The lights are on
EA finally announced the death of its struggling NBA sim and confirmed the franchise is moving to EA Tiburon during an investors call. NBA Elite 11 was originally delayed after a disastrous public demo, and just last week 1UP reported the game was changing hands to the Madden developer based in Orlando, Florida.
Now Tiburon is tasked with resurrecting a moribund series that never found its footing on next-gen platforms. Year after year, NBA Live suffered from poor design decisions that favored building marketable features like the NBA Academy and Dynamic DNA over addressing the uninspiring action on the hardwood. In bringing over David Littman's dual analog control scheme that worked so well for the critically acclaimed NHL series and rebranding the game NBA Elite, EA hoped the franchise would finally gain its footing. But as the poorly received public demo showed, giving a team less than a year to completely overhaul the game mechanics wasn't enough time.
We hope the executives at EA Sports learned from the NBA Elite debacle and won't rush a game to market next year. The franchise needs new leadership and a strong sense of direction that isn't abandoned for the sake of a savvy marketing plan or a shrewd fiscal desire to put out a game for the sake of having an NBA product on the retail shelves. Another poor outing could doom the franchise for good in the face of steep competition from the NBA 2K series and low consumer confidence.
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From a review I read of Elite, it wasn't very good anyway. What I'm more worried about is the copy of NBA Jam that was packed in it. I guess this pretty much means it's gonna get a standalone release on XBLA/PSN.
nba2k11 won
I knew it finally the fall of live 2k. WINS!!!
Now 2k Football needs to come back and get Madden AKA The Unwanted Monopoly to get EA to "rethink" its most popular sport game's mechanics.
This is just sad...
Even though I love 2K's b-ball series, I don't want them slacking on innovation and quality just because we only have one company to choose from. Even though NBA Live / Elite wasn't as good as the 2K series, it still gave them some competition. We all know what happened to football!!!
"We hope the executives at EA Sports learned from the NBA Elite debacle and won't rush a game to market next year. The franchise needs new leadership and a strong sense of direction that isn't abandoned for the sake of a savvy marketing plan or a shrewd fiscal desire to put out a game for the sake of having an NBA product on the retail shelves."
You realize that that statement flies directly in the face of long-standing Electronic Arts company policy, right?
NBA 2k11!!!
I'm a bit disappointed. Elite's control scheme was evolutionary. Playing that game in practice mode made me feel like I was outside shooting around. Playing with both analog sticks is so intuitive that it becomes second nature quickly. Hope they keep that in next year's version; it was a wonderful idea.
2k has been owning ea in the nba games for the last 6+ years. ea never stood a chance this year or any other year until they do a major overhaul. nba 2k is one of the best sport games out there.
Meh, I would rather play a good college ball sim anyway...
Ha! In a nerdy way, this made my day. Now only if Madden would follow suit...
THis i pretty sad, although 2k this year was quite enjoyable, having options is never a bad thing. Unless your in Saw.
Expecting the developers to implement a new control scheme that no NBA game has ever done in less than a year is ridiculous. I think it is a great idea that would work and move the genre forward, but EA in their infinite greed decided it better to have unrealistic expectations and doom the game from jump-street and now it sits in Limbo with all of the other releases that have been letdowns this year. With Activision and Kotick garnering all the attention for ass of the year awards for 2010, I forgot that EA is the defending champion.
I'm tired of the year-by-year sports releases. They only get incrementally better and when they try a complete overhaul this happens. If sports games came every two years, there would be enough time to make the game significantly better every time.
I guess that means NBA Live finally died.
I agree with Rashad even if he is from India
This is more a blessing in disguise. Not only has Live/Elite/whatever they will call it next a mess, but 2K11 was just too strong a game, and would have crushed Elite even if it did come out a he!! of a lot better than that disaster of a demo. They need to put a couple years into a product that would be able to hit the ground running and pack enough punch to make some heads turn. They might just think of taking a play from their competitions handbook and make a compelling, quality title at a budget price of 40 dollars on PS3/360 and 30 for PC/Wii.
BOOM goes EA