Why Midway Games And NBA Ballers FAILED | A Retrospective

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#gaming #videoessay
Midway Games was one of the original video publishers and produced iconic franchises and memorable games. Even a few in NBA games but in the end they couldn't last the test of time. What happened to Midway and their NBA games?

Пікірлер: 105

  • @icrashout
    @icrashout3 ай бұрын

    Peja Stojakovic is so broken on NBA Ballers. He would make half court shots constantly.

  • @mramisuzuki6962

    @mramisuzuki6962

    2 ай бұрын

    This explains Gilbert Arenas lunacy.

  • @Kings0424
    @Kings04243 ай бұрын

    Yeah, I agree. Midway was great back in the day, and I miss playing NBA Ballers. We really need competition back in gaming

  • @namelesintelect4016

    @namelesintelect4016

    3 ай бұрын

    They killed a lot of competition for regular gamers by making everything online. Once a fan base has built up it quickly turns into all pros and streamers

  • @Kings0424

    @Kings0424

    3 ай бұрын

    @@namelesintelect4016 For real

  • @michaelcatalano6208

    @michaelcatalano6208

    3 ай бұрын

    @@namelesintelect4016agreed man now it’s all about buying players to make a ultimate team instead of picking up and playing as the teams in the game already it’s bs if you ask me

  • @racceflippa6723

    @racceflippa6723

    2 ай бұрын

    More street ball games than less

  • @URBANKINGPIN
    @URBANKINGPIN3 ай бұрын

    I really want NBA street NFL street and Fight Night to come back❤

  • @schnarfschnarf5886

    @schnarfschnarf5886

    3 ай бұрын

    I'd fight you for a fight night my dude

  • @Ro_Mezy

    @Ro_Mezy

    2 ай бұрын

    And def jam

  • @waynecurryjr1134

    @waynecurryjr1134

    2 ай бұрын

    1000x's yes.... been saying this for years... bring them back or make a brand new 1! 💯🙌🏾👏🏾🙏🏾

  • @jumpman2326
    @jumpman23263 ай бұрын

    I miss EA Sports Big and THQ so much 😭

  • @Kings0424

    @Kings0424

    3 ай бұрын

    Me too. I still got some of there games

  • @georgepaulthagoat5311

    @georgepaulthagoat5311

    3 ай бұрын

    Ea sports BIG man I loved that intro

  • @Venom3254
    @Venom32543 ай бұрын

    NFL BLITZ and NHL HITZ were fun to play.

  • @reggiejames8626

    @reggiejames8626

    2 ай бұрын

    We need remakes!

  • @Venom3254

    @Venom3254

    2 ай бұрын

    @@reggiejames8626 Definitely

  • @streetcorpcast
    @streetcorpcast3 ай бұрын

    Just realized Shaq was on the front cover of a game called Hoopz...thats wild (Shaq dated Hoopz from Flavor of Love for those that dont know)

  • @lanceyrenzo932
    @lanceyrenzo9323 ай бұрын

    I miss the days of variety. having different basketball games to choose from ranging in quality and realism. I remember having nba live 2002, nba 2k22, nba courtside 2002, nba street and loving them all for different reasons😭 I do love the realism 2k started bringing especially after 11, but the micro transactions mixed with the whole occasional feeling that they don’t care because they have no competition can really make it hard to enjoy😢

  • @_ElijahEarl
    @_ElijahEarl2 ай бұрын

    That mid 00s period where basketball culture and Rap really collided like never before. I call it the Hip Hop Era

  • @dannyocean7090
    @dannyocean70902 ай бұрын

    No one ever brings up "Showtime, NBA on NBC"

  • @Chris-oy3zn

    @Chris-oy3zn

    2 ай бұрын

    One of my favorite games on Ps1

  • @MyDeeroc
    @MyDeeroc2 ай бұрын

    Fashion in the mid 2000s was amazing

  • @MaatSun33

    @MaatSun33

    2 ай бұрын

    & it’s coming back now look at Shai & Jordan Clarkson

  • @namelesintelect4016
    @namelesintelect40163 ай бұрын

    Mid-2000s fashion has nothing on the goofy shit young cats are wearing today. Can't even tell who's who now.

