29/13 01:34 PM

I will take just about any game 2k is willing to give. I'd take a downloadable game from the XBOX market place. Even if they only pushed a game out every few years with updates and new rosters I'd be fine with that.

# 6 khaliib @ 03/29/13 01:39 PM

Right there with ya Trey!!!
The good ol days.

Gamers these days are spoiled.

Man you put the game in the system and made the best of it.

It was like someone calling a "Carry" on the court. (you'd get punched in the mouth).
So you just rolled with it and handled your business...

miss those days when it was about the sport itself.

Anyway, I just left college again this past fall, and College Sports is not like the Pro's.
Most folks follow a College team more so because of a personal identification rather than what particular player is on it.
Ohio St follows Ohio St...
Michigan follows Michigan...
Fresno St follows Fresno St....

We've been so long without an actual College BBall game, folks would purchase it just to see or just to have.

Now days, I believe most gamers want developers to build from a simulation foundation, provide an open editor and get out of the way...

# 7 bigdoc85 @ 03/29/13 02:34 PM

I really think 2k could pull off DLC to the NBA2k series -- especially once the new consoles hit and have more horsepower. Heck, just get the licensing, the arenas and let us edit the teams. Just put the same generic players on each team and the folks here at OS will make the necessary changes.

# 8 trevdeez09 @ 03/29/13 02:49 PM

Maybe the sales were bad because they were bad games? If they put an effort into it and made it like nba 2k, mlb the show, or fifa, people would buy it. Maybe making us miss a college hoops game was on purpose, but for me it worked, and i would buy the game in a heartbeat.

# 9 RandyBass @ 03/29/13 02:51 PM

Coach K... Probably my favorite college hoops game of all time.

# 10 tril @ 03/29/13 02:58 PM

Marketing is what hurt sales. The college hoops game ws never marketed correctly. With that said a release date a week before Christmas might make sense. By then the The College hoops season would have gained some traction. Meaning at this time of year is when all the teams and networks start focusing on conference play, the rivalries etc.
the publishers could even market it at discounted price along with the NBA title. kind of of like how 2k just marketed the mLB and NBA combo pack.
you're basically getting the Chroistmas gift buying consumer also.
other than that you could just realease the game at the start of conference play. the first week of january.

I just want a new 2k college basketball game. release it June Id still buy it.

# 11 ven0m43 @ 03/29/13 02:59 PM

If NBA 2k allowed for college hoops 2k to have imported drafts/career mode, and also a NBA/college hoops combo pack then sale would rise. I still play college hoops 2k8, and am still waiting for the next college 2k game.

In general I feel that sports game should be released every other year, which is why I buy the game every other year . However, I see why companies release it every year.

# 12 Cardot @ 03/29/13 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trevdeez09


	Maybe the sales were bad because they were bad games? If they put an effort into it and made it like nba 2k, mlb the show, or fifa, people would buy it. Maybe making us miss a college hoops game was on purpose, but for me it worked, and i would buy the game in a heartbeat.

"trevdeez09
Maybe the sales were bad because they were bad games?"

The CHoops series got very good reviews here on OS. I though the series was fantastic, which is saying something because I am not all the big of a college basketball fan.

For whatever reason, I don't think college basketball games sell that well....which baffles me, because I think it transitions very well into the video game world. But EA and 2K both bowed out of the business.

# 13 Gramps91 @ 03/29/13 05:01 PM

I don't see much hope in one being released.

However, I do hope that 2k realized I would be willing to pay $100 for a solid NCAA Basketball game with a lot of the same features that NBA 2k has. No question about it.

# 14 tbook24 @ 03/29/13 05:09 PM

2k should revamp college hoops the market is there and peopleare hungry. i played the college game more than the pro because of online and offline value as a coach and player.

# 15 MHammer113 @ 03/29/13 06:50 PM

With the recent success of the NBA 2K series I dont see why College Hoops couldn't have great success with a game that is cheap to make. Obviously this has to do with licensing fees, but we shall see. I also believe release the game early for the hardcore fans, but then have a huge marketing campaign including a combo pack with NBA 2K when February and March roles around. The fact that NCAA Basketball 10 sold double of College Hoops 2k8 and was half the product and didn't even work for many proves EA did a good job marketing. Step up your marketing game 2K and you will see sales.

# 16 JaySwizzlez @ 03/29/13 10:03 PM

I think that 2k could definitely pull it off, but I just don't see it happening, as much as I would like a new game to come out.

# 17 ven0m43 @ 03/30/13 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MHammer113


	With the recent success of the NBA 2K series I dont see why College Hoops couldn't have great success with a game that is cheap to make. Obviously this has to do with licensing fees, but we shall see. I also believe release the game early for the hardcore fans, but then have a huge marketing campaign including a combo pack with NBA 2K when February and March roles around. The fact that NCAA Basketball 10 sold double of College Hoops 2k8 and was half the product and didn't even work for many proves EA did a good job marketing. Step up your marketing game 2K and you will see sales.

NCAA BB 10 sold dbl of C Hoop 2k8, because that was the only college BB game out. If you add the total number of sales for CHoop2k8 and NCAA BB 8 they're about the same as what NCAA BB 10 had.

I would think that if 2k took there NBA game and turned it into a college game they would sell around 400-600k copies.

NBA 2k sells in the 4mil plus range. If 2k could make a college hoops game that transfers well to the nba game and release the college hoops game before they release the NBA game, then I could see a large increase in sales. If draft classes and player creations could transfer to the NBA then I could see people buying the C Hoops game to create a player/career starting in High school and then through college and then taking them into the NBA game , giving their created player a stat/skill point increase for the NBA

# 18 champ195797 @ 03/30/13 12:53 PM

I think 2K should sell college and NBA together as An upgrade Pack

# 19 iDaulton @ 03/30/13 04:44 PM

God I'am missing some College Basketball on my Xbox. 2k make it happen!

# 20 King_B_Mack @ 03/31/13 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by js3512


	Jordan in his tar heel gear lol

Honestly that would be a great start to get college basketball sales rolling again. If they (preferably 2K) could get some classic teams maybe and put Jordan on the cover of the game you could generate some sales just off that alone. If it's as quality an experience on the court as 2K8 was you can gain repeat buyers there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by js3512


	I've always thought that going into the bigger consol generations of the PS4/720 and beyond that eventually the NCAA/Madden games would eventually merge into one larger, all encompassing football game and I could even see the same happening for basketball games. You'd have a core group of gameplay developers who handle the gameplay for each but then seperate teams for the presentational elements. As games get more and more costly to consumers it only makes sense otherwise sales are going to continue to drop as more and more consumers are forced to choose between one or the other. I think a football game or a basketball game doing this would result in record sales for their respective sport. Of course there'd be hurdles to getting to that point but in the long run it only makes sense. Otherwise more and more sports games are gonna fall by the wayside.

You will never ever see anything like that happen. The logistics of that are just too great to overcome. That's not even to speak of the amount of greed between the professional leagues and the NCAA and trying to divide the profits of such an arrangement. Won't ever happen man.

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