Draft Combine Holds Up 2K10 Demo

The Draft Combine having presented somewhat of a quasi-demo experience would appear to have an effect on when the actual demo for NBA 2K10 will be released. 2K has thus far been vague about when the demo will be appear only stating that it will not be out “for a while”. Hopefully they do in fact follow through and release a true demo. They gave the impression that one was coming for NHL 2K10 up until the day it was announced that they would not be putting one out.

Because the appeal and value of Draft Combine practically disappears once 2K10 is released, they obviously want to squeeze all they can out of it. That is a revenue stream which can help offset what may be stale sales to come due to the current economic conditions…something that has been seen with many other recent titles. Downloadable content has proven to be a resource that these companies are now relying on.

NBA Live 10 already has the demo available, has shown off numerous gameplay videos, and has released videos displaying various improvements along with detailed blogs. Meanwhile 2K has yet to show a lick of gameplay footage.

Is that something to be concerned about? Probably not in the case of NBA 2K10. There are a few sports games that could get by not showing much pre-release. Series such as EA’s FIFA and NHL along with NBA 2K have built up enough trust over the past few years that consumer confidence is high and much of the sales will be made based on the name and expectations.

Despite that they do need to release a demo to counteract the one that is out for Live. The Draft Combine was not sufficient for judging what 2K10 will offer. Given the circumstances it would seem the most likely time for a 2K10 demo to arrive would be October 1st, the Thursday prior to the game’s release.