ESPN2K5: So Good That EA Had It Snuffed Out Forever
Each year, gamers who want to simulate the latest NFL season are given the same static choice. They can either play the most recent iteration of Madden, or they can go to the fringes and find a Tecmo Super Bowl hack with the current rosters. That’s kind of it.
Did you know there used to be a better way? That Madden used to have to compete with something, anything, in order to sell copies? Before EA murdered its competition?
Not long ago, there were a myriad of games representing each of the major team sports released every year. On the Nintendo 64 alone there were Madden, NFL Quarterback Club, and NFL Blitz, while basketball was (poorly) represented by NBA Hangtime, NBA Courtside, NBA Jam, NBA Live, and NBA In the Zone.
Now we get a 2K basketball game and a Madden football game every year and that’s that. What happened?
The poetic truth is that nothing good can last, certainly not when corporations and profit margins are involved. The literal and obvious truth is that EA are fuckers1. Plain and simple.
While Madden is synonymous with football games today, there wasn’t necessarily a clear cut winner back in the earlier eras of console gaming. Tecmo was king for a minute, and then the aforementioned group of NFL games (plus NCAA) jockeyed for position for years. There was plenty to go around.
Eventually, and who could have seen this coming, the games got good. Really good. Specifically the 2K series, which hit the scene in 1999 with basketball and football iterations (NBA2K and NFL2K) that amassed very favorable reviews. In fact, NFL2K1 has the 14th highest all-time ranking on Metacritic, ahead of Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Not content with merely releasing some of the most highly regarded games of their era, ESPN did something crazy in 2005 and released ESPN2K5 on the PlayStation 2 and XBox for 20 bucks a pop. I remember leaving Meijer2 feeling like I’d just stolen a copy of Bonestorm, but I hadn’t. I’d bought the best sports game ever made for roughly the cost of 500,000 coins in Madden Ultimate Team mode these days3.
Whoa, Mark. ‘Best sports game ever’?
Yeah, fuck it. There are a few other contenders I’d entertain here — FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, Tecmo Super Bowl, something from the Tony Hawk series, if we’re counting those — but this game absolutely stacks up with them all. Nevermind that it was 20 bucks. It could’ve sold for 60 easy, and it just didn’t. I’m not here to go to bat for capitalism, but at least when two giant corporations are allowed to compete, once in a while something good comes out of it, like a damn good game at a bargain price.
2K’s move worked, and in addition to great reviews, 2K5 did huge numbers. This dodgy list that loads weird and may not be accurate tells me it was the 23rd-highest selling game of its generation, trailing only Madden 2004 and NBA Street on the list, as far as traditional sports games go.
The move was probably too bold. EA responded by selling the following year’s Madden game at $30. Following that, they got the NFL to sign over exclusive rights, making them the only game in town with full rosters. Within four short years, we went from having five separate licensed NFL games to just one.
Ultimately, the competition to make the video game adaptation of the most popular sport in the country shook out in the most American way possible — by a backroom deal between two corporations acting in their own best interests. If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.
Madden has the whole thing now, so you’re stuck with two things: paying whatever retail price they say, and playing whatever modes they’re emphasizing. This means prioritizing the money-sucking bullshit elements when tons of players just want a focused effort on franchise mode — which was a series staple decades before anyone knew what a microtransaction was. If that doesn’t sit well with you, you don’t have very many alternative options4.
There was a time when 20 dollars would get you the best sports game of the year — complete with season, franchise, online, classic scenarios, and a damn house (I’m sorry, your Crib™) to decorate with posters and NFL knickknacks you buy using points earned in-game for making good plays and winning. It’s not some stupid extra type of currency you have to buy, it’s all just in the game already.
As if there wasn’t enough to do in 2K5, once you’ve decorated your Crib with as many Chris Berman posters as you see fit, you start receiving phone calls from celebrities! They want to be your friend and play NFL2K5 against you. Online play, schm-online play — I’m hanging out with Jamie Kennedy over here!5
I love the absurdity of the Crib, but you can just play football if you don’t want to take Steve-O’s calls. It’s a big, robust game. Similarly, Madden was putting unlockable cards in its game by 2004. It’s all just full and fun and emblematic of companies trying to compete with each other by giving players the most value. That was probably a good thing to have. Now, after leaving basketball alone for a few years, NBA2K is basically a mall simulator — a shakedown disguised as a basketball game. Admittedly, it’s pretty good. But without direct competition, these games tend to focus on “innovations” that keep players spending, above all else.
The general state of sports video games in 2024 is a direct result of the big backward step that companies did at a time when they should’ve been striding forward. The games have never been capable of more or looked better, yet you only get to play one from each sport.
Who wins here? Not the gamers, who have been left behind like the half dozen Chris Berman posters that adorn the walls of my long-abandoned 2K house.
And certainly not Carmen Electra, who keeps calling me at the Crib. I don’t have the heart to tell her the truth about what corporations and shareholders did to our beloved medium.
Guess what? The first ever Skitching the Elephant shirt is now available right here!
Who have twice been given the “Worst Company There Is” award
A chain of stores in the Midwest. It’s pronounced “meyer,” or if you’re a native, “meyers.”
I think? I tried to read about this shit and it just made me sad.
If you aren’t that into accurate rosters and the most realistic graphics possible, the Retro Bowl and Super Mega Baseball series are essential and some of the most fun games I’ve played in years.
The slate of celebrities is easy to mock today, but it is an absolutely star-studded cast, in a 2005-MTV2-Spring-Break-coverage kind of way. The full roster is Steve-O, David Arquette, Funkmaster Flex, Carmen Electra, and Kennedy.