FirstCuts: 2K Getting Out of College Hoops Gaming

By Chris Littmann
Sports don’t start and end with a referee’s whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from the games to the gear.
File this under things that only exacerbate the fact that it’s Monday: 2K Sports’ college hoops franchise is dead in the water. The series’ next title was due for a release in November 2008, but College Hoops 2K9 will never see the light of day. Here’s the company line we received on the matter.
[quote="Take-Two"]2K Sports has decided not to continue negotiations with the CLC for the license for its top-rated College Hoops franchise, which would have been released next in November 2008. We are committed to providing fans with high-quality, critically-acclaimed sports games, but given our disciplined approach to the business, we do not believe the current discussions would result in an acceptable outcome.[/quote]
Yeah, this about sums up how I feel at the moment.
Although no confirmation is coming from Take-Two, it seems reasonable to guess that EA has scored yet another exclusive licensing deal. Many will remember that in December of 2004, EA struck a deal to be the only company that would produce an officially licensed NFL title. Madden still is wildly popular, but the deal came on the heels of a lower-priced and superior-performing NFL 2K5 title that shook up the market. The result was a significant number of customers left to begrudgingly buy Madden in the years to come. And by a significant number of customers, I mean me. My feelings matter.
As I said in a previous review, I felt like March Madness ‘08 took some steps in the right direction, but overall felt like I’d been beaten over the head with the post play (We get it, new low post moves, but let me decide what kind of offense I’d like to play).
I’d feel worse if EA hadn’t shown some signs of life this season, but overall it never feels like a good thing when the competition is eliminated in these instances. Game companies know they’ll always know a certain number of copies to the sports junkies who feel the need to have, at the least, updated rosters. Sure, we’ll all complain if progress isn’t made, but that hasn’t stopped games from moving off the shelves.↵