Today we sat in on a developer conference call with 2K Sports to glean some information about its boxing game, Don King Presents: Prizefighter which ships next week on the Xbox 360. (Other platforms ship this fall.)
On the call were Matthew Seymour, Executive Producer, as well as former champ and Hall of Famer Larry Holmes as well as Don King himself. This has to be one of the most bizarre conference calls we have ever been a part of mainly because Don King went off on various tangents for a good 20 minutes of the hour long session.
I grew up watching boxing in the 80s and know about King’s penchant for public speaking but he was in prime form today. Most of the information from King, while great to listen to, proved somewhat useless as far as the game itself (at one point he called us all John the Baptist…I have no idea why) – King said his game was the truth and that “Info was King and King is Info,” You get the idea. Larry Holmes stated he hadn’t played the game so while it was cool to chat with the champ…he couldn’t offer much on the subject matter, either. He just said to watch his jab and that he was pissed about how the nation turned on him during the Cooney fight.
Thankfully, Matthew Seymour was there to shed some light on the game.
It’s developed by Venom Games which is made up of former Rage employees – the same team that made the Rocky games. The heart of the product is in its career mode. Basically it plays out like you are watching an ESPN SportsCentury film on your life as a boxer inside and outside of the ring.
That means dealing with promoters (including King) as well as girlfriends, rivals, etc. It’s like playing out a live action drama where you make choices during the story and watch it unfold in a TV like presentation that runs for about 10-15 hours of game time.
