NHL 2K11 skips Xbox 360 and PS3, only coming to Wii [update]

by David Hinkle on Mar 3rd 2010 5:30PM

During the recent Take-Two fiscal earnings report, we noticed something a bit off. See, back in December when we got our last update from the company, NHL 2K11 was missing entirely from the report. This suggested that there wouldn't be another game in the series.

Well, today Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed that another iteration in the series is in the works -- and it's exclusively for the Wii. "As far as NHL, we're taking a year off on PS3 and Xbox 360 to refine, redesign and re-think," Zelnick remarked during the earnings report. So while Canadians* will have fewer options when it comes to platform, knowing the series hasn't been retired is a good thing, right?

Update: We reached out to Take-Two for a more comprehensive explanation of the choice to ditch PS3 and Xbox 360 this year. Here's what the spoksperson said: "We have decided to reevaluate our NHL strategy and will only be releasing NHL 2K11 for the Wii in fiscal year 2010. We want to become a stronger competitor in this category and taking a year off on PS3 and Xbox 360, while focusing on making the best possible game for Wii, should allow us to accomplish that goal."

*Come on, we all know Canadians are the only ones playing these games

Tags: 2k-sports, hockey, Microsoft, nhl, nhl-2k11, Nintendo, take-two, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (53)

Hrm, I'm reading this right they want to take a year off to restructure NHL2K. Which IMHO, is what needs to happen with that franchise to give some decent competition to NHL from EA. Not like I don't like the EA NHL brand but as many say in their comments, competition is good!

Actually, this isn't a bad idea, from what I remember of NHL2K10 reviews. The game consistently (if I remember right) scored better on the Wii than the other PS3/360. They incorporated a lot things in the Wii version: WM+ support, decent-to-good controls utilizing mostly smart motion support, a solid online effort, and multiple modes of play some of which weren't available on the HD systems. If they (2K) are wanting to head in the direction of controls which pull you more into the game, then focusing on the Wii effort for a year to really nail them down...then attempting to port those kind of control schemes to the 360 (Natal) and PS3 (wonder wand or whatever the hell its going to be called) makes sense. It would possibly give 2K a jump over EA on motion controls for 2012 versions of the games, as they would already have 3 years of solid work on Wii motion control efforts. Last years Wii game (NHL2K10) was a pretty good game. They could improve on that this year, and move it to the other systems again in the next year.

2K Hockey hasn't been good since NHL 2K5 on the original Xbox. EA has destroyed them in the Xbox 360 era with NHL 07-10. The Wii version of NHL 2K10 is worse than the original Dreamcast 2K Hockey... (the Dreamcast versions were good btw!)

Go Pens!

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