OS Roundtable: Could Another Company Succeed with Another NCAA Football Game?

[fistofrage]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

I really don't understand all the love for NCAA 11. The ball carrier looks and feels like the ball carrier is on skates, the animations suffer from just as much morping and choppiness as its professional counterpart. Saying no game can compete with it is like only driving a Ford Taurus and claiming no car company could possibly beat that car. Any inteeligent man should have the obvious response, "How can you possibly know?" Financially I don't think NCAA sells enough for any new company to get in the game for a small piece of that small pie, but if there were more sales to be made, I think a few developers could...and top NCAA 11 sales eventually.

Noone is saying NCAA is perfect. It has alot of flaws. Yes, someone could make a better NCAA game, there is no doubt, but it would take alot of resources. And then you would have to get people to buy the game instead of EA's game. Chances are, enough resources wouldn't be dedicated to it and it would take a few cycles to equal or surpass EA.

NFL 2K even tried to price their games at 19.99 and they still couldn't outpace Madden despite many gamers liking the game better.

In the end, its all branding and no matter what anyone says, EA sports has the football market cornered. It wouldn't be hard to flip the hardcore players, but flipping the mainstream would not be easy. In the end, the other franchise would most likely shrivel up and die.

I'm all for competition and getting more choices in the market, I just personally think it would fail.

[TheCreep]

At this point I would say probably not. It could be done, but what I'm saying is it'll probably be trash the first time out and that will seal its fate. Dev team will need at least 2 to 3 iterations before its a solid title I'm assuming. By that time NCAA will most def have a strangle hold on that market. They're almost where they need to be in most folks eyes right now. Imagine in two to three years.

[sinc79]

I don't even need to read the article and my answer to the headline is YES.

[videlsports]

Yes.. Given 2-3 years or 1 2year development cycle for 2k, and I think it would be better than the solid EA Title. I have been clamoring for this for awhile, and hope 2k will step up and take the time to invest. I think that brought out in a different time 2kNcaa would do great in sales, Just release a little earlier than ea on year 1, then next year go head to head.. 2k will win because as much as everyone says no one can beat ncaa from ea, i know otherwise.

[1WEiRDguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by sinc79

I don't even need to read the article and my answer to the headline is YES.

this...my thoughts exactly

[Cusefan]

Quote: Originally Posted by sinc79

I don't even need to read the article and my answer to the headline is YES.

Could another company do it: Of Course. A better question would be:

"Would Another Company Succeed with Another NCAA Football Game?

That answer is no. There is one company that has the resources to take down EA and that Is Activision. If Activision decided they wanted to get into the sports world and take a bite out of EA's profits then they might consider making a NCAA football game. Here is the problem: The Economy sucks. With people getting laid off and companies having to downsize, this is not the time for expansion.

Basically I think we are going to be playing EA's NCAA football for quite a long time to come.

[BearClaw]

I'm sure a 2K game would be a huge success with the hardcore simheads but the general sports fan would buy EA because it's the name they know.

[jyoung]

I don't think anyone would argue that 2K doesn't have the ability to make a better college football game than EA.

The question is how is 2K going to make that game sell?

The NCAA sports games market is significantly smaller than the market for professional sports games.

College Hoops 2K8, which I would argue is still the best NCAA sports game of all time, sold so poorly that the series was shut down for being non-profitable.

Why would a football game be any different?