Thanks to Shenmue AM2 Podcast, I was reminded of an obscure little game called ESPN NFL Football which just happened to include hidden cameos from several beloved SEGA characters. I am of course kidding about ESPN NFL Football being obscure, as the game was the first 2K sports title to carry the ESPN license. However the secrets found within the game might be new to many SEGA fans.
According to the website Free on Smash, an ‘anonymous poster’ at Operation Sports confirmed that Microsoft would be working with 2K Sports to launch Joe Montana Football 16 this summer exclusively on Windows platforms and Xbox One. It seems that EA’s new license update with the NFL allowed for first party NFL games (Similar deal to how Sony has exclusive MLB games for first party and 2K can make their own MLB games on multiple consoles).
The rumor for the new NFL game started back in October of 2014 when Joe Montana tweeted a short video of him motion capturing a video game and said the following:
” So many things happening! Here is a teaser of what is coming. Stay tuned for more.
#morethanarosterupdate#montana16
If you guys didn’t already know, Joe Montana Football debuted back in 1990 exclusively on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and NFL 2K franchise was created as a exclusive franchise for the SEGA Dreamcast back in 1999. Seems like someone over at Microsoft is a big fan of SEGA Sports back in the day. To read the message posted over at Operation Sports (with all the nice tidbits of information), hit the jump.
Recently EA has said that their upcoming video games will not be heading to the Nintendo Wii U. Nintendo hasn’t been the first one to be black balled by the publishing giant, back when SEGA was going to launch the Dreamcast, EA pulled a similar move.
This week on Monday Memories we will look at EA not supporting the much beloved Dreamcast.