| ESPN NFL 2K5 | |
|---|---|
 Cover art featuringTerrell Owens | |
| Developer | Visual Concepts |
| Publishers | Sega of America Global Star Software (PAL regions) |
| Series | NFL 2K |
| Platforms | PlayStation 2,Xbox[a] |
| Release | |
| Genres | Sports (American football) |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
ESPN NFL 2K5 is a 2004American footballvideo game developed byVisual Concepts and published byGlobal Star Software andSega for thePlayStation 2 andXbox. It is the sixth installment of Sega'sNFL 2K series, and the last to use officialNational Football League licensing. Gameplay is presented as a liveESPN television broadcast and features the voices and digital likenesses of multiple ESPN on-air personalities.
The game was originally released on July 20, 2004. It was the lastNFL 2K game to be released beforeElectronic Arts (EA) signed an exclusive rights agreement with the NFL to make2K's rivalMadden NFL series the only officially licensed NFL game. It was also the last game still being developed by Sega at the time.
ESPN NFL 2K5 received universal critical acclaim, with most critics praising the VIP system and the incorporation of the ESPN broadcast mechanics. It earned numerous end-of-year accolades and honors, and was nominated for several more. It has continued to earn praise retrospectively and is often considered one of thegreatest video games ever made.
The game features a franchise mode with aSportsCenter feature hosted byChris Berman. He outlines the games of the current week with his co-hostTrey Wingo who talks about the latest injuries and free agent deals and trades during the season.Mel Kiper Jr. hosts the draft portion of the segment, whileSuzy Kolber reports from the sidelines. There is also weekly preparation for the coming week, which allows the player to make decisions on training and preparation. The player can also create their own team, deciding the team logos (over 10 are available), team name, the team's city, the team's stadium look and build, jerseys and how good the team is. It also has a feature called first-person football, which gives the player the experience on the field looking from the eyes of the players. There is also the traditional create-a-player mode.
One of the features in the game is a celebrity game involvingJamie Kennedy,Steve-O,David Arquette,Funkmaster Flex, orCarmen Electra which is initiated by a phone call from one of the aforementioned "celebrities" in the player's custom crib. The player plays against a celebrity with their own custom team ofPro Bowl players. The teams the celebrities use are The Buartville Funkmasters, Cincinnati Electra Shock, LA Dreamteam, Los Angeles Locos, and the Upper Darby Cheesesteaks. During the game, the celebrities appear in a small box and use trash-talk. If the player wins the game, they receive the team's stadium as a playable venue.
ESPN NFL 2K5 features the voices ofTerry McGovern as play-by-play announcer Dan Stevens,Jay Styne as color commentator Peter O'Keefe, sideline reporterSuzy Kolber, studio hostChris Berman,Trey Wingo, andMel Kiper Jr., with Berman appearing at the start of a player's ownSportsCenter broadcast and during the loading screen for the player's own ESPN NFL Countdown pregame show, and Kolber appearing in the Player of the Game segment of the postgame show.
In whatGrantland later described as "one of the greatest, most insidious guerrilla-warfare moves in the history of video game competition",ESPN NFL 2K5 was priced at $19.99 the day it shipped, much lower than the market leaderMadden NFL at $49.99. This greatly reducedMadden sales that year; one EA Sports developer recalled that "[i]t scared the hell out of us".[1] This led EA to reduceMadden NFL 2005's price to $29.95.
| Aggregator | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| PS2 | Xbox | |
| Metacritic | 90/100[16] | 92/100[17] |
| Publication | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| PS2 | Xbox | |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 8.33/10[2] | 8.33/10[2] |
| Game Informer | 9.5/10[3] | 9.5/10[3] |
| GamePro |  [4] | [4] |
| GameRevolution | B+[5] | B+[5] |
| GameSpot | 9.1/10[6] | 9.2/10[7] |
| GameSpy |  [8] | [8] |
| GameZone | 9.3/10[9] | 9.5/10[10] |
| IGN | 9.3/10[11] | 9.4/10[12] |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine |  [13] | N/A |
| Official Xbox Magazine (US) | N/A | 9.3/10[14] |
| Maxim | [15] | [15] |
Upon release,ESPN NFL 2K5 received "universal acclaim" on both platforms according to thereview aggregation websiteMetacritic.[16][17] Matthew Kato ofGame Informer rated the game 9.5 out of 10 and summarized his positive review by calling it "the best football title there is and the only one that's a must have", a quote which was paraphrased on the front cover of the game'skeep case. Andrew Reiner echoed this sentiment in the review's "Second Opinion" section, callingESPN NFL 2K5 "the greatest football game to date."[3] Chris Carle ofIGN gave the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions a 9.3 and 9.4 out of 10 respectively, and each version was awarded the publication's "Editor's Choice". Carle praised the game's various features, particularly the VIP system, which he called, "Probably the coolest innovationESPN NFL 2K5 has to offer."[11][12] Bro Buzz ofGamePro gave the game a perfect 5 out of 5, praising the incorporation ofESPN broadcast styles within the game and noting that "the tight controls do a great job of commanding a slick array of player moves and on-the-fly scheme adjustments."[4]
Many reviews comparedESPN NFL 2K5 toMadden NFL 2005, which was released in the same year. In a direct comparison of the two games,Electronic Gaming Monthly declaredMadden to be the better game, with scores of 9.5, 9.0, and 9.0, whileNFL 2K5 was given scores of 8.5, 8.5, and 8.0.[2] Alex Navarro ofGameSpot recommendedNFL 2K5, noting superior offensive gameplay, special teams, online play, features, presentation, graphics, and sound.[6][7] Jon Robinson ofIGN agreed that the graphics and presentation ofNFL 2K5 were superior toMadden, yet he feltMadden was the better game due to the superior gameplay.[18] Kato opened his review by claiming, "ESPN NFL 2K5 is better thanMadden NFL 2005. I say this without reservation", while Buzz stated, "Each season, Sega's ESPN NFL series has been making steady progress in its quest for video-game football stardom. This year, the design guys at Visual Concepts have turnedESPN NFL 2K5 into the most entertaining show in video-game football."
