All-Pro Football 2K8 announced by Take-Two Interactive, 2K Sports

Four long years after Electronic Arts managed to gain the blessings of the NFL and began a monopoly on football-themed video games, it looks like the company may now finally have to watch out for some competition.

So, taking the cue from Midway Games (who previously decided that it didn’t need a contract with the NFL in order to make a video game about football), 2K Sports is now getting up from the sidelines and has just announced its latest title, All-Pro Football 2K8,scheduled to be released by this summer. The company though has not yet specified which console/s this game’s for, and its announcement merely says that it will be for “next generation video game systems”.

This re-entry by 2K Sports is a welcome news for fans of football video games, as this broadens the range of choices within the genre. However, there is the question of what sorts of players and teams this new title can offer, since the NFL players are already taken. It has been speculated that 2K sports can either create whole teams of fictional players, or work with popular players of previous years, though this latter choice would entail signing individual deals with the players the game company wishes to have on board.

Despite this looming issue, Greg Thomas, president of 2K Sports Studio Visual Concepts, is confident with the company’s new venture. “I think that we’ve come up with some very unique ideas on how to play a football game and I think that there’s room for both.”

Four long years after Electronic Arts managed to gain the blessings of the NFL and began a monopoly on football-themed video games, it looks like the company may now finally have to watch out for some competition.

So, taking the cue from Midway Games (who previously decided that it didn’t need a contract with the NFL in order to make a video game about football), 2K Sports is now getting up from the sidelines and has just announced its latest title, All-Pro Football 2K8,scheduled to be released by this summer. The company though has not yet specified which console/s this game’s for, and its announcement merely says that it will be for “next generation video game systems”.

This re-entry by 2K Sports is a welcome news for fans of football video games, as this broadens the range of choices within the genre. However, there is the question of what sorts of players and teams this new title can offer, since the NFL players are already taken. It has been speculated that 2K sports can either create whole teams of fictional players, or work with popular players of previous years, though this latter choice would entail signing individual deals with the players the game company wishes to have on board.

Despite this looming issue, Greg Thomas, president of 2K Sports Studio Visual Concepts, is confident with the company’s new venture. “I think that we’ve come up with some very unique ideas on how to play a football game and I think that there’s room for both.”