  • @clos88

    @clos88

    3 ай бұрын

    Thank you!!!!

  • @Kings0424

    @Kings0424

    3 ай бұрын

    Not really. Mid-2000s fashion was already popular

  • @Sincere1441
    @Sincere14413 ай бұрын

    Man I play NBA Ballers almost every day. I wish Midway could come back...

  • @KaylenCameron-zw3sv
    @KaylenCameron-zw3sv2 ай бұрын

    Ready2Rumble boxing a midway classic too

  • @GameDayonYT
    @GameDayonYT3 ай бұрын

    Nice job! As someone who wanted to cover this series in a video, you did it better than I would have.

  • @Joe_Parmesan
    @Joe_ParmesanАй бұрын

    Thanks for the video! I had love for Midway Games during that era. They knew how to make game fun and added a fair amount of personality and flair to their games.

  • @colbystallone9227
    @colbystallone9227Ай бұрын

    You deserve way more subs with the quality and time put in your vids, you’ll gain a lot more subs, just a matter of time. super quality vids bro

  • @JWUniverse
    @JWUniverse3 ай бұрын

    Played only the first Ballas Game it was ok. But The Street Series is where it was at… Hope you’ll do the NBA, NFL, & FIFA Street Games sometime.

  • @william58295

    @william58295

    3 ай бұрын

    FACTS! Ea sports aint sh*t for erasing theiir BIG department

  • @design1of470
    @design1of4703 ай бұрын

    I remember buying Hoopz and playing it for a day. We went back to Showtime.

  • @JuanMunoz-ie2lr
    @JuanMunoz-ie2lr3 ай бұрын

    I really miss Midway games. But mostly, I miss the days in which we had a variety of choices for sports games. Given the pathetically bad state of modern sports video games, you really wonder what could've been if exclusive license agreements weren't a thing.

  • @TimsNeggs
    @TimsNeggs2 ай бұрын

    NBA balla phenom sound track is 🔥. Every song !

  • @Joe_Parmesan
    @Joe_ParmesanАй бұрын

    I've found it interesting that many people who wanted the realism in sports games played those games like they were the Arcade style games anyway - I'm talking about the folks who, when playing Madden, consistently dropped back 10 yards with their QB, before launching a pass 30+ yards downfield. Or, the folks who would only seek out perimeter shooters and swingmen in an NBA game, never bothering to use any other type of player

  • @ByronJohnsonpodcast
    @ByronJohnsonpodcast2 ай бұрын

    Good vid man, i never truly knew why they went down but you laid it out perfectly subscribed

  • @DTMJR1987
    @DTMJR19872 ай бұрын

    Good shit, subbed

  • @SketchBlakely
    @SketchBlakely3 ай бұрын

    Another notable detail is them getting sued for one of their best games, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy for parallels to previously written works by an outside source. I've heard people credit this for the fall of the company, but arcade dependency definitely still ranks high amongst the chief reasons this company went down.

  • @thecomedicgenius373

    @thecomedicgenius373

    2 ай бұрын

    Man that Psi-Ops game was fun as hell

  • @youngcnyce
    @youngcnyce2 ай бұрын

    I wish Midway made a comeback id definitely support their products again. I always had more fun playing arcade style games than simulation

  • @Joe_Parmesan

    @Joe_Parmesan

    Ай бұрын

    same here. What's kinda funny is that many people stress the idea of wanting realism through a Simulation style game, but they end up playing like it's an Arcade style game

  • @illsolo5996
    @illsolo59963 ай бұрын

    I had the 1st NBA “Shootout”, “Showtime”, “2K”, “Streets”, “In the zone”(Still one of my favorites) and all the all the “Lives” until 2007… You are right back in the days we was FLOODED with NBA games. great good and bad ones.

