14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that the NBA season is finally ready to start, after a deal between the players and the owners of the team, comes as great news to the developer and publisher of NBA 2K12, a game that will probably get a solid boost in sales when the basketball games finally start to take place all over America.
The game was launched about two months ago and reviewers praised both the engine and the delivered content, which included match-ups between classic teams, but the high scores failed to convert into actual sales.
Strauss Zelnick, who is the Chief Executive Officer and the chairman of the board at Take Two, has stated at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference that, “We obviously were aware there was a significant risk to the season, so we tried to plan accordingly. So if you look at the cover art for example, it's a pretty big departure for us with three cover athletes.”
He added, “We tried to build excitement for the genre in hopes of saying to people, 'Look, even if there is no season or a delayed season, this is something you ought to have.”
Zelnick says that Take Two was aware of the lockout and the season delay but the publisher believes that the initial sluggish pace of sales will pick up significantly in late December and during January, when gamers have less big releases to enjoy.
The company also plans a big marketing push during this period, designed to show players that NBA 2K12 is the only basketball simulation on the market and the moment.
The 2K Sports game is still expected to be profitable in the long term and Take Two plans a new installment for late 2012.
EA Sports, which has a rival series, has again decided not to launch a NBA Elite title, focusing instead on the Jam series, which is more arcade oriented.