Ben-DutkaEA may have the football market cornered (at least for now), but there will continue to be competition for basketball superiority.
Today, the National Basketball Association has announced "new multiyear agreements with Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and Electronic Arts, Inc." This deal extends the league's long-running relationship with each company, so you'll see more NBA-related titles from both 2K Games and EA Sports. This agreement means we'll receive both arcade-based and simulation b-ball games from both publishers over the next few years. Said Sal LaRocca, Executive Vice President of NBA Global Merchandising:
"We have had successful and longstanding relationships with both 2K Sports and EA SPORTS. Extending our agreements with the top sports video game developers continues to maximize our presence in this category, while ensuring our fans the best selection of NBA video games."
With Take-Two and EA having the rights to use NBA teams and players in their products, fans will continue to have multiple options in any given year. Recently, 2K has owned this genre, thanks to the stellar NBA 2K11 and the cancellation of EA's NBA Elite 11 (the spiritual successor to NBA Live ).
But with both companies maintaining the license rights, it'll be interesting to see how things progress.
Hmmm… competition in making games about a major league sport? My, my, whatever next?
Perhaps, the NFL lockout will provide some kind of opportunity for another game maker (not EA) to gain some kind of foothold in football? I don't know the terms of EA's agreement with them, but a lockout year with no football does seem like an opportune time for other developers to approach the NFL with the suggestion of allowing other developers access to the NFL property.
The NFL needs to follow suit.