In that image you can see the four different designs survey takers were asked to consider. All have the 2K Sports 10th Anniversary branding which has graced the boxes of NHL 2K10 and NBA 2K10. This tipster sent us other screenshots – including one of the NDA (which of course the tipster broke by sending this) so I’m inclined to believe this is real.

It is not, however, confirmation of the official cover athlete or the box’s final design. However, asking survey takers how the box cover makes them feel about purchasing the game is a strong indication 2K Sports has settled on its man.

Longoria is a two-time all star in as many seasons in the league and was the 2008 rookie of the year on a Devil Rays team that won the American League pennant. He just picked up his first Gold Glove.

That would be ESPN NFL 2K5, the last and best of an uncommonly good crop of football games in the first half of the decade and, perhaps not coincidentally, the last one before EA Sports inked its exclusive licence with the National Football League. Certainly, the stupefyingly good value 2K5 delivered on an unheard of $US19.99 price tag moved the needle on its high regard. But reviews of the game still said things like “the best-looking football game ever made” and “the most entertaining show in video game football”.

This coming week will see the last glut of AAA releases in this season’s sales cycle, and then it will be on to the question of Game of the Year. Sports titles are like the offensive lineman in modern Heisman voting. Just being mentioned would be honour enough, because the prize is completely inaccessible to your class of performer.

Maybe 2K5 did the best of any sports game, judged among others, in its year. It’s impossible to say definitively. I dialled up Brandon Justice, a producer on the 2K5 team to ask him where that game fit in the larger context of 2004’s top titles. Five years later, you can still hear the pride when he quotes the game’s feature set, as if he was back on the team going head-to-head with the Madden franchise.

“People are out there today talking about whether Madden 10 is overall a better product (than 2K5),” said Justice, who later worked on Madden and now is the director of design for Quick Hit Football (profiled September 19). “Five years later. They’re just now doing features that 2K5 did first — and not doing them as well. They now have online franchises; we had that mode. We had SportsCenter presentation with a highlight reel; they’re just now doing that kind of thing.”

But the feature-packed game wasn’t put out there to take home a statue, Justice said. It’s not to say that is the sole motivation of any past game of the year, but such artistic recognition is at least in the mix for your typical AAA adventure. Not so with sports titles, which seek a more product-oriented recognition, Justice said.

“Ironically enough, trophies matter little to the sports crowd,” he said. It’s very much focused on sales and beating direct competition where it exists. “Our main mission in 2K was to beat Madden’s score. Whether it wins sports game of the year or not, Madden’s still going to sell millions of units every year. More than anything else we just wanted to make a good sports game. And having worked on the Madden team as well, those guys have the same spirit. You want to crush the competition, and make the best product out there.”

In 2004, NFL 2K5 couldn’t afford to think about taking on Half-Life 2, Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That year’s Madden also went out to wide acclaim; just beating it would take best-in-class effort.

But it’s also a little pointless, Justice said, for a sports game to shoot for anything outside best-in-class accolades. A former games writer himself, Justice said the criticism operations of major opinion leaders just aren’t set up to give sports titles the same exposure as shooters, RPGs and other traditional genres.

“Every magazine I’ve worked for, they have a sports guy,” he said. And, working for IGN, he remembers plenty of sports copy being handed off to freelancers. “Everybody plays Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Gears of War, but you really have to find someone who’s into baseball games, and then he always reviews it.” Inevitably, when that outfit polls its staff for game of the year, few voices speak up for a sports game because few have played them.

“You’ve got one or two voices voting for a sports game,” Justice said. “A lot of time it’s a question of volume.”

Could a sports title ever win Game of the Year? My gut feeling says the opportunity has passed. Criticism of video games is increasingly considerate of a game’s narrative, and a sports simulation fundamentally has none. And sports deal with creative limitations specific to existing rules of a game, plus the veto authority of a licensor who may not buy into daring creativity.

David Littman, a producer on EA Sports’ NHL title — taking 19 different sports game of the year awards in 2007 and 2008 — points out another basic limitation of sports games. “These big action games have huge worlds to explore, while sports games take place mainly inside a confined stadium,” he told me.

Plus, he said wryly, “Sports games don’t have guns. People seem to like guns.”

