All-Pro Football 2K8 sales fall flat

After two weeks, All-Pro Football 2K8 has sold 76,737 copies on the Xbox 360 and 23,618 on the PS3. The drop from week one to two was 59% and it isn't expected to have legs with Madden releasing soon. At a Take Two conference call on Tuesday, they commented on the sales of the game. 

Via Kotaku: "We're not terribly pleased and not disappointed. We're watching closely and are going to act pro-actively when Madden comes out. We know we're in competition with them"

I'm not sure why all of the sudden they state they're in competition with Madden. As far as I can recall that is the first time they've said that. Certainly its about to get wiped out completely by Madden, so I suppose the idea would be to appear more attractive alongside it. The line from 2K had always been that they were shooting to be a complimentary title to Madden. It sounds like their way of doing that is to lower the price after being on the market for only a month.

This is about what I expected the game to do. I had felt it would probably end up selling 200,000 copies when all was said and done. It looks like that is where it will ultimately end up. I suspect Take Two had similar expectations although they certainly were hoping for a better performance. A non-licensed title, released on the same day as NCAA Football and only a month before Madden, produced only for the 360 and PS3, released to mediocre reviews, and sold for $60. Realistically there wasn't much chance for it to do significantly better.

Take Two/2K has stated that they looked at this as a potential bi-yearly franchise if the sales of 2K8 justified such. The fate of a 2K10 would rest on how well 2K8 performs. With the current state of the company, it seems more likely than not that this will be the end of the 2K football franchise. There is always the possibility that they produce a football game in a different way, such as the High School idea they tossed around. However the Legends concept is probably finished. While those legends helped sell the game more than if it had been completely generic, it just cost too much to sign all of them individually.

It is unlikely that we'll hear anything definitive regarding the fate of 2K football for a long time. Fans of the franchise will be left to wonder and hope. It may become very reminiscient of the couple years following the loss of the NFL license where 2K made no public statements one way or the other.