  • @trvnksfrm1k
    @trvnksfrm1k3 ай бұрын

    Midway’s NFL series was underrated

  • @alexhunt5311
    @alexhunt53113 ай бұрын

    THIS VIDEO WAS FIRE BRO HAD ME HOOKED THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH !

  • @basedzoe
    @basedzoe2 ай бұрын

    Good video 💯

  • @mramisuzuki6962
    @mramisuzuki69622 ай бұрын

    You coming at my long tees? You have chosen death.

  • @KyreeseAlford1999
    @KyreeseAlford19993 ай бұрын

    I kindly respect people and critics opinions on NBA Hoopz but hate me for saying this unpopular opinion, I love playing NBA Hoopz and I played it a while ago last year in 2023 and it was so much fun than NBA 2K24 IMO! One of the most UNDERRATED NBA basketball video games I’ve ever played! Anyway, I should revisit NBA Ballers again and check out NBA Ballers: Phenom for the first time! It’s been a long while since I’ve recently played NBA Ballers and it was on the Xbox via Xbox 360 and I’ve never played NBA Ballers: Phenom before and I’ve only seen people play it like KZreadrs, Tray and xChaseMoney. Great job on the video! Keep up the good work and I hope more videos like this to come soon in the future!

  • @VersezGaming

    @VersezGaming

    3 ай бұрын

    Firstly thank you so much for the channel’s very first Super Thanks! I really want to figure out emulation soon so I can play these old games and make videos out of them. Because honestly NBA Hoopz looks pretty good to me. And also NBA Ballers definitely going to have to buy another Xbox 360 and collect some old games.

  • @DamnMixes
    @DamnMixes2 ай бұрын

    00 was the craziest gaming decade. So many amazing games released in a quite short period of time. You had to move fast to survive and Midway did not release enough games worth attention in that period of time. They got ate up by EA and Rockstar Games because they couldn't come up with another cash cow outside their MK series. Even their Mortal Kombat games in the 00s felt like they could have been better, they ditched some classic characters and when they released Armageddon with ALL characters, the fighting engine was very basic because of technical limitations. And then when they tried to compete with major gaming series, they failed as expected. Remember that LA Rush game? It was nowhere near Midnight Club/Underground series. Then they did the TNA Impact game which again was no competition to a major Smackdown vs Raw series. And so on and so on. I enjoyed NBA Ballers but it wasn't gonna be a big gaming series like Mortal Kombat.

  • @wildboy6718
    @wildboy67182 ай бұрын

    Good channel you deserve more subscribers 💯

  • @beezies2613
    @beezies26132 ай бұрын

    NHL OPEN ICE WAS SOOO SLEPT ON

  • 3 ай бұрын

    This chan deserves 100k subs

  • @john-sp8jk
    @john-sp8jk2 ай бұрын

    They also made some great and super fun slug fest baseball ⚾ games!👍

  • @gleamsatm
    @gleamsatm3 ай бұрын

    Dope channel

  • @PontFlair
    @PontFlair3 ай бұрын

    I enjoyed NBA Hangtime. Is that an unpopular opinion?

  • @_Juukbox_

    @_Juukbox_

    3 ай бұрын

    Nope. Not at all

  • @Sniper_T_2x

    @Sniper_T_2x

    3 ай бұрын

    I like nhl hits 03 too

  • @tominator7728

    @tominator7728

    3 ай бұрын

    Arguably better than NBA Jam, although less nostalgic!

  • @reggiejames8626

    @reggiejames8626

    2 ай бұрын

    Hang time was the best game of the series! The team on fire, the spin move.

  • @tominator7728

    @tominator7728

    2 ай бұрын

    @@reggiejames8626 yes! Those to components are what did it for me!

  • @yungsosamusicbwc2464
    @yungsosamusicbwc24642 ай бұрын

    It was midway,who tf wanna play basketball that look like mortal kombat everyday

  • @malo6411
    @malo64113 ай бұрын

    I hope Midway makes a comeback

  • @rexquintonchief5666
    @rexquintonchief56662 ай бұрын

    I had NBA Ballers when I was a kid not gunna lie cuzz them games are still good. 💯

  • @ryananderson5202
    @ryananderson52023 ай бұрын

    Now in our open market we get to have one product for each sport so we don't split up the audience. They have to spread the message you know.

