EA Still Working on a Basketball Game, But Won’t Confirm NBA Live

[scottyp180]

"EA Sports last*announced*a deal with the NBA in 2011. Asked if there’s an NBA deal now, Holt said, “Definitely around mobile. And then we're in discussions about what we want to do on the HD front.”"

Interesting, vague response there. So can they use the NBA license on console or not? Is it an EA decision or is NBA dictating what they can do? I know there were rumors of EA releasing some form of a free NBA Live and that the NBA might have put the kibosh on it. If that is the case I can understand why EA is unsure about what to do next, but at the same time Live 19 released 3 years ago. I feel like they should be further along than the discussion stage at this point.

Wish EA would be more transparent about what has gone on over the last 2-3 years. We went from "check back for regular updates" to "we're in discussions about what we want to do." Be nice to know what changed and why.

[TarHeelPhenom]

Quote: Originally Posted by youvalss

One problem is that EA's basketball games (and I'm talking about NBA basketball offline) usually don't show the potential out of the box. It takes so much editing to discover a solid product underneath. I wrote here earlier that Live 18 can be great with editing. But most people will never get there. I watch YouTube videos and can't believe it's the same game I play. It's like EA just doesn't care, a "whatever" kind of an attitude. I don't know why they do it.

I thought that both games(especially 18) were good out of the box and then patches messed things up. I do agree that there are certain edits that you can make to make gameplay better.

But here is where EA loses me...I decided to experiment earlier this summer with both games. I basically simmed 30 years ahead so that all of the current NBA players were gone(to my surprise a few remained lol). I just wanted to see if Gameplay would get better/worse etc. What I found is that 80% of the players had jersey numbers over 40(including point guards)...players on the same team had the same cyberfaces so you couldn't tell who was who...accessories were mismatched. It just came off as EA being lazy IMO. Without a global editor it's just too much work to edit all of the issues those games have in the long run.

[youvalss]

Quote: Originally Posted by TarHeelPhenom

I thought that both games(especially 18) were good out of the box and then patches messed things up. I do agree that there are certain edits that you can make to make gameplay better. But here is where EA loses me...I decided to experiment earlier this summer with both games. I basically simmed 30 years ahead so that all of the current NBA players were gone(to my surprise a few remained lol). I just wanted to see if Gameplay would get better/worse etc. What I found is that 80% of the players had jersey numbers over 40(including point guards)...players on the same team had the same cyberfaces so you couldn't tell who was who...accessories were mismatched. It just came off as EA being lazy IMO. Without a global editor it's just too much work to edit all of the issues those games have in the long run.

Patches ruined Live 19 for me, that's why I switched to 18 and never looked back.

I am not sure how Live 18 was out of the box, but I do know that after editing rosters I have been seeing amazing gameplay where the CPU move the ball to the open player, take smart shots, go up for a layup and pass to an open midrange shooter, take midrange shots etc. Most players had low values for Court Vision by default, it's ridiculous, and these things happen every year. By default - or even with roster updates - players are brain dead dummies. After editing this attribute plus many other attribute (even though you can't edit tendencies) it's night and day. EA just don't care what you think about their NBA/basketball representation.

[ufer2]

Seal the vault on this game

[CujoMatty]

NBA live 19 before that one patch that got the defenders to stick to their man like glue, is still my favorite basketball game to date.* It was just fun and not overcomplicated. That being said it still wasnt anywhere near where it needed to be to compete.*

its not rocket science to me. If they can make a good game it doesnt matter what the name is. It doesnt matter its ridiculous history. If its good and has a feature set that competes it will do well. They dont have to justify the cost of the NBA license and (try) releasing a game every year. Take your time, make it awesome, pay for the license when your confident you can make a splash.*

People love an underdog. People love a comeback story. EA sports should have an NBA game. They should have an MLB game as well. To do it they would need to take the long road and unfortunately they wont.*

[KennyJ1976]

I can't understand why people think a college basketball game would sell in 2021 when it didn't sell in the 2000's and both EA and 2K cancelled their games. * Ya'll do realize that college basketball was more popular back then than it is now and people still didn't buy college basketball video games.

[scottyp180]

Spoiler

Quote: Originally Posted by CujoMatty

NBA live 19 before that one patch that got the defenders to stick to their man like glue, is still my favorite basketball game to date.* It was just fun and not overcomplicated. That being said it still wasnt anywhere near where it needed to be to compete.* its not rocket science to me. If they can make a good game it doesnt matter what the name is. It doesnt matter its ridiculous history. If its good and has a feature set that competes it will do well. They dont have to justify the cost of the NBA license and (try) releasing a game every year. Take your time, make it awesome, pay for the license when your confident you can make a splash.* People love an underdog. People love a comeback story. EA sports should have an NBA game. They should have an MLB game as well. To do it they would need to take the long road and unfortunately they wont.*

As someone that's been a 2K fan since 2k2 first released on PS2 (jeez that's a lot of 2s) I thought EA was on a good track with Live 18 and 19. Taking extra time in order to release a higher quality product seemed like a good decision but with this news it's like, what did they do over the past 2+ years? How are they back to the discussion stage of what kind of basketball game(s) to release on consoles? If they just built on Live 19 over the last 2+ years they should have had a game that was worth releasing at this point.

I just don't know how they have struggled this much for this long with the series. Like you said it's not rocket science, and they have people in place that should be capable of bringing the series up to standards. But it seems like every time you think EA is turning things around with Live they take 2-3 steps back.

[jrp1918]

I just started playing Live 19 last week after only playing 2k since 2k7 and honestly it's a solid game.

It looks good, particularly the all the courts and lighting.

Franchise mode and commentary were very bare bones though.

I really like the the Street World Tour mode more than anything so maybe they're working on an new NBA Street?