Earlier there was a thread about how Visual Concepts' ESPN NFL 2K5 is priced at $20 new as opposed to the usual $50. Further, by all appearances, ESPN's other major sports games, ESPN NBA 2K5 and ESPN NHL 2K5, appear to be priced the same way. Now, I'm a big sports game fan. I take it as a given that I'll be forking up $50 for a new NBA, NFL, and NHL game every year. What can I say? I love sports, and I love video games. Previously, I have always bought EA's Madden games, EA's NHL games, and Visual Concepts' NBA 2K games (I stopped buying NBA Live as soon as I played the first NBA 2K on the Dreamcast, which seemed to be worlds ahead of Live... but feel free to disagree). This year, however, I'm doing things differently. I've already bought a copy of ESPN NFL 2K5, a series that I had previously tried only once as a rental. Further, I plan to buy the new ESPN NHL 2K5, a sports game franchise I've never even touched before. In other words: for me, Visual Concepts' bold move is working. I find that $20 seems little enough that I can buy a game and give it more serious thought. Among all you other video game players... is this changing any of your plans? Also... Will the prices stay like this? Will EA's go lower in response? Or will the ESPN games have their prices back at $49.99 come next year?
Always bought both football franchises and VC's NBA game. I expect VC to up the price again in the next console generation.
yes, the $20 for ESPN NBA, MLB, and NHL have been confirmed. i have to say it's bold. 20 bucks for a new game put it in the price range of everyone. some madden fans will even buy a copy of 2k5 just because it's so cheap. i wonder what their profit margins are though. DaDakota... insights?
I love ESPN 2k5 its great! I opted not to buy the ESPN game last year and instead I got Madden and while it was great it felt exactly the same as the older Maddens, nothing new to really rave about. Last years NBA 2k4 was good but after I played NBA Live 2004, NBA 2k4 just didn't feel right I remember back when I had a Dreamcast, EA didn't make Madden or NBA Live for it so I HAD to try something else and VC's games were incredible and IMO better than Madden and Live at the time. After Sega decided to make software only they moved the games to other consoles and even then (Madden 2002 and NFL 2k2) the VC games IMO were still superior but were ALWAYS outsold by the EA Sports titles, I think this is a great move by Sega and I hope people will actually try the games out
Back in 2002, I think, I tried the 2k series since I felt Live really wasn't that great anymore. I really liked NBA 2k2 so I also tried NFL 2k2, which I liked a bit better than Madden, although it was close, IMO. So, basically this price drop is a BIG plus for me, although even if they sold a package of ESPN's NHL, EA's NHL, and any other hockey game at the time for the price of $20, I probably still wouldn't buy it. Too bad I don't like hockey though, it would be another great game at a great price I assume. It would be nice if EA tried to compete in price as well. An interesting thing that occurred the the other day is EA's buying Criterion, which makes a pretty good middleware called Renderware, which made GTA 3 IIRC as well as NBA Ballers and, ironically, ESPN Baseball. I wonder if they will use it for their sports titles or just stick with creating their own engines. Even if they don't, they'll probably get a lot of money from it, supplying the company with more money to improve their games.
ESPN games are better. I've been going with the 2K series since the first title came out 5 or so years ago with NFL2K. The ESPN license makes them that much better.
