Licensed sports video games in the last decade have always been walking the line of trying to become more and more realistic, while keeping the gameplay as fresh and exciting as one see’s when watching the real thing on television or in person. In general the genre has been dominated by two publishers but as of late in the last few years has been strong armed by one in particular.
The debate of which publisher creates the better experience has been ongoing. EA has been making the brand almost as long as they were making the Madden series. Beginning in 1995 EA Sports started with NBA Live on the Nintendo SNES and Sega Genesis gaming consoles (yes it started in1989 on PC but this is about consoles). From there EA ruled with an iron fist from 1995 and each year after that put out the same game with better graphics until 1999. That year is when the consumer in the basketball genre was about to see a change in the way basketball was played and expected to look like in the future.
2K introduced their first take on the game of basketball with NBA 2K along with the Sega Dreamcast, who was also making a debut. With Philadelphia 76er Allen Iverson on the cover, 2K was more in tuned with the current generation of video game and basketball enthusiast alike. EA on the other hand chose to have San Antonio Spur Tim Duncan on the cover of their NBA Live 2000 cover. It doesn’t take a rocket science to see who was more impressionable on the youth playing; watching basketball or basketball based video games in general. 2k brought better graphics as well with the Dreamcast at the time.
From there 2K established itself as a competitor to EA Sports NBA Live series. Staying with Allen Iverson for the cover from 2000-04, EA had gone through 5 different players (Tim Duncan ’00, Kevin Garnett ’01**, Steve Francis ’02, Jason Kidd ’03, and Vince Carter ’04) and only because each year, each player had garnered praises for their performances and success on the court. While Allen Iverson was beloved by many outside of the court for his persona that was associated with the generation at that time, not to mention his on court game style that was new to the NBA period.
After NBA 2K4 though, Iverson’s on and off court success had peaked and they decided to get the next sensation at that time, the Detroit Pistons Ben Wallace. After coming off winning an NBA championship in ’04 and defensive player of the year, Ben Wallace was also known for his funky hairstyle and aggressive style of basketball. With the underdog Piston champions it made sense to put one their players on the cover. EA chose to put up and coming All-Star Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets, to grace the cover of NBA Live ’05. He lead the nuggets to the playoff’s and won all of the rookie of the month awards but it was overshadowed by Lebron James winning rookie of the year and the nugget being eliminated in the first round. And each year after is the same 2K(left) Vs EA(right): ‘06 (Shaq) Vs (D.Wade) (this is the only one where it would be a subtle draw because they were on the same team), ‘07(Shaq) Vs (T-Mac), ‘08(CP4) Vs (Agent 0), ‘09(KG**) Vs (T.Parker) and for 2010, 2K had Kobe Bryant (the first every on the cover after four championships) and EA went with Dwight Howard.
And while EA has yet to unveil their cover for 2011 and has changed the name from Live to Elite, none of it will matter one single bit because 2K has gotten Michael Jordan to grace the cover and make him a playable player legitimately for the first time in at least a decade if not more (and I don’t need to explain what games he was playable in back then, you don’t want to know). The underlining theme is simple, 2K has always gotten the better player to grace the cover of their video games. It does go some way in sales, aside from the game itself. Both introduced new methods and different modes from year to year to out due the other but by 2007, 2K had become the top basketball video game in sales versus its competitors.
With EA re-introducing a new system in 2010, many were turned off and at the same time for basketball enthusiast 2K had offered for a first amongst the two a collector’s edition that include a nearly 2 foot locker that held 20 games (too much for some but useful for others). 2K has the controls for its game down, while EA is still searching for theirs. It will be interesting to see what EA’s solution will be to combat back to back of covers of un-questionably the two great players to ever play the game of basketball.
The ball is in your court EA, check.
**’08-09 Kevin Garnett is better than’ 01 Kevin Garnett because ’08-09 won a championship despite winning MVP in ’00-’01.
