Following omission from annual schedule, EA Sports confirms college hoops benched this year; company "reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business."
Earlier this week, Electronic Arts released an annual release schedule, which made as many headlines for what it didn't contain as for what it did. Nowhere on its roster was a new installment in the NCAA Basketball series, which EA Sports has released every year since 2003, when it was called NCAA March Madness. The last installment in the franchise, NCAA Basketball 10, received decent-to-middling reviews in November.
After a four-day silence, EA today confirmed that the series is on indefinite hold. "We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," an EA Sports rep told GameSpot. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."
EA Sports comments lend weight to reports that the publisher's negotiations with the NCAA over basketball licensing rights had stalled. Similar issues were cited by rival 2K sports when it permanently benched its NCAA College Hoops series two years ago. EA's long-term exclusive licensing of NCAA Football rights, set to expire next year, are unaffected.
NCAA Basketball wasn't the only game missing from EA's schedule. The omission of Dead Space 2 for the PC led to the company's admission that it was not in active development, as had been initially announced in September 2009. (The edition is now officially "under consideration.") The absence of Rock Band: Green Day led to questions about whether the EA Partners deal with MTV Games had soured. Both companies have since said that the deal remains in place for the band-themed game but won't comment on whether their agreement extends past its release.
@europemaster91 If 2k gets back into the college game, I will be at a store at midnight to buy it, as long as they have a player career mode in it, haven't played the 2K basketball games since they had ESPN on the cover and it was the best college basketball game I ever bought, I think the success of NBA 2K10 should really help.
I really do think that 2K needs to get back in the game. I mean, NCAA College Hoops 2k8 got like an 8 out of 10 here on GS. Plus, I currently have NCAA Basketball 2010 and (although I do have to say that the presentation of using ESPN and CBS for commentation is a great plus) it just seems that the EA Sports is just getting into a rut. Like the only thing that they really update anymore every year is the rosters. Other than that, there's maybe only small little thing that they may add (aka: when they say that they try to make the players act like their real life counter parts) but it's nothing like 2K did with add the croud meter for instance. Now I have been buying the NCAA Basketball/March Madness series every year since they came out, but as I have previously stated, it just seems that the only thing that they only update is the rosters and a few little tweeks like the counter part deal. So overall; I think that 2K just needs to come back into the College Basketball game once EA's contract is over. (and that goes for NFL 2K as well :D)
@StephenBassford "It's funny, you can tell who has and who hasn't play NFL 2k(5) so easily in this thread. NFL 2k5 was nothing like blitz, it was a superior game with great graphics, near flawless gameplay, and fantastic replay value. Saying Madden is better then NFL2k5 is like saying Transformers is better than Star Wars. I suggest some of you guys get new taste buds, because your taste for good games is pretty god-awful. It's people like yall that let Madden developers think that they never need to change a flawed franchise that hasn't been good since the early 2000's." NFL 2K5 was good... but not as great as people make it out ot be. Madden 10 has it beat as far as NFL games go.
Wow, first they drop NASCAR, then NCAA? Well, it's probably for the better so EA can focus on their more popular sports, but it still seems like a slap-in-the-face to fans of those sports leagues.
College Basketball games usually get low scores (no pun intended) year after year. But still I'm a little surprised there's going to be a gap between games. But hey, what do I care! I still have March Madness 06' and the game hasn't changed since then!
Hey... maybe they can finally implement yearly DLC Roster Updates for 1/5 of the price of a new game each year until they move to a new game engine... you know, what they promised these new systems would be capable of, and take advantage of, about 5 years ago
It's funny, you can tell who has and who hasn't play NFL 2k(5) so easily in this thread. NFL 2k5 was nothing like blitz, it was a superior game with great graphics, near flawless gameplay, and fantastic replay value. Saying Madden is better then NFL2k5 is like saying Transformers is better than Star Wars. I suggest some of you guys get new taste buds, because your taste for good games is pretty god-awful. It's people like yall that let Madden developers think that they never need to change a flawed franchise that hasn't been good since the early 2000's.
NFL 2k = Blitz, arcade, cheap crap for anyone that has never played football Madden = sim, real football for people that know how football should be played
that's what happens when you bring out the same game every year, i.e madden, EA's sports games suck, they need a new game engine cuz their sports games do not move fluid, their always stiff(2k is guilty of this 2 but they have a better product)
uh yeah this isn't a huge loss. In fact this is probably better for everyone involved. It will let EA keep working on their big sports games. FIFA and Madden, which do keep getting better every year.
NFL 2K5 suck, people need to let it go for real. Madden will be the true king of football games!
No big loss. I'm surprised they didn't bench Live too. It's virtually the same severely lacking game. I guess they could make too much money with the NBA license and will whore it out at least one more year before realizing every reason they "benched" NCAA is still present in Live.
These games blew anyways. The college games always do, and NBA live sucks too. We all scream for burrito supreme.
EA is finding that having a Monopoly on thing's is hard work. People are starting to realize that EA just slaps some paint on the previous years game and sells it for a full $60. EA needs to give up licenses to NFL and everything else. The 2K series are so much better. ESPN NFL 2K5 is still my all time favorite Football game. Madden has yet to catch up. Also 2K sports realized that people didn't want to shell out a fresh $60 every year for sports titles.
I am still playing 2K8 on my 360. I have rented the last couple of EA's college games and hated every last one of them. Their is no doubt in my mind that 2K is the king of basketball games and they should step back into the ring. Maybe the NCAA will drop their asking price for the rights to the franchise. Here's hoping
How about...instead of making a new game yearly, make one every other year, and just release updates in the form of DLC and such between the time frame?. More people would likely be willing to buy the game if they know it wont simply be replaced next year...just an opinion
Great EA. Run up the price of the license to get rid of 2K and then you stop. Way to kill of College Basketball games. Maybe if you actually made a good game and not recycle everything, you could have competed with 2K.
How can any EA sports titile be reviewed anyway? It's just the same game that was released the year before. Who cares.
2K was way better - I only bought it this year because I am a UK fan and Wall is "video game good" in real life
yeah, i agree. the only thing new about it is that they use the cbs sports score overlay. i bet second to none the cover athlete would have been john wall anyway, but who cares. we all know he is nba bound so it woulda been kinda lame and confusing to see him on the cover of ncaa 11, and he would have been in live too. only difference would have been his stats, so goodbye to a sucky franchise. heres hoping now that this is done, 2k, rolling in dough from bioshock 2 and all the other games they have, can pool some money in college hoops. now THAT was a true college basketball game
Honestly why can't they just put these college games into the main games? You could make career modes much more realistic and fun.
Not a big deal. I can play NCAA BB for a couple of years and be fine with that. I didn't see a huge difference between 2009 and 2010 anyways.
Celtic great Bill Russell sues NCAA and EA due to lack of compensation for unauthorized use of likeness in NCAA Basketball 09.
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