Boss confirms NFL 2K revival ‘didn’t work out creatively’, 6 years after multi-game announcement

Take-Two has confirmed that a planned NFL 2K revival didn’t come to fruition, after the publisher struggled to find a direction for the sports series.

Six years ago, Take-Two announced a multi-game partnership with the NFL, exciting fans of its classic NFL 2K series – which ended in 2004 – over a potential revival for the Madden rival.

The deal covered ‘non-simulation’ games, according to the announcement, meaning EA’s own NFL license used for the Madden series was unaffected, and presumably, the new games would have to be designed in an arcade style.

However, by 2024, Take-Two’s first NFL title, mobile game NFL 2K Playmakers, disappointed and was eventually shut down. The publisher also stopped mentioning the partnership in its financial filings around this time, raising suspicion that no further games would be released.

Speaking to Game File in a new interview, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the publisher had been trying to make another NFL game, but it didn’t pan out.

“What we hoped would come to fruition creatively did not,” Zelnick said. “Some of the stuff we tried to do didn’t work out creatively.”

Asked if Take-Two would try again to make an NFL game, especially considering the nostalgia around the NFL 2K games, the CEO replied: “I know… We’re open-minded about it, if an opportunity presents itself.”

The original NFL 2K games were developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega, exclusively for Dreamcast. The series went on to present strong competition for EA’s Madden series, but when the rival publisher signed an exclusive deal with the NFL, it put an end to 2K’s series.

One 2K Sports series seemingly not returning is MLB 2K. Asked if he’d consider making another Baseball game, ten years on from 2K’s last entry, Zelnick said: “Probably not,” adding that he felt it was “too small a market.”

“We had a tough history with MLB,” Zelnick said. “It’s no secret there [that] we lost a great deal of money with them. And I don’t like losing money. “