True. Shooters also don’t have to outdo themselves every year, lest they be branded as just a prettied-up roster update. The innovations in a sports game, year-to-year, may seem small, but comparing versions three years apart, the way one would Halo 3 to Halo 2, or Grand Theft Auto IV to San Andreas, and maybe a sports title’s advancement would look more profound.

“NHL 10 and FIFA 10 are two of the highest-rated sports games ever on this console generation, but FIFA 09 and NHL 09 were also among the highest scores,” he said.

Littman’s right. This year FIFA 10 and MLB 09 The Show became the first sports titles in the current console generation to post a Metacritic score of 90 or better. (NHL 09 and 10 both got 88.) From 2000 to 2004, every single Madden and 2K football title on every console got at least a 90.

But it’s not to say that we’ll never see a truly revolutionary sports game again, or that when it does come, its excellence will go unrecognised. There’s no way NFL 2K5 could have won Game of the Year five years ago. But it still enjoys a fame that’s outlived those that did.

“Do you really think, five years from now, you’re gonna hear ‘Is Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 4 as good as Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 3? Will Halo 6 people really say, ‘Is this as good as Halo 1?’” Justice muses. “I don’t think so.”

Stick Jockey is Kotaku’s column on sports video games. It appears on Saturdays.

Earlier this week, Pasta Padre found a forum post – since taken down – in which a 2K Sports representative questioned whether NBA Live 10’s massive patch that went out this week deserves the praise it’s getting for using community feedback. He more or less called B.S., and said there was no way devs could have rolled out something based on community feedback and pass certification that fast, unless they were working on it prior to release. Which would imply EA Sports knew it was sending out substandard code. (Pasta Padre points out that the NBA Live 10 demo went out early, and so community feedback on the game could predate its full release.)

EA Sports has responded with an NBA Live 10 blog that features, among other things, 20 screenshots of NBA 2K10 being sold on Craigslist, all with some reference to NBA Live 10 being the better game. Other testimonials from fan email include direct shots at the competition, including this gem: “I can’t stop playing this game i am hooked, good bye 2k garbage.”

If Metacritic is a judge of things, the games are neck and neck – 2K10’s 83 to Live’s 80 – for the first time in years. And it’s the first time Live has seriously challenged 2K in quality on the current generation of console. The fact this comes during NBA 2K’s gala 10th anniversary year is probably frustrating to them. But he who makes the first game without framerate drop or patchable bug, throw the first stone.

While both sides might want to cool it, and focus on their own game, both of which have issues to be patched, they seem to be taking this very personally. Next year, I’m sure both shops will remember what those corksuckin’ icehole bastiges on the other side said and did, and it’ll be an all-out battle for the crown. That’s good old-fashioned competition. Just so long as no one gets run over by the Schlitz malt liquor bull.

EA Strikes Back With New Blog [Pasta Padre]

Pasta Padre, on the ball as ever, speculates “no.” Even though we’re about four months away from the game’s typical release date, “from a public relations standpoint 2K cannot feature Phillips in the game,” he says, and I agree. Phillips is a recidivist philanderer, and the latest ESPN scandal is top-of-mind for baseball fans. If his only television appearance in 2010 is on a gaming console, it makes his dismissal more conspicuous by half, and it’s 2K’s problem to manage, not ESPN’s.

Problem is, what can 2K do about it? It’s one thing to not give Phillips any extra work. But his dialogue library is already in the game. To remove him entirely at this stage? Wow. Especially – as Padre correctly notes – Phillips’ contribution was one of the few positives in last year’s poorly received title.

Right now it is 11:30 U.S. Mountain time, so I don’t expect this to be answered, but I have emailed 2K Sports to see if they want to swing at this. If they answer, it’ll likely be updated in a new post tomorrow.

It’s almost impossible to imagine that hanky panky in Bristol, Conn.. could actually send a game in Novato, Calif., down the toilet. But this is not a welcome development for them, either.

Steve Phillips News Affects MLB 2K10 [Pasta Padre]

To continue the metaphor, NBA 2K10 delivers both. All sports titles face a justify-your-existence question of what to offer every year beyond a roster update. NBA 2K10 has been such a clear leader that it’s almost exempt from such what-have-you-done-for-me-lately questions, and has the luxury of refining its visuals and presentation. That’s not to say the game doesn’t add new ways to deliver, and experience, the performance art that can happen any given night in the NBA.

