NCAA Basketball R.I.P.
I wrote this back on December 2 of last year:This isn't being widely discussed at this point, but I think the writing is on the wall for NCAA Basketball...
Today, EA announced their quarterly earnings (poor) and laid out their release schedule for 2011. Not included: NCAA Basketball. In other words, it's not officially cancelled, but it's officially cancelled.
I'd like to claim some sort of of +5 Prophecy here, but it was dead obvious this was going to happen.
What's such a shame here is that, properly developed, the college world is a much more compelling gameplay opportunity than the pros. There were a few years when NCAA Football, in particular, handled recruiting in a compelling, fun, way--an excellent balance between complex and accessible.
Recruiting is potentially more fun than a draft, and there's nothing better than taking Obscure State University from being a 1* school to playing in the mythical National Championship (I guess that would be the Mythical Virtual National Championship) in football, or winning the virtual NCAA tournament in basketball. Plus, the NCAA Tournament is so much more fun than grinding through best-of-seven NBA playoff series. Having said all that, though, the College Hoops 2K series was quite good and didn't sell well enought to survive, either.
So, incredibly, it appears there will be zero graphics-based college basketball titles this year.
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