Healthy Competition

During a shareholder's conference call, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello briefly commented on Take Two's football title All Pro Football 2k8. While he did not mention any strategic action to compete with Take Two, he did mention that EA would continue to defend its franchise (Madden) and wants to make sure that Take Two's success is short lived and not something that is long term.

As a videogame fan, I am thrilled to have Take Two back in the game, even though there is no NFL license. If people feel that All Pro Football is a better game despite its lack of a NFL license, then maybe EA Sports would be forced to innovate between iterations of Madden and not basically charge $60 for a roster update.

All Pro 2k8 Football

On Monday, 2k Sports will be shipping what may be the best alternative to EA Sports' Madden franchise.

All Pro 2k8 Football lets you build your own team made up of some of the greatest players to play the game. Coming out for the PS3 and the 360, the game features online play, league support and a stat tracking for players.

I have been a fan of the 2k series going back to the Sega Dreamcast. I was devastated when EA snatched up the rights to use NFL players and properties exclusively for their products. If I wanted to play NFL football I would have to pay EA for what I thought was an inferior game.

There were rumors that 2k sports was going to try to get back in the game with another license, but EA had snatched up the Arena Football license and already had the exclusive NCAA football license.

Then there were rumors that a Legends-type game was in the works. Three years pass and then there is the announcement 2k fans were waiting for. All Pro 2k8 will be out Summer 2008.

If you're interested in more details about the game, check out this excellent piece on ESPN's Page 2 about the new game.

Splitting hairs at 30 frames a second

Several video game outlets are reporting that this year's football games, All Pro Football from 2k Sports and the usual offerings from EA Sports (Madden and NCAA Football) will run at a higher frame rate on the Xbox 360 than the PS3 versions of those games. The Xbox 360 version will run at 60 frames a second versus 30 frames a second on the PS3.

What does this mean to you and I? Not a whole heck of a lot. The animations in the game may be smoother on the 360, but that's about it.

However, rabid Xbox 360 fanboys will probably use this bit of trivia to taunt their PS3 counterparts. There may be some serious discussion amongst developers because this may serve as evidence that while the PS3 is a more powerful machine, the Xbox 360 is easier to develop on.