In the United States, the PlayStation 2 release ofESPN NFL 2K5 had sold 1.7 million copies and generated $33 million in revenue by July 2006, two years after its release. During the same time period, sales ofNFL 2K5 reached 3 million combined units across all consoles, and it was the 23rd highest-selling game launched for either thePlayStation 2,Xbox, orGameCube.[19]
ESPN NFL 2K5 won multiple awards for the best sports game of 2004. During theAIAS'8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as theD.I.C.E. Awards),ESPN NFL 2K5 won in the category of "Console Sports Simulation Game of the Year".[20] AtE3 2004, it won the Best Sports Game award fromGameSpot,[21] and in IGN's year-end awards, it won Best Sports Game released for the Xbox.[22] Upon release,ESPN NFL 2K5 wonGameSpot's Xbox Game of the Month and PlayStation 2 Game of the Month awards,[23] and the publication later named it the year's "Best Traditional Sports Game" and "Best Budget Game" across all platforms.[24] It was also nominated for Best Sports Game across all video game systems by IGN and theSpike Video Game Awards,[25] losing in both toMadden NFL 2005. In theSatellite Awards, given annually by theInternational Press Academy, it was the only NFL simulation game nominated for Outstanding Sports Game, althoughNFL Street, a football game that does not simulate NFL gameplay, was also nominated.[26]
Since its release, numerous websites and publications have rankedESPN NFL 2K5 as one of the greatest sports video games of all time, listed as 44th byBleacher Report in 2011.[27] In his "Sports Video Game Rankings" compiled for ESPN, Robinson ranked the game 8th, two spots higher thanMadden NFL 2005 despite Robinson's preference forMadden in his contemporary review.[28]Yardbarker includedNFL 2K5 in an unordered list of the 25 best sports games of all time, noting that, "For a brief moment, there was a true challenger to the Madden hegemony.ESPN NFL 2K5 had a different look and a slightly different game play, and people loved it."Time rankedNFL 2K5 as the 41st greatest video game of all-time regardless of genre, stating, "Sorry, Madden NFL fans, true football gaming fanatics know this is the best gridiron game ever made."[29]
In retrospective analyses,ESPN NFL 2K5 has continued to receive favorable comparisons to theMadden NFL series and is noted for its depth that has yet to be matched in subsequent years. In 2014, Owen S. Good ofPolygon wrote thatNFL 2K5 was "sports video gaming'sKing Arthur, eternally populist, noble and heroic, champion of an age long ago enough to make its triumphs soar and its shortcomings recede to nothingness." Good went on to state that EA'sMadden developers "for 10 years have been haunted byNFL 2K5 — in forums, in comments, in social media — that nothing they do could be as good as something that by now really isn't a video game, but a mythological ideal that grows more romantic with every year".[30] A 2016Game Informer retrospective by Matthew Kato praised the variety of features in the game, which was noted as "a far cry from the stark decline that followed in EA's NFL titles." Kato concluded by stating, "The title is more than just a novelty or a case of its reputation exceeding its value, a rare feat for the genre in my eyes." The game has very often been considered by critics to be one of thegreatest video games ever made.
In December 2004, EA Sports acquired an exclusive rights agreement with the NFL andNFLPA to be the sole creator of NFL video games.[31]
In December 2010, a U.S. district court judge certified a class action anti-trust lawsuit against Electronic Arts for anti-competitive practices to proceed.[32] Electronic Arts settled the class action suit in July 2012 for$27 million (equivalent to $36.98 million in 2024), and retained its exclusive NFL license.[33][34]
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