Gone are the days of multiple developers, all with official sports licensing, vying for your hard-earned dollar. The new trend in sports gaming revolves around multi-year league- and player-exclusivity rights. Those without said exclusive contracts? Well, that’s where a developer has to get creative—the Blitz franchise being a good example.
Luckily for 2K Sports, both the NHL and NBA like competition. You’ll find games for both sports, brought to you by Electronic Arts and 2K; and if the battle is anything like in year’s past, gamers will draw a very deep line in the sand when it comes to brand loyalty.
The NBA 2K series is often considered the darling of the video-game B-ball world. NHL 2K? Well, it used to hold the title of the go-to hockey game, but some developmental changes and a serious effort on the competition’s part have made EA’s NHL franchise the big gun in the HD era.
2K Sports is looking to regain its spot at the top of the video-hockey world, and with another year under its belt, developer Visual Concepts is in a better position to make 2K’s goals a reality. We recently talked with Visual Concepts dev-team member Ben Bishop about what the crew is doing to ensure that 2K10 is playoff-bound for the upcoming season:
