NBA 2K14 Will Dominate Next-Gen Market Despite Potential Competition

NBA 2K14 has dominated in terms of popularity for this generation of basketball video games. Even with the potential new title coming to the next generation of consoles, NBA 2K14 should have no problem continuing to control the market for basketball games.

This year's version of the popular NBA 2K franchise has been as successful as usual.  The game came out for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 1, and it's been very well received.  Ryan McCaffrey from IGN gave the game a score of 9.3 out of 10, saying:

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It’s a credit to NBA 2K14 that despite not one but two new basketball sims looming on the next-gen horizon, it still managed to draw my attention squarely to the current-gen court and keep it there. Though LeBron’s new mode doesn’t manage to bottle the same magic of MJ’s from two years back, the new Assist Pass, and re-tooled ball handling have made what was already a finely tuned on-court experience even tighter. NBA 2K14 is simply the best hoops sim I’ve ever played.

"

That's pretty high praise for this year's game.

NBA 2K14 will also be coming out on the PS4 and Xbox One.  Ronnie 2K tweeted the official release date of the game for each of the next-gen consoles.

The 2K series won't be the only basketball game on the next-gen consoles, however.  NBA Live is finally coming out with another installment of their series after taking a hiatus over the past few seasons.  They will release NBA Live 14 on November 19, according to IGN.

The fact that NBA Live is returning certainly creates some competition entering this generation of consoles, but it shouldn't keep 2K from continuing to dominate.  

Ever year, the NBA 2K series seems to become more and more popular.  According to Gamespot back in October of 2012, NBA 2K13 set a franchise sales record, with first-week sales jumping an impressive 49 percent over the previous record holder, which was NBA 2K11.

Meanwhile, NBA Live has been absent for some time now.  Their last game was NBA Live 10, but EA Sports had two other games set to release that were cancelled during that time.  

NBA Elite 11 was an attempt to completely change the control system for basketball games, but the released demo was filled with so many bugs and glitches that the release was cancelled.  EA attempted to release NBA Live 13 in 2012, but that game was cancelled as well.

NBA 2K14 also has a significant marketing advantage over NBA Live 14, thanks to having LeBron James on the cover.  LeBron, as the most popular player in the NBA, is the clear go-to player whenever it comes to advertising or endorsing a product.  Kyrie Irving is a good choice for NBA Live, but he is nothing compared to LeBron from a marketing standpoint.

NBA 2K14 is a popular game series that also has the perfect cover athlete, so it will have no problem taking down NBA Live 14 in the first edition of next-gen basketball video games, especially with the recent struggles of NBA Live.