The AAF Needs to Make 2K Sports Its Valentine & Give Us AAF 2K20
By Jeff Kotuby ·
The Alliance of American Football has burst onto the scene We think one way The Alliance can endear itself to new fans is to cozy up with 2K Games this Valentine's Day and give us a new football game.
The Alliance of American Football debuted to stellar television numbers following the snoozefest that was Super Bowl LIII, posting numbers that surpassed the NBA game of the night between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets. Social media was buzzing over big hits, big plays, and excitement around non-NFL football we haven't seen in some time. But we've seen this story before - the USFL and XFL both posted huge Week 1's and then quickly flamed out. How can the AAF avoid the same fate? Not going head-to-head with the NFL is probably the number one way to stick around, but on that list would be to have a stake in the video game market. If only there was a game company that used to make a legendary football video game that is no longer able to do so...
The NFL 2K series are legendary amongst sports game fans, to the point that people are still updating rosters and playing the game to this day. Just saying the words NFL 2K5 to gamers these days will no doubt elicit some great memories. Unfortunately, Madden developers EA Sports purchased the license to the National Football League after 2K came a little too close to knocking them off the throne as virtual football's top dog. 2K tried following up NFL 2K5 will All-Pro Football 2K8, a game that took the same gameplay engine as its predecessors with a roster made entirely of legendary gridiron players like John Elway and Jerry Rice. The game was relatively well-received, but common criticisms included the lack of features, and there was never a sequel. An official league license would knock down those barriers and allow for contemporary features to be part of the new game.
While you might not know too many AAF players at this point, imagine if you were able to buy AAF 2K19? You'd probably know all the members of the Birmingham Iron the way you still know the 04-05 Titans from playing all that NFL 2K5 (shout outs to Kevin Dyson.) Then, you can immerse yourself into a multi-year franchise and, before you know it, you'll be an Alliance expert in no time. All the while, you'll be playing on the superior-to-Madden 2K5 engine on a contemporary system. 2K5 still looks decent and plays fantastic 14 years later, but imagine it on current hardware? How good would Todd Gurley look in the 2K engine on a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X?
Not to mention all the other contemporary features that could be brought into a new 2K football game. VC is going to be the necessary evil that comes with it, but high AAF VC sales would give 2K incentive to keep making games. AAF MyTeam would be another great addition that would take the NFL 2K5 fantasy draft component to a whole other level. Lastly, an AAF esports league would be killer based on how awesome the Madden esports leagues have been and would bring great visibility to the league from a set of eyes that normally wouldn't be on it.
So we're all here for being the matchmaker that brings the AAF and 2K together. We just really, really want to be able to put our Xboxes and PS2s away for a while and play our favorite football game on a 4K TV. Is that too much to ask?
(cover photo courtesy of AAF)