  • @Joka.-
    @Joka.-3 ай бұрын

    NBA Ballers is probably my FAVORITE basketball game, NBA Ballers on the of Xbox was my High School days

  • @davidvillela7476
    @davidvillela74762 ай бұрын

    I had a lot of fun playing ballers

  • @sashabanks9381
    @sashabanks93813 ай бұрын

    as a kid i absolute loved nba ballers, i wasn't good in simulation sports games(unless it was wrestling) so i always strived to be good at the arcade/street games. i always loved committing the grab fouls and mc supernatural i believe was the announcer would always be like "you aint playing mortal kombat/this isnt nfl blitz". i recently i acquired a steam deck whihc most my hours have gone to nfl street or nba ballers. i must say playing ballers today, the game still holds up. the cross over animation, the crowd/alley hoops, off the heezys and the house special dunk are so engaging and fun. of course as well, the 2000s business savvy street bagging around the corner of wall street clothes you would see the players in during the load screens, menu options and such was always ....funny lol

  • @CHENOTV
    @CHENOTV3 ай бұрын

    nba showtime on n64 was so lit

  • @MrSecondchancebro
    @MrSecondchancebro3 ай бұрын

    Midway is fire NBA Jams and Hangtime gave me some great entertainment, but when 2k dropped It was over for every body else the graphical leap was amazing.

  • @thecomedicgenius373
    @thecomedicgenius3732 ай бұрын

    I want Blitz the league to come back😢

  • @quann06
    @quann06Ай бұрын

    Technically it's Virtual Concepts. Take Two bought them from Sega.

  • @Gatheryourselve2getherNOI
    @Gatheryourselve2getherNOI2 ай бұрын

    Anybody remember: IF ITS IN THE GAME……..E.A.SPORTS ITS IN THE GAME!!!❤

  • @flightkidd123
    @flightkidd1233 ай бұрын

    I actually miss them

  • @thaatruthseeker3725
    @thaatruthseeker37252 ай бұрын

    The suffering was the best midway game besides mk shaolin monks

  • @Mikedaboss123
    @Mikedaboss1233 ай бұрын

    Not shocked they games never evolved not even mk . After a while it was like ok . Mk and ballers 2 was the only thing they had going

  • @Ziki-P
    @Ziki-P3 ай бұрын

    Take two the mlb license into the 20 teens, they could of renewed and didn’t, which was a shame, a few tweaks could of made it a nice game, presentation was lit just too many glitches

  • @VersezGaming

    @VersezGaming

    3 ай бұрын

    Actually never got to play the 2K baseball games. Got to buy myself some old gen consoles and see if I can track down some of these old games.

  • @Lex-up6mg
    @Lex-up6mg3 ай бұрын

    Sure ballers failed but they will live for her for NBA on NBC arcade. Found one in an old laundry mat around 2010. Barely hanging on but still great

  • @JohnDaDong93
    @JohnDaDong933 ай бұрын

    Naturally i hope the pendulum can swing back. Simulation sports games feel bland and overly focused on micro transactions. We need some fun alternative sports/arcade games again.

  • @tuut1241
    @tuut12413 ай бұрын

    NBA Live 2003 was a good NBA game by EA. Aftee 2003 NBA live started going down in quality and content. NBA 2K soon took over as the best NBA game maker.

  • @hitek9too255

    @hitek9too255

    3 ай бұрын

    Yea Live 2003 was one of my favorites.

  • @Joe_Parmesan

    @Joe_Parmesan

    Ай бұрын

    The NBA Live games were fine, but 2K made improvements every year, almost like they were holding anticipation for the next-gen consoles (at the time, the Xbox 360 and PS3). EA didn't really have a smooth transition and that seems to be when they really started losing folks, at least with regards to the NBA games.

