Analysts: Lockout Might Impact NBA 2K12 Sales

The lockout that has affected the pre-season of the National Football League has been solved, meaning that the first games will go ahead as planned and that sales of the Madden NFL 12 from EA Sports will likely see no negative impact.

Unfortunately the lockout that is affecting the National Basketball Association has proven harder to solve and now analysts believe that NBA 2K12, the game from 2K Sports, will have a worse than expected launch because of it.

Arvind Bhatia, who is an analyst working with Sterne Agee, has said, “Lockouts, historically speaking, have negatively impacted interactive entertainment products for the underlying sport.”

He believes that NBA 2K12 will sell about 4.5 million units during its lifetime, which is about one million less than the game would if the season would go ahead as planned.

Janco Partners has issued an even lower estimate of just 3.2 million units, a figures that has been revised from an initial 4.5 million.

Despite the lockout Take Two has said that it will not be lowering its estimates for the game with Strauss Zelnick, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, saying, “Given how lifelike our games are, we think it's possible we can fill a need in the case of the lockout and offer consumers an opportunity to participate in basketball.”

EA Sports said that Madden NFL 12 would have taken a hit of 90 million dollars if the lockout had happened.

NBA 2K12 is set to once again push the nostalgia angle when it comes to selling basketball simulation, allowing gamers to create legendary match-ups between the most important athletes of the league, from Michael Jordan and Larry Bird to LeBron James.

This focus on the past might help shield NBA 2K12 from the lockout somewhat.

NBA 2K12 is set to be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PC, the Nintendo Wii, the PS2 and the PSP on October 4.