ESPN NFL 2K (originally NFL 2K) was an American football video game series developed by Visual Concepts and jointly published by Sega and ESPN.

History

The NFL 2K series was introduced by Sega for its Dreamcast to address EA Sports's decision not to publish the Madden NFL series on the Dreamcast. The first two installments (NFL 2K and NFL 2K1) were exclusive to the Dreamcast, but with the demise of the Dreamcast, the NFL 2K series was repositioned as the main multiplatform rival to the Madden NFL series. Both series were released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. With the cancellation of the NFL GameDay (989 Sports) and NFL Fever (Microsoft Game Studios) series in 2003, NFL 2K (then ESPN NFL Football) truly became Madden NFL's primary competition.

In 2004, Sega signed a deal with Take-Two Interactive in which Global Star (Take-Two's low-price unit) distributed and co-published all titles in Sega's ESPN franchise. As a result, ESPN NFL 2K5 was priced at $19.99 the day it shipped (versus the typical new-release price of $49.99). This earned it a wide audience among more casual football fans on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was also the first time that the ESPN NFL series managed to grab a significant chunk of market share over the competitor, the Madden NFL series.

However, in December 2004, EA signed an exclusive agreement with the NFL, making Madden NFL the only series allowed to use NFL team and player names. EA also signed an agreement with ESPN to become the only licensee of ESPN's brand in sports games on all platforms. This was an immense blow to Sega's franchise in their MLB, NBA, and NHL series.

Although the NFL 2K series is no longer made, fans of the game can download unofficial rosters made by other players by using an Action Replay device.

2K Sports currently has a spiritual successor to the ESPN NFL 2K series, in the form of All-Pro Football 2K8 which features former NFL players such as Joe Montana, Barry Sanders, John Elway, and Jerry Rice.

The commentary is done by Dan Stevens (Terry McGovern) and Peter O'Keefe (Jay Styne). The fictional Michelle Westphal (Marcia Perry) provided occasional sideline reports from NFL 2K until NFL 2K3. ESPN NFL Football and ESPN NFL 2K5, however, featured sideline reporting from ESPN's Suzy Kolber.

Soundtracks

ESPN's intros are used for most of the earlier games in the series as menu music but that changed with the introduction of ESPN NFL 2K5. The Soundtrack featured Superstar by Aceyalone, "Drumbox", "Outrun", and "OST Remix" from ...Or Stay Tuned by People Under The Stairs. Another soundtrack that comes with the game are the "bloopers" by the announcers which are really intentional. The player was given an option to choose whether to use ESPN intro music or the custom soundtrack.

Installments

Title	Release date	Console(s)	Cover athlete
NFL 2K	September 9, 1999	Dreamcast	Randy Moss
NFL 2K1	September 7, 2000	Dreamcast	Randy Moss
NFL 2K2	September 19, 2001	Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox	Randy Moss
NFL 2K3	August 20, 2002	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox	Brian Urlacher
ESPN NFL Football	September 2, 2003	PlayStation 2, Xbox	Warren Sapp
ESPN NFL 2K5	July 20, 2004	PlayStation 2, Xbox	Terrell Owens

Other installments

• ESPN NFL Primetime 2K2 featuring Edgerrin James on its cover was the last of a long running videogame football series created by Konami. This was the last installment of Primetime football before 2K Sports secured the rights to use the ESPN brandname.
• All-Pro Football 2K8, released July 17th, 2007, is a game that is the revival of the series and uses NFL Legends and fictional teams, some of which are named after defunct football franchises from the AFL, WFL, and United States Football League.

Trivia

• NFL 2K1, released on the Dreamcast in September 2000, was one of the first games to implement online console gaming through the use of SegaNet.
• NFL 2K1 was ranked #197 in "The 200 Greatest Games of Their Time," available in the 200th edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly.
• NFL 2K1 maintains an average score of 94.8% on Gamerankings.com placing it at 17th all time.* Due to the acquisition of the ESPN license, the 2K was removed from the game name in 2003. The words Sega 2K4 were featured on the packaging to inform people that this was the same series as Sega's NFL 2K series. The 2K was again added to the game title for the release of ESPN NFL 2K5.
• Due to EA's exclusive NFL license, ESPN NFL 2K5 was the last edition of the ESPN NFL Football series.
• Not only did ESPN NFL Football gain more marketshare in 2004, but it was also the best-reviewed football game of 2004.
• If a player creates a player and gives him the name "Bill Clinton" or "George Bush" the names will be said by the commentators during game play in ESPN NFL 2K4 and 2K5 games.
• In ESPN NFL 2K5, before playing a game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, the announcers might mention that they are at the intersection of Holmgren Way and Brett Favre Pass. This intersection does exist, but it is about a block away from Lambeau Field.
• In ESPN NFL 2K5 the feature "The Crib" offers a feature called the "celebrity phone", which allows the player to play "celebrities" such as Funkmaster Flex, Steve-O, Jamie Kennedy, David Arquette, and Carmen Electra in a "Play Now" Game.
• In ESPN NFL 2K5 there is a feature that tells about the sport of football and the terminology of the game.
• In 2K5 the game featured ESPN's 25th Anniversary of the top 25 NFL moments of NFL lore, from the Ice Bowl to 4th and 26.
• In the back of the ESPN NFL 2K5 instruction booklet, there is the 2004 Sunday Night Football Schedule.
• In ESPN NFL 2K5 ex-Green Bay Packers Antonio Freeman and Gilbert Brown are on the free agents list.
• In all games Ed Reed has been referred to as Edward Reed.
• NFL 2K and 2K1 for the Dreamcast became Sega All Stars titles. Due to the console's short lifespan in North America, few other Dreamcast games became Sega All Stars.

External links

• Official 2K Sports website
• NFL 2K series at MobyGames