Let Us Rejoice: NFL2K Is Making Its Return
By Liam McKeone
EA Sports has held a monopoly on NFL video games for about 15 years now. That monopoly is now over (more or less) as the league announced they've signed a multi-year partnership with the video game studio 2K, makers of the popular NBA2K games.
"Under the agreement, 2K will create non-simulation football game experiences. Jason Argent, Senior Vice President of Sports Strategy and Licensing at 2K, describes it as "a deep, fun and very authentic product offering. They're not (a) very traditional simulation product". "
2K hasn't produced an NFL game since the wildly-popular NFL2K5. Fans have been calling for a new iteration of NFL2K for quite some time. While it doesn't sound like this will be a pure redux (a non-traditional simulation means it will be closer to an arcade football game than the most recent Madden installment), it will be something new. And that is fantastic news for video game fans.
EA Sports hasn't felt the need to change Madden in any substantial way in 10 years. The graphics get better and the tackling mechanics grow all the more realistic, but there hasn't been a fundamental change to the game in a long time thanks to lack of competition. In their statement to ESPN, the NFL made it very clear that they weren't doing this to create said competition, but simply the presence of another football game on the market should get the creative wheels spinning over at EA to help ensure fans keep buying their games.