2K Sports will not release a new installment in its NHL simulation franchise for consoles this year. This according to 1up and Gamespot.
We will not see NHL 2K12 this year, what are your thoughts?
Quote:
"It was mentioned that there will not be a new NHL game for consoles from 2K Sports this year. The company's license with Major League Baseball is currently set to expire next year."
For the uninitiated... Everything that EA has done with their series, has come from 2K Hockey... from the Defensive skill stick, the R-Stick skill-stick, the 1-on-1 R-Stick dekes, the different faceoff options, (you could do all that in the 2K series years ago..), I could go on with more, but...
...and now EA has the 'crash the goalie' and 'net-off-moorings'. This was ALL done in previous iterations of 2k hockey...
EA, I give them credit here, just stole everything and made it BETTER!
I just wish 2K continued w stronger 'Production' leadership.. They had a game in the making that if done right would have mirrored the 2k vs EA NBA outcome...
Guess I'll be playing NHL 2k10 with Fiddy's rosters.
Horrible news though.. I was really wishing on a 2 year development hockey game from 2k.
I'm really interested to know if they were actually working on a game for the past 2 years, or was that just 2K whistling dixie?
The comments from Paul (senior marketing dude at 2K) had me believing they were actually working on it. Who knows?
I'm not sure I want to know. If I found out that this game was nearly finished and it had a deep My Player, etc, etc. I'd probably cry.
I loved Fox Championship Hockey for the PS2. It only got one year. But a former developer commented on 2khockey.net that they were 3 months from finishing the sequel and all he said was "you should have seen what was in store".
The lead producer for NHL Slapshot worked on FC2000 as well, and during my short interview with him about Slapshot, he echoed the sentiment saying that the sequel was awesome.
That was painful to hear. I really enjoyed FC2000.
At this point it doesn't matter. But I'd bet that they weren't even working on 2K12 at all.
I'm not that upset with the let down of the NHL 2k series. I'm a huge NBA 2k fan, and I think 2K sports is dominating the game industry with basketball.
Hockey being cut from the line-up may help boost funding to the other games 2k has to offer.
Although I'm very disappointed at this news, I can't say I didn't see this news on the horizon. Hopefully Natural Motion's IceBreaker releases later this year and fills the void.
Looking back, I think the team should've built on what 2K8 provided instead of scrapping it entirely in a one-year process. The series suffered from a lot of major overhauls from 2K6 through 2K10, which may have wasted more resources than was needed.
Wish I could elaborate a bit more, but I would only be echoing what else was said. Facepalm city.
Disappointing news, but I guess this means we won't be seeing any 2k hockey for the forseeable future. EA's hockey is okay, I just always preferred 2k.
I keep hoping (maybe in vain) that 2k can get all of their sports products up to the level of NBA2k, but I guess that's asking too much...
I never play hockey games but i hate to see 2K dropping out on another sport, although football wasn't really there fault they could still come out with college etc... frustrating
That stinks...
But, it looks like you'll just have to buy the roster update from me, Fiddy and Canuxrok at $60 a download...but if you act now you can get 2 for $120...or 3 for $180---what a savings!
We're also selling 2 versions of 2K6 which equals 2K12......this is also for $120.
In all seriousness, I'm disappointed but not surprised.
I hope at least 2Kshare for 2K10 will still be available next year............
I wish there was a way to customize the new franchise in Winnipeg or at least change Atlanta for next year...........are you out there Flying Finn?
That stinks...
But, it looks like you'll just have to buy the roster update from me, Fiddy and Canuxrok at $60 a download...but if you act now you can get 2 for $120...or 3 for $180---what a savings!
We're also selling 2 versions of 2K6 which equals 2K12......this is also for $120.
In all seriousness, I'm disappointed but not surprised.
I hope at least 2Kshare for 2K10 will still be available next year............
I wish there was a way to customize the new franchise in Winnipeg or at least change Atlanta for next year...........are you out there Flying Finn?
There is on 2K10. You can move the Thrashers roster over to the created team and then replace the Thrashers when you start a Franchise. Do me an update for 2K10 on the PS3 and depending on the quality I'll pay you for it plus labor
As someone that plays 99% sports games, this news saddens me. While we have seen some tremendous leaps in terms of gameplay and presentation this generation of consoles, unfortunately what I'll remember most about the PS3/360 era is how the consumers' choices for games within a specific sport dwindled down to one.
The PS2/Xbox era will go down as the Golden Age of sports gaming. It was so nice to be able to choose between 3-5 titles for every sport. Exclusive licenses and the increasing cost of producing games has been a catastrophic blow to the sports gaming industry.
I really worry about how, moving forward, sports games will fare in the future.
NHL2K has been a product that's been suffering for quite some time now, so best to put it to rest, especially if it's not making much in the sales department. Maybe now without programmers & such working on the NHL series they can get their stuff together and actually make another 2K football game. We've seen the amazing output 2K can do with the NBA series and even that of NFL2K series if they pull out all the stops.
NHL2K has been a product that's been suffering for quite some time now, so best to put it to rest, especially if it's not making much in the sales department. Maybe now without programmers & such working on the NHL series they can get their stuff together and actually make another 2K football game. We've seen the amazing output 2K can do with the NBA series and even that of NFL2K series if they pull out all the stops.
Thing is, they need the NFL license in order to make an NFL game. As long as EA keeps working out deals to extend the exclusive with the NFL, it isn't happening.
The hockey series showed signs of improving with 2K8, only to have its developers at the time (Kush Games) disband. They made a mistake by ever releasing 2K9, but 2K10 was definately on the right track. The problem was VC wasn't able to do enough in such a short time to possibly draw enough people from EA's well established game. Basically, Kush did too little too late before it quit development of the series in mid cycle. The game should have never been ported to the 360/PS3 to begin with. They should have taken the time as EA did to rebuild the game. VC was trying, but again, didn't have the time or resources to possibly overtake EA.
How the heck does Realm get thanks for rubbin' it in? Most anyone associated with 2K Hockey knew the end was coming after 2K8, which got shafted for no good reason, but especially after 2K9. There was hope after 2K10, but not much. It was mainly everyone praying for a miracle. Hoping for a second chance like what happened after the series debut. So Realm you didn't tell us anything.
whoever didnt see this coming honestly just wasn't paying attention. Company in terms of their hockey game has been garbage at best for quite a while now and dropped the ball a few years ago with it's fanbase.
The really disappointing part of all this isn't even the fact we won't have two hockey games again this year, but the fact that 2K is slowly but surely dwindling down to just having NBA 2K left in their sports lineup.