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Confirming rumors, Sega and Take-Two announce that production of Visual Concepts' discounted footballer has kicked off.

ESPN Videogames has announced today that ESPN NFL 2K5 has gone gold and will be released July 20th. The game is being released for PS2 and Xbox with a rating of "E" for everyone. There will also be a big discount courtesy of Sega and Take-Two Interactive. The bargain price it will sell for will be $19.99 which was much cheaper than Madden's $49.99.

Sega and Take-Two's aggressive release and pricing strategies have raised some concerns that NFL 2K5 is being rushed to market. It has also drawn public scorn from Electronic Arts' Jeff Brown, who told the San Jose Mercury News, "Sounds like they're throwing in the towel. They're signaling to consumers, retailers and the NFL that they are no longer selling a premium product.

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News source: GameSpot

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It has also drawn public scorn from Electronic Arts' Jeff Brown, who told the San Jose Mercury News, "Sounds like they're throwing in the towel.They're signaling to consumers, retailers and the NFL that they are no longer selling a premium product.

Here's the English translation:

"We at EA are incredibly concerned as ESPN NFL 2k4 was a much better product than Madden 2004. The announced price cut is particularly troubling as it will likely allow the ESPN NFL series to gain even more momentum on our Madden series."

NOW BEFORE ANYONE 3ITCHES:

I have been playing (and have owned multiple copies of) Madden for the past decade, and it is a solid series. However, after playing ESPN NFL 2k4, I had already planned to get 2k5 in place of Madden 2005. EA has gotten fat and competition is the only thing that stands a chance of getting them back into shape.