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ESPN/Take-Two Budget Move Not Necessarily Cheap
by Phil Logrippo
The latest buzz around sports gamers on the internet this week is a rumored agreement between Sega and Take-Two in which the two companies would co-publish and distribute Sega’s ESPN sports titles. Those rumors, though, have in fact turned to reality as the partnership was officially announced on Tuesday. The agreement, designed to increase visibility of Sega’s ESPN sports games to sell more copies, was thought to involve a decrease in the price for of the games. Not a soul would believe the prices would drop this low, however; as online retailers such as EBGames and Gamestop are currently taking preorders for ESPN NFL 2005, set to ship in late August, for just $19.99. What remains unknown is whether or not these $19.99 rumors are true. First of all, how could magnificent-looking games like ESPN NFL 2005 be nearly given away to gamers? Secondly, will this dicey strategy even work?
Undoubtedly, the $19.95 price tag is a risk. Casual gamers will see the box on the shelf with the price tag and not see the game for what it is: a spectacular (or so it seems) football game bringing hordes of new features to the table and, consequently, big competition for EA Sports’ Madden. It may be regarded as just another budget sports title, just another “NBA Jam,” just another game maybe worth an occasional peek in the bargain bin.
This is a risk that could turn out as a brilliant move by Sega. Players glued to the almighty Madden series just might be attracted to ESPN NFL, if for no other reason than the budget price. If this $19.99 idea works its way over to ESPN NBA and ESPN NHL, Sega could be welcoming hundreds of thousands of new gamers to its series this year, which in turn could mean the same new gamers purchasing the 2006 and 2007 ESPN sports games. Of course, Sega must live up to the hype. Failure to do so would completely demolish this plan for the future. As far fetched as it sounds, Sega may finally outperform EA Sports as far as sales go, but the quality of the final product is equally as important, meaning the developers have no choice but to continue pouring countless hours into the development of these games. Whether the $19.99 price tag applies to just ESPN NFL or all ESPN games, the whole crew over at Visual Concepts and Sega must, now with Take-Two’s facilitation, prove that the new budget games are far from cheap. If everything goes as planned and they manage to do just that, sports fanatics could be flocking to the stores to grab their copy of ESPN’s 2005 sports games as they are released in the coming months. Forget how many people have preordered Halo 2. This, in time, could become bigger.
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