The National Hockey League season may be in doubt, but die-hard fans of the sport will still get to play their favorite hockey video games in 2005.
Though pro hockey is seemingly off the schedule for the foreseeable future, the companies that published hockey video games in 2004 said this week they are committed to sticking with the sport in 2005, pro game or not.
The NHL lockout has already cost the balance of the 2004-2005 campaign, and reports indicate that the entire season is on the verge of being canceled, a first for a major North American professional sport.
But the three companies who released hockey titles last year say there is actually a niche for them to fill now that fans can not see the real deal on television.
"We want to make sure if there's not a season our users are able to make their own seasons as much as possible," said Greg Thomas, the president of sports studio Visual Concepts, which was recently acquired by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. along with its Kush Games unit.
Kush developed "ESPN NHL 2K5," the best-reviewed of the handful of hockey games released in 2004.
Others were equally adamant that, hockey season or not, they would release games this year.
"If anything, we're putting more resources (into the game) because we don't have to make some of those annualized changes," said Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Electronic Arts Inc. Those annual changes, she said, include things like roster updates and uniform redesigns.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America also said it had a new game in development for this year. Sony has a long-term licensing deal with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
Even so, hockey represents a relatively smaller market for the $10 billion U.S. games industry.
Sales of all hockey games came in just under $30 million in 2004, down from just over $41 million in 2003, the NPD Group said. Hockey fell to 8th among sports genres from 6th a year earlier, but unit sales were steady both years at 1.1 million.