Loved
Where Basketball Happens: So much of a sports game review fixates on what’s new in a game, but the guts of it still have to be there, and NBA 2K10 shows restraint in its gameplay tinkers. This year’s update focused more on nailing down animations for players’ signature moves and even facial expressions, rather than how you manipulate them. But the most conspicuous control is how your speed burst works. You have a finite supply of it, and not only can it run out over a single play, going to the well too often will deplete his overall stamina. You cannot sit on the trigger in this game and expect to get away with it for long. This brings some useful balance, especially to run-and-gun multiplayer games. Shot selection is more of a key this year as the game seems to have tightened up on on the ease of shooting. That could also be because of changes in shooting animations, as your point of release means everything to whether the ball goes in. Otherwise, the control scheme remains solid and caters to your preferred style, whether that’s set plays versus a more freelancing approach, or basic player manipulation vs. more advanced shooting and post play. If you prefer to make things up as you go along, you can still have a great time in NBA 2K10. My only gripe is that players seem slow to get open on their own, meaning you’ll need to do so at least through a quick play from the menu or draw the defence and kick it out yourself.

This is a presentation of the NBA: I halfway expected to hear a 4th quarter announcement that any rebroadcast without the express written consent of the NBA is prohibited. Out of the box, the commentary of Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg and Cheryl Miller is much stronger and less repetitive than the competing title from EA Sports. Although the season has not started yet, when it does their remarks, supported by on-screen graphics, will reflect what’s taking place in the league, such as recent big performances, slumps, etc. I’m assuming. The point is that the game will serve you up – even if it’s just for a one-off matchup – more than the current rosters but the current state of the league and its players. This may not as technically detailed as NBA Live 10’s Dynamic DNA, which will break a player down to his tendencies, not just his skill strengths. Gamers who can make use of that information will have to make the choice for themselves; what 2K10 has done here is good enough for me.

That’s My Player: This is a compelling mode of play, one that really makes you want to be a better player and learn the game. But you really have to know what you are getting into because you will be judged very strictly in it. In My Player, you are starting off with a rookie rated near the bottom in everything and only slightly better in some core positional attributes. Then, through conditioning drills and scrimmages in a summer league you build yourself into a draftable talent. Or not. Most everyone will head through the NBA Developmental League first. I just don’t see how you can accrue the points necessary to make an NBA roster right off the bat and even then, I’m not sure what good it would do because your playing time would be minuscule. But back to the development – your success will depend upon knowing your position and how it contributes to a game. And I mean, if you have no organized basketball experience and are only a casual spectator of the game, it will be rough on you. You need to pay attention to your teammates if someone’s calling for a pass. You’ve got to proactively set picks. You’ve got to call for the ball only when you’re open and even then, you’ll be bitched at for doing it too often. You need to do these things more than you need to score, because the development places a premium on being a good teammate. Even burying an spot-up jumper will get you tsk-tsked for taking one too soon, with an attendant reduction in teammate grade. All this said, I know I am a bad baller, so even if I was frustrated I didn’t feel like I was being judged unfairly. And I can see that for someone who knows and loves basketball, how the challenges offered and won by My Player stand out not only for this sport, but among all career modes of pro sports gaming. If you’re not 100 percent sure you know what you’re doing in the game, you should stick to the team mode, unless you are really committed to using My Player to teach yourself video game basketball in a very granular, intensive way.

Multiplied multiplayer: The first two days of the release I could not connect to the 2K servers at all. As of the weekend, the problems appeared to be solved, but this was still an unfortunate black mark against a game going out the door packed to the gills with multiplayer modes. The most intriguing of these is the Team-Up, where you can form or join a crew and run ball in a virtual league against teams comprised entirely of other users. If you don’t want to commit to that you can create a pick-up game for a single instance only. My preference trends strongly to singleplayer in sports titles and getting my arse kicked online in this game definitely reinforced that. But the game’s deep multiplayer offerings, along with its season simulation, once again make it this year’s winner.

Hated
Fritzy framerate: Certain shots during cutscenes, or certain gameplay sequences – especially going into heavy traffic with everyone breaking back to the rim – dropped the framerate quite noticeably on my 360 version. It may be, unfortunately, because of the superior character modelling combining with the crowd animations and background to overwhelm the console. 2K says it’s working on a patch, but others have noted that even 2K9 still had its own framerate stutters in some of the same situations.