  • @musthemc
    @musthemc3 ай бұрын

    I played tge hell out of these games

  • @Joka.-
    @Joka.-3 ай бұрын

    If I had a Xbox Series X the would be the 1st game I’d get, on Gawd

  • @PontFlair
    @PontFlair3 ай бұрын

    Idk if the MLB license was "lost" per se. Take-2 put out a lot of sh____ MLB games after taking the license as revenge to EA Sports over the NFL license.

  • @MyDeeroc
    @MyDeeroc2 ай бұрын

    Instead of losing the 400 million tryna make more arcade style basketball games they should have use 150 million to make a simulation basketball game and another 150 million for a football simulation and i think if they did they would still making both to this day. Company greedy and be afraid to Innovate is why they failed.

  • @TravisGarnett
    @TravisGarnett3 ай бұрын

    @11:44 - ❤‍🔥 @12:20 - ...especially with the PS2 version having online-play capability! 'preciate this retrospective, #Versez_Gaming! 👊😎

  • @jamesbates5552
    @jamesbates55522 ай бұрын

    They should have cut there losses while they was up lol they knew the couldn’t compete

  • @MyDeeroc
    @MyDeeroc2 ай бұрын

    I have the one with dwight howard on ps3

  • @dregold_zone7
    @dregold_zone72 ай бұрын

    NBA Ballers was dope. Bro mentioned baggy clothes was awful ok cool but what about these super tight pants and medium t-shirts dudes be wearing ijs

  • @RoodyCall
    @RoodyCall2 ай бұрын

    Nnnn-bbbb-aaaa babababalleeeeers

  • @dezricop9090
    @dezricop90902 ай бұрын

    Man, bruh I use to love NBA Ballers when I was a kid, me and my little brother played together and had a blast on their. Now NBA 2k is now is trash and it ain't that same as it used to be. I think NBA 2k1-2k17 was the best basketball games ever and now take two is finessing our pockets because it's about marketing and sales. They also making 2k garbage since 2k18 came out and now NBA 2k18-2k24 is the worst 2ks ever in my opinion. Midway probably can't compete with 2k because 2k was super popular back then. Now they got people playing 2k all day long to grind up to 99 overall and get this when making a NBA 2k player they don't give us a full 99 overall they give us half or more less attribute caps on the players we make now which is ridiculous. 2k trying to make us stuck in the matrix on Playing 2k now and lose focus on our goals. Stop the madness and invest in yourselves and keep grinding and keep hustling. Good video by the way I don't realize someone would make a video about this at all. I will order me a PS2 and I still got NBA Ballers right now and will play it and it will be better then 2k. For the people that spending their hard earned money just stop investing in 2k bruh it's not worth your time and your energy at all bruh. Like I said invest yourself and invest your money to make you more money. Q more thing I don't agree as well that Midway basketball games was the boom and very great competitive basketball game back then. I rather buy old basketball games then the recent ones and I know y'all thinking, some y'all like playing against other people online basketball game but I would play when it's quiet and don't have to hear people crying complaining and talking trash to me which isn't that serious lol. GOD Bless.

  • @antmac6158
    @antmac61582 ай бұрын

    Everytime you say parity i hear parody

  • @Eichward_SKV
    @Eichward_SKV2 ай бұрын

    2000's fashion style... Sry. I know you don't wanna hear that.. but every fashion style come back, even the bad one's. ^^

  • @armaniransom9296
    @armaniransom92962 ай бұрын

    You wrong mk for ps2 save them mk shaolin monk saved mid way

  • @tristandelacruz-eh2wn
    @tristandelacruz-eh2wn3 ай бұрын

    You’re very bitter with the baggy fashion statement. The short shorts and body fits now are the same from the 70s and 80s. Its just comes and goes. Wait till another iconic superstar thats into hip hop fashion and we’ll have them again 🤭🤭

  • @ScottiePimpinn
    @ScottiePimpinn2 ай бұрын

    It took 10 minutes just to talk about the damn game smh

  • @garretsmith850
    @garretsmith850Ай бұрын

    Parody

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