The 2K football games since the days when Sega was making them, have been the only competitor in the face of EA's dominance in the football games field.

This bothered EA so much that they went ahead and acquired exclusive rights to make the only NFL games in January 2005, after seeing how well NFL 2K5 did the holiday before.

NFL 2K5 numbers

PS2 version: 2 million in America + 40,000 in others = 2,040,000 total worldwide.
Xbox version: 1.39 million in America + 20,000 in others = 1,410,000 total worldwide.

Total 2K5 sales: 3,450,000.

Madden NFL 2005 numbers

PS2 version: 4.35 million in America + 100,000 in others = 4,450,000 total worldwide.
Xbox version: 1.42 million in America + 30,000 in others = 1,450,000 total worldwide.

Total Madden NFL 2005 sales: 5,900,000.

You see that 2K5 was a strong competitor to Madden for that year, in fact the Xbox version of 2K5 almost outsold Madden 05.

Where do we stand now? After about a 3 year absence, 2K Sports decided to move in a different direction with a football game to work around the problem of not having the NFL license. They resorted to Hall of Fame players and creating a new game under the banner of All-Pro Footbal 2K8.

We saw in the last two weeks that the game has not met expectations in its performance in the face of NCAA Football 08, the other EA football franchise that is not nearly as big as Madden is.

To make it fair, I will not include sales of NCAA 08 on the PS2 and Xbox.

1st week of sales for All Pro Football 2K8

Xbox 360 version: Around 54,200
PS3 version: Around 16,500
Total: Around 70,700

1st week of sales for NCAA 08

Xbox 360 version: Around 361,500
PS3 version: Around 66,000
Total: Around 427,5000

2nd week of sales for All Pro Football 2K8

Xbox 360 version: Around 22,500
PS3 version: Around 7,000
Total: Around 29,500

2nd week of sales for NCAA 08

Xbox 360 version: Around 106,200
PS3 version: Around 23,500
Total: Around 129,700

Cumulative sales for All Pro Football 2K8

Xbox 360 version: Around 76,700
PS3 version: Around 23,600
Total: Around 100,300

Cumulative sales for NCAA 08

Xbox 360 version: Around 468,000
PS3 version: Around 89,800
Total: Around 557,800

In the first reaction to the sales numbers of 2K8, Take-Two (parent company of 2K Sports) had this to say:

"We're not terribly pleased and not disappointed. We're watching closely and are going to react proactively when Madden comes out. We know we're in a competition with them."

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161716

So where does this rivalry go from here?

To make it clear, I am not a fan of football or football games, I am just interested in this issue specifically for how it effects the games industry. I'm against monopoly in principal which is why I am against EA being the only one able to make NFL games. The same way that NBA 2K games are actually better than the EA NBA Live franchise, and the Konami Winning Eleven games are better than EA's Fifa Franchise, the 2K Football series was usually considered better.

It seems that EA could not deal with having competition in this field and resorted to throwing money at the problem to fix it, will this practice later be applied to the Soccer(football) and Basketball games in the future?

Yes. EA has the brand power for the sports titles. I can surely see them throwing as much money as possible to try and create a monopoly on the other sports. More than likely, it will succeed.

You give people only one American Football, Football, Basketball, Baseball game, and they will buy it. Every year, they will upgrade. EA would make the money back very fast.

As far as game quality? It would surely suffer.

Just when the Sports genre was starting to open up, EA starts to monopolize it. To EA, only 3 different sports exist...

Shame, I was really hoping for professional Capture the Flag games.

The NBA has already said they won't sign an exclusive contract like that, back when the NFL and MLB were doing it.

^People say a lot of things. Show them a big enough check and they will change their minds.

Football-game heaven. Or hell. Either one.

Man I hate EA, ever since they had a hand in killing the dreamcast. I'm proud to say I have only purchased one EA game in the last 8 years. That game was Time Splitters: Future Perfect. The best console FPS since Perfect Dark, so I had to. And even that was only published by EA not developed by them. Oh, and I got Madden for Wii, but I got that as a gift.

And don't get me started on NHL games. I know the league isn't doing so well especially in the US, so I hope they don't sign an exclusive deal with EA. I love the 2K series and would hate to see it turn into something like All Pro Football.

How much did EA pay for the exclusive rights to NFL games? Wouldn't the league make more money from licenses from several different games?

 Thats pretty much how i see it going, theres no one that can fight Ea.

I dont think EA will try to buy many other franchises. EA is an American company, and wanted to get the #1 franchise out there - NFL Football, America's favorite sport. They knew their dominance could suffer if there was major competition for such a huge (5m+ titles a year) market.

The only other one I could see them buy would be NASCAR, as it's another American sport they might want to buy.

I hope 2kS decides to keep with APF2k8 and keep adding and adding. There needs to be competition, because the NCAA/NFL series has become so stagnant, it's not funny. I can go back and play the 05 version, and get nearly the same game minus roster updates....You should NEVER, EVER pay $60 or $50 for a roster update.