Information overload: The game triples the number of plays you can call this year, breaking them out by the five positions on the floor plus a menu for calling quick picks and isolations. Unfortunately, the menu deals in floor positions, not which player’s number is being called. So if you’re running automatic substitutions and don’t know everyone on the floor by name and position, you might find yourself in the dark about who you’re dialing up. It’s petty to gripe about greater options, but it can feel like a big one when you’re getting run out of the gym by a superior opponent and trying desperately to think of something that will work.

(No) thanks for the advice: I did not care for the Stephen A. Smith-esque cartoon figure who appears in your season sim and who pretends to be a mentor in My Player. No, his voice isn’t as obnoxious as Screamin’ A, HOWEVAH, I found him to be condescending to the point of discouragement in My Player, and I could have just taken the pointers in a bullet-point text box. For someone who’s pretending to have a close relationship to your player, he needs to have a real face, or at least a more recognisable voice. I’d respect what this guy says a lot more if I knew who it’s coming from, instead of someone who passes off another player’s quotes as inspiration.

The little things that NBA 2K10 does right could fill a review twice as long as this, but of course they should get a nod here, for pushing the whole enterprise over the top and again delivering this year’s NBA choice. Your crowd will chant MVP! when a star player on a hot streak comes to the line for his and-1 free throw. When this happens in the playoffs, it just feels right. The off-ball players’ animations, usually where you see forced or sped-up repositioning when the AI has to move them, are very refined and build that overall sense that you’re watching an NBA telecast. The players and the coaches’ features are mesmerizingly accurate – I loved any cutscene with George Karl in it and could instantly pick out Stephen Curry – a straight-up rookie – from the standard camera angle.

NBA 2K10 represents the brand of choice among hardcore ballers and reputation counts for plenty in both real-world professional basketball and its virtual counterpart. Outside of My Player and the multiplayer modes, the game delivers more subtle changes than profound to your experience. When it’s in control of a game, a winning team maintains that lead, and focuses on execution. That’s NBA 2K10.

NBA 2K10 was developed by Visual Concepts published by 2K Sports for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, PSP, PC and Wii. Retails for $US59.99 (PS3 and 360) and $US49.99 (Wii and PC) in the US and AU$99.95 (PS3, 360), AU$69.95 (Wii), AU$49.95 (PC, PSP) and $29.95 (PS2) in Australia. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all singleplayer game types and tested multiplayer quick play mode.)

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Many have complained of bad framerate issues that some say render the game almost unplayable, although I myself have not encountered it. That said, some of the problem may involve multiplayer games – which I and many others have found difficult if not impossible to connect to over the past two days. The problems seem mostly to involve the Xbox 360 version.

“We’re diligently working on a game update for NBA 2K10. Our primary focus is on addressing the framerate issues and online concerns that are being reported,” says 2K Sports forum admin SimBaller. “In addition to this, we are planning to address a number of other issues that you have reported to us.”

The patch 2K Sports plans to roll sounds like it will be available by the end of next week, as that’s when SimBaller says he will “be publishing a full list of all the issues fixed in the patch. I’m confident you will be more than satisfied with the changes we are making to every aspect of the game.”

Players have complained of black screens and freezes. Some complain of a framerate degradation that renders the game almost unplayable. Others say the it drops noticeably during cutscenes and spots in the game where a lot of players are clustered together.

I’ve been playing the game this week and find the framerate drops noticeably – but not to an unplayable degree – when I get into camera angles with a ton of people on the screen – crowd shots after timeouts, huge traffic jams in the lane, that sort of thing.

As far as multiplayer, that is its own set of problems. Pasta Padre’s sports blog has mentioned troubles on the 2K server involving very problematic lag or the inability to connect to the 2K Sports server which some have experienced over the past two days, myself included.

If any of this concerns you, head on over and make yourself heard. But it’s definitely not the kind of forum post 2K Sports would rather read in this games launch week.

NBA 2K10 Game Update – READ POST 1 and 2, REOPENING TOMORROW [2K Sports Forums]

NHL 2K10 sees the franchise at somewhat of a crossroads. It’s in its 10th year overall, scrapping with a competitor afforded both cult status and best-in-class accolades. But 2K Sports’ hockey offering is also in its second year on the Wii, where it remains wholly unopposed. Will NHL 2K10 on the core consoles veer more to a casual experience, or will it fight for the puck in a realistic league simulation?

