At least for one day, the customer was totally right - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

At least for one day, the customer was totally right Stuck

Posted on September 28, 2010 at 12:20 AM.

(41)

It all started here on OS.

One could argue the revolution began on this very blog space, but let's be honest: it wasn't just me. It was the videos by the basketball faithful on YouTube, including the viral 500k Elite Jesus video. It was the outcry on various forums.

It was the consumer with a voice louder and clearer than it's ever been.

"This product is crap, and we demand something better."

While I can't pin down when the decision to 'delay' Elite 11 was made, I'm betting the decision was made early Monday morning in a board room full of executives with looks on their faces which resembled deer in headlights.

But that's not the story here -- at least not tonight.

The story today at least, is that the customer finally won triumphantly in the sports gaming realm. We aren't here to be messed around with, and when you release a product that isn't up to par we aren't taking it. The customer knows when we see a piece of crap sitting on the store shelf for $60. That's a lot of money.

We know highway robbery when it's apparent.

And for at least one night, the customer is indeed 100% correct. You can say sports gamers just let EA know what they already did deep down: release a product which is just atrocious and see your basketball dreams die a very painful and lonely death.

It also confirms our suspicions that EA is panicking. How much more erratic can you get than getting the disks prepped, shipped, and moved only to decide that you just spent millions on the biggest compact-disk recycling project in history?

If anything, 2K has to be enjoying this show. Because no matter how anyone who might still be holding onto the EA basketball flag today spins it, this is nothing less than a full fledged retreat by EA. They knew they were beat in every facet and not only a retreat and regroup was necessary, it was the only choice other than full on basketball cancellation.

Let's just hope EA does the right thing and releases Elite 12 instead of Elite 11 as a stopgap around playoff time -- but more on that in a blog tomorrow.

Because today is about us, it's about the consumer, it's about being proven that we have a voice and that if something is so egregiously wrong -- we can make something happen. This may become a new trend, it might even set off a revolution in sports gaming development cycles.

But for the rest of the night, let's just relish in the fact that the consumer was heard loud and clear and EA listened -- no matter if was due to necessity or simply out of convenience.

Power to the consumer OSers, we made a difference today.

Chris is the Executive Editor of Operation Sports and maintains this blog on the site. He is also a native Oklahoman and avid storm chaser. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisSnr.

Comments

# 1 #1^2kgamer @ Sep 28

#Co-Sign this entire post

# 2 Blak_Baki_Hanma @ Sep 28

Let all SimGod's children say Amen...

"Amen"

# 3 Game4fun @ Sep 28

Wow I was gonna maybe buy Elite untill I heard all the negative feedback. I mostly play madden and havent touched the basketball games in a while. 2k11 should be one hell of a game you would think from all the praise it's getting!

# 4 GamerzIgnite @ Sep 28

...or they just looked at their product and said "this needs more time" like a lot of other genre's do on a regular basis and delay their games.

# 5 KingDaniel81 @ Sep 28

September/27/2010
NBA 2K has officially won the battle of basketball video games
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! NBA 2K11 WOOO

# 6 rspencer86 @ Sep 28

As if we needed more evidence that EA Sports suffers from a complete lack of leadership, foresight, planning, and follow-through, this was it.

It started last year when it appeared they were heading in the right direction with Live 10. There were some very positive aspects of that game, and it was easy to see the building blocks were in place for a solid game.

Then EA did what it does best: change direction for all of the wrong reasons. When upper management saw the franchise continue to lag behind 2K's product, it decided to overreact and completely scrap everything that made Live 10 good in order to target the "masses." Here, EA shows a complete lack of understanding of what their customers want, what the market is asking for and how to earn back the consumer's hard-earned dollars.

So EA goes in a completely new direction, a direction that most, if not all, of the development team knew would take more than the span of one year to get into playable shape. But the EA Management probably turned a deaf ear to the devs, pushing ahead with the standard release date in mind.

