Take-Two: NBA 2K14 is Outselling NBA 2K13; Doing a Straight Next-Gen Port Puts You “More at Risk”

When it comes to basketball games on consoles this year, we have NBA 2K14 from 2K Games for the PS3/Xbox 360 and PS4/Xbox One, which received a very high review from us, and NBA Live 14 from EA for the PS4/Xbox One, which received a 5/10 and is being improved by the developers.

While EA hasn’t given an update on the sales side of things for NBA Live 14, Take-Two President Karl Slatoff explained during the BMO Capital Markets Technology & Digital Media Conference Call (via Seeking Alpha) that they’re “very pleased” with how well NBA 2K14 is doing on PS4 and Xbox One. “Our scores are incredibly high, particularly for a new generation release in this sports game – we’ve done very well,” Slatoff said. “We’ve done much better in the competition in that regard. And that’s a positive thing.”

Karl then explained how NBA 2K14 is doing better in the sales department than NBA 2K13:

[…] If you look at the current generation and the next-generation [of NBA 2K14] together, we’ve actually sold in more units combined than we did last year on just the current generation.

So you hear a lot in the industry right now about the problems that developers are having in the transition period and the risk that are associated with transition, which are all very true. But in our specific situations, we only have one game right now for next-gen. We’re not seeing that.

[…] The PS3 and the 360 version and the PS4 and the Xbox One version are actually different games and with different development cycles behind them. So as a combined unit, we’re actually seeing an increase over last year in terms of selling at this point. So we’re not seeing… that pain in transition.

Sticking with that idea of how the PS3/360 and PS4/Xbox One versions differ, Slatoff added, “If you just put a hot product out that’s a stray port – you don’t do anything with it – then obviously you’re going to put yourself more at risk. You still may make money, but you’re not going to do as well as you otherwise would have if you add content to it or do something that’s a little bit different.”

Did you pick up NBA 2K14? For which system? Let us know in the comments below.

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