Loved
Multifaceted Multiplayer:This is a game noticeably built for multiplayer, adding it into every mode of gameplay and then some. It’s best deployed in season mode, where you are now able to play any in-season game against an online opponent. It’s not a full online dynasty but it doesn’t need to be, and it provides a great incentive to keep your season going even if you’ve grown bored beating down the computer AI. This innovation really should be imitated in other full-season games. A cooperative mode also has been added, allowing you to call in a wingman and combine forces against the CPU, with devastating results if you’re both on your game. One feature touted in the manual that I didn’t get much of a look at (for a lack of NHL-playing friends with the game) is a new persistent online team mode that allows you to staff a full side, and battle other user teams, supporting up to 12 players on separate consoles. Assuming everyone stays committed, it can be like a league night for video game hockey instead of bowling.

Do Wii Want Some Hockey?:The Wii Version: This review is based on the Xbox 360 version but I did get the chance to play the Wii version with a friend. Unfortunately, we did not have MotionPlus, which is where the most substantial improvements are said to have been made. But the game’s presentation on the Wii gets a thorough upgrade, particularly in the graphics. And I know some might consider it trivial, but the Mii skills competitions—shot accuracy, skating speed, etc., as seen at the NHL’s All Star Game—are an enjoyable way to play this game with others without having to commit to a full-blown match.

The Great Outdoors:Surprisingly, NHL 2K10 and not NHL 10 is the game with outdoor stadiums from the NHL’s extremely popular Winter Classic series. This year it adds Wrigley Field, where the Blackhawks and Red Wings played last year, to Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the 2008 game. If this matters to you, and it does to some, keep that in mind. Also, diehards who hold a torch for the old Hartford Whalers will find their sweaters, home and road from 1993, in the Carolina Hurricanes’ uniform options. These are two big ways in which the game’s visuals are very enjoyable. Also, the playoff beards are one of many neat hey-look-at-that touches.

Hated:
Sludgy Skating: The nimbleness of your players does not seem that much improved over previous versions, and the speed is still nothing to write home about. It left me sitting on the speed burst trigger any time I wanted to get anything going. By contrast, opposing players make tight turns and immediate stops, get back on defence in a flash and always break first to a loose puck. Some of this is attributable to the fact that when your player begins an animation he’s in it until it’s over, so if you blow out someone with a check, you’re still finishing that up unless you can jump to a free man. Remember that tuning up the speed in the sliders affects all players, so while you boost your own performance, the defence is still there with you, meaning it’s still largely a game of taking the puck to the wings and flipping out a hot centering pass for an unbeatable one timer. I felt the speed issues hindered my attempts at other forms of offence, such as dump-and-chase hockey, making me almost one-dimensional in my attack.

Bland Season-ing: It felt like little attention was paid to improving or deepening the season mode, and it’s where NHL 2K10 is most vulnerable to criticism that it’s last year’s game with an updated roster. Yes, it has added in a dynamic player progression mode, but this is a background feature and won’t be fully realised until the NHL season begins and the game starts incorporating player performances. Trade AI is kind of shrimpy and you’ll get the better of most deals, which suits a game with heavy offence and a have-it-your-way tone. Again, season mode’s biggest selling point is the multiplayer capability as opposed to anything in a simulation or singleplayer mode.

Them’s the Dekes: In hockey, I am still a crude enough player and button-spammer that an extra control set is like pearls before swine. While last year’s mindboggling two-analogue setup for your fakery gets a welcome streamline to a shoulder/face button combo (or shoulder/right analogue, similar to NHL 09), they never seemed to respond fast enough to mean much in what is definitely a bang-bang style of hockey play. Then again, as I said, I’m probably not the guy most able to take advantage of this. But while the dekes and their cousins, the stumbleshots, are pretty to look at, functionally they seem a little removed and triggered mostly by chance. When I bore down to score goals I focused more on spacing and passing, not whether I could beat my man or a goalie 1-on-1 or huck garbage into the net from my arse.