Finally, there was no sticking their head in the sand to avoid the state the game is currently in as the demo and subsequent viral videos made these painfully obvious. EA's brass came face-to-face with the cold hard truth, and the only option was to delay the game.

WTF's great blog about EA's Failure to Build Upon Previous Successes highlights how EA just doesn't get it. 2K Basketball did not grow to become the #1 basketball game by making drastic shifts in vision and theme every year or by targeting casual gamers with hollow marketing buzzwords ("true physics," "dice rolls," etc.). They did it by listening to what gamers wanted, and doing everything they could to give them exactly that. And they continued with their plan, even when sales in the early stages were far from gangbusters. SCEA has done the same thing with The Show.

Blaming this on the development team is wrong. I think EA has a lot of talented designers, coders, and animators on their team. But just like in sports, when leadership and management are pushing in the wrong direction, no amount of talent can overcome it.

# 7 scatman @ Sep 28

I am the scatman, and I approve this message....

but seriously, after listening to the OS radio show, I will enjoy the hell out of NBA 2K11, but I will be anxiously anticipating the future of all basketball games going forward. Community insight is the only way to really enjoy success in these markets, and if 2K can continue that and EA (who seems to finally get that) we will all have something to look forward to.

But on the real, EA does not want any part of 2K this season, I mean EA was and is looking about as bad as Lebron James' "the decision".

Get back on the grind and lets see what difference a year and community insight makes on both sides. CHEERS TO US; THE FANS!!!!!

# 8 skynet23 @ Sep 28

thats why i will cause hell and i think a whole lot of people will if its true about how bad the graphical difference is between 2k11 on the ps3 and 360. this is why i love forums because us gamers can be heard. if we dont like something like nba elite we can speak up and these billion dollar companies have no choice but to give us what we want or make the changes that we want. because at the end of the day they are making these games for us gamers and not for themselves

# 9 statum71 @ Sep 28

Good post. But I'm still shocked EA pulled the plug one week before release. If thats not listening to the customer about a bad bad demo then what is?

Dead on Chris.

# 10 NASIR2385 @ Sep 28

Where would we be with out OS. Thanks chris czar TD and everybody that represents the SIM nation. You guys rock

# 11 H to the Oza @ Sep 28

Quote:


	biggest compact-disk recycling project in history?

Got a source on that one?

Just kidding

Totally shocked by this news, but its the correct thing to do in this situation. Elite 11 should get scraped and focus should turn immediately to Elite 12. Hopefully it turns out to be a mind blowing video game...

Until that time, im gona try to figure out these damn hard 2K controls

cheers!

cheers

# 12 DirtyJerz32 @ Sep 28

Cosign this blog. Its about time we get what we want.

This is also probably the reason why Beluda went back to 2K. He didn't like the direction EA was headed. I would've jumped ship as well.

Back to EA though. Maybe they'll start taking their games seriously and put out a product that deserves our $60.

# 13 DirtyJerz32 @ Sep 28

# 14 Dazraz @ Sep 28

I think this is something the whole Operation Sports community should be celebrating. Not that Elite is cancelled but that our voices have been heard.

Hopefully this will be a wake up call for EA. The NBA franchise was the only game EA were to release this year without exclusivity on the official license & they got completely hammered by the opposition. Trust me if there was no NBA 2K11 this year EA would have released Elite without a seconds thought. It is time for all developers to realise that gamers will not be taken for mugs any longer.

Licensing exclusivity should no longer be an option available to games developers. The NBA rivalry this year has seen 2 big events. The unending list of improvements made to an already impressive 2K game & the cancellation of an awful game that, had it been the only NBA title, would have still been released to an audience that had no choice.

Well done to all those guys that made the effort to make their feelings felt. You have been heard!!!

# 15 bonannogiovanni @ Sep 28

While I agree that given the state of the game EA developers need a full year (or more) to overhaul animations and build on RTP, so Elite 11 would necessarily be a stopgap, I do think that releasing some sort of DLC around May 11 (something similar to NCAA 09's March Madness Edition) will give us the opportunity to provide more feedback in sight of the october 11 release.

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