Singleminded Intelligence: The opposing AI is not hated per se, because even a rank amateur like me could blow out Detroit 6-3 in its own building shortly after picking it up. It’s not formidable as much as it feels singleminded. With some teams, even in a power play you’re getting pressed hard, making it difficult to square off your men and work the puck around like you see in the real-life game’s set pieces. It can drive you back to run-and-gun arcade hockey even with a man advantage, and can also lead to cheap short-handed goals against you. The box says they completely rewrote the AI, and maybe I didn’t play last year’s close enough, but you still seem to be faced with a singleminded opposition that doesn’t incorporate a lot of variables in hockey strategy. I only really noticed it late in the third period, with the CPU up by two goals, and then the opposing team finally started playing a puck-control, clear-out-the-zone game to frustrate a comeback.

Even for all its shortcomings—which are rightly viewed in light of Electronic Arts’ uncommon excellence in its NHL title, and 2K Sports’ conspicuous focus on its Wii presence and multiplayer strengths—NHL 2K10 is not a bad or unworthy title. But nor is it particularly compelling if you are principally playing it in singleplayer modes.

It can, however, be a blast when you’re winning and racking up the goals, pushing over your man, taking the puck and top-shelfing it to turn the Pepsi centre into a morgue. These kinds of things just don’t feel that hard-earned. But if playing arcade hockey on a core console is a disappointment to fans wanting a deeper game, flip the coin: 2K10 offers the only core hockey on a casual console, and after last year’s shoulder-shrugging debut on the Wii, is significantly upgraded there. For those on the 360 or PS3, who want to relive dorm-room hockey nights with next-gen presentation, or those who are just new to hockey and its finer points would be lost on them anyway, NHL 2K10 can still be a comfortable and fun experience.

NHL 2K10 was developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K on the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii on on Sept. 15. Retails for $US59.99 USD on Xbox 360 and PS3, $US49.99 on Wii. Rated E10+ on all three platforms. Reviewed on Xbox 360. Played on all singleplayer and multiplayer modes except for “My Team.”

Boston’s Kevin Garnett finishes off the alley-oop in this latest gameplay trailer, and newly acquired Rasheed Wallace gets up to inform Elizabeth he’s coming to join her. Another solid minute of dunk animations and gameplay from NBA 2K10.

2K Sports’ NBA game, like its NHL counterpart, comes to the Wii for the first time with this year’s edition. This trailer gives a look at the motion controls which, for the most part, seem reasonably intuitive.

The jump shot’s a no brainer — Wiimote and nunchuk up, flip the ‘mote, splash, as Kobe Bryant shows you. Whipping the Wiimote in the direction of a teammate serves up a nice fast-break pass. Both controllers up and Greg Oden rejects a Monta Ellis shot.

I can see these kinds of motions being much more easily explained, and implemented, to friends who come over and haven’t played the game, than their counterparts on a full console controller. The shooting motion especially; that’s basketball’s answer to the air-guitar.

I wonder, though, if that pass is good for one of Magic Johnson’s patented length-of-the-floor bounce passes.

“I’d say, ‘I guess I didn’t get that memo,’” said Anderson, CEO of Quick Hit Football, which will ramp up for the public as a free online game in October, advertising a combination of MMO and fantasy sports traits, and plant a flag in what Anderson considers huge customer territory, all without a full NFL licence.

Foxborough, Mass.-based Quick Hit is a notable example of where the competition has flowed, like water finding gaps in the floorboards, in the fifth year of EA Sports’ exclusive—and commonly reviled—licensing arrangement with the NFL. Quick Hit’s zero-cost web-based game confronts EA Sports’ Madden NFL franchise as a competitor where it suits them — price, download/file size, flat or unimpressive sales or platform absence. And in areas where Madden purely outclasses the startup—reputation, console presence or gameplay depth—Quick Hit then repositions itself as simply a free and casual alternative.

That said, “the NFL does add an air of authenticity,” Anderson conceded. And were the opportunity available, his business would definitely be on the phone with the league. However, market research done by his company in its 18 months of existence found that fully-licensed authenticity does matter, but it is not a deal-killer, provided a challenger defines and pursues the territory correctly.

Anderson, in his forties, is the former CEO of the studio Turbine, and brings experience in dealing with high profile IPs. He said Quick Hit did two studies, of 1000 guys each, about a year ago. “Both studied males in the 14 to 40 age range,” Anderson said, “and we asked those questions, ‘Is the NFL important? How important are the players?’” Also, a few months back they put their product in front of a focus group and asked if it noticed the lack of real teams or licensing.

“We were surprised that there wasn’t that sort of response,” Anderson said. “We expected 90 percent to say, ‘You have to have the NFL.’ It turned out to be a much lower number.”

Anderson declined to say what percentage wanted the NFL, or if it was a majority. But it was low enough that his company went forward. “What we took away is that it’s a valuable part, but it was not something that had to be included,” he said, “and that’s partly because we are not trying to appeal to the hardcore demographic. We’re not trying to replace Madden as a product. But also, on the PC, they’re not there.”

Brandon Justice, the Quick Hit director of design and a veteran of Visual Concepts to 2005 and a producer in the Madden franchise to 2007, likens this to a pre-game matchup. No undersized team would run straight at a brick-wall defence up the middle. And yet no juggernaut can cover every gap.

But the objective is still there—end zone or audience—and then however it can be monetised. So a full licence is a powerful means, but not the end, Anderson says. His company figures the casual/fantasy football crowd, multiples larger than a hardcore Madden installation base, is where the growth is. And he’s running hard for it, in a free-to-play Web-based arena.

This is unlike many competitors in the Madden-exclusive era, which have gone after a slice of the console market, failed conspicuously, and have been all but driven into the wilderness. Midway’s Blitz: The League, and its sequel, relied on outrageous subplots and scrotum-rupturing renegade appeal. Visual Concepts, the studio behind the much lamented ESPN NFL 2K5—the last fully licensed title to compete with Madden—tried to hang in later with retired heroes John Elway, Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice in All Pro Football 2K8. All went straight into the value bin, and All-Pro closed after one year.

All-Pro Football 2K8 tried negotiating with retired players for their likeness on a one-on-one basis, to replace a standard roster. It was a Pyrrhic victory, paying a premium for Hall of Famers while telling customers they were getting yesterday’s stars. Quick Hit went after current players on a one-by-one basis but found that such negotiations were capped by the NFL Players Association—they couldn’t pursue individual deals with everyone, even if they had the time or money—so the company focused on licensing five current performers at commonly understood skill positions, offence and defence.

Another 100 all-time greats—outside the NFLPA’s scope—round-out the lineup of likenesses. And like All-Pro 2K8, each deal had to be done individually, Anderson said, another opportunity cost posed by the lack of the licence enjoyed by EA Sports. But unlike the console game, Justice argued this can still fit within Quick Hit’s game design.

A fully draftable league could put superstars at every position and distort competitive balance, he said. Seeding a team with two all-pros or hall of famers and randomising the rest of the lineup, according to team tendency, places more of a premium on playcalling, he said. and it encourages leveling up, either investing in players you have or discarding underachievers for ones with better potential. Plus, it keeps a diehard fan from being married to his franchise’s awful history.

“If you’re a Bengals fan, as I am,” said Justice, the design chief, “they’re terrible year in and out. On a console game, I can’t make them into the team I want because of the roster they have at the beginning of the year.”

Thus Quick Hit, whose closed beta is underway, focuses less on action and more on strategy, hoping to siphon from the millions in the fantasy football market who know more how to draft an elite running back but less how to weave him through the line off-tackle with a PS3 controller in Madden 2010. Games are won and lost against other players, or coaching AIs, according to a familiar fantasy-football scoring formula. Points earned from that can level up both players and the coach. Progress is maintained in a persistent league, somewhat like an MMO. If any of this fails to catch, here’s the bottom line — Quick Hit tries to give a graphical representation to fantasy football, with play-calling thrown in.

The problem, of course, is Quick Hit seeks to do this without a full, accurate league roster, a fundamental of fantasy football. But Anderson and Justice are betting that the millions of hardcore NFL fans who play fantasy sports, and have no problem drafting superior players on competing teams, likewise won’t balk at populating their squads with anonymous players with strong numbers.

All of this is conjecture. The casual, free-to-play market in the United States might present enormous growth but it is relatively unexplored—especially in sports—and is routinely shouted down by core players of any genre. Any game offered for free trails the assumption that it’s not worth money, and therefore, not worth your time.

But in football, compared with a $US60 title on a console, it’s all you’ve got for now.

Stick Jockey is Kotaku’s column on sports video games. It appears every Saturday.