Re: NBA 2K10 Interview (Game Informer)
Very intersting and candid response by Rob. The funny thing is outside of us ,the hardcore community, no one really cares or knows about Mike's move.
The whole Beluba thing makes it into a major story 
Game Informer: First and foremost, we were all surprised when Mike Wang jumped ship and went over to NBA Live. Were you guys surprised by the move?
Jones: I can’t say that we were prepared. Nobody’s ever prepared for someone just leaving and going to a direct competitor. But when all was said and done he needed to do something for his family, he wanted to try something different. For us, he was part of our team, he wasn’t our team. The NBA 2K franchise continues just like it did before he got here. We were saddened, because he’s a really good guy, but at the same time it was time for him and we moved on.
Boenisch: We have a team of 80 people, and Mike was just one of those people. The development team here, there is a number of us who are huge fans, and Mike was just one of us. He didn’t engineer the game, he didn’t put content into the game—he was just a producer.
GI: Obviously Mike was very intimate with the ideas being thrown about at Visual Concepts in regards to the NBA series. Have you had to take that into account now that he’s leading the competition?
Jones: I think that the best answer for that is, if you ever look at two games in the same genre the kind of evolve in the same way anyway. What he knew at the time was only through what we did in 2K9. NBA 2K10 is all stuff that he had no idea what we were going to move to. From a standpoint of what’s being implemented up there [in EA Canada], I think he’s taken a lot of concepts that we had already developed here, whether in unison with them or before he was there, and try to bring that flavor that they have been lacking so long. Let me put it this way, I know they have capable guys up there outside of Mike, and we have capable guys here that picked up from where he was with the same type of ingenuity for coming up with new, good stuff.
Game Informer: First and foremost, we were all surprised when Mike Wang jumped ship and went over to NBA Live. Were you guys surprised by the move?
Jones: I can’t say that we were prepared. Nobody’s ever prepared for someone just leaving and going to a direct competitor. But when all was said and done he needed to do something for his family, he wanted to try something different. For us, he was part of our team, he wasn’t our team. The NBA 2K franchise continues just like it did before he got here. We were saddened, because he’s a really good guy, but at the same time it was time for him and we moved on.
Boenisch: We have a team of 80 people, and Mike was just one of those people. The development team here, there is a number of us who are huge fans, and Mike was just one of us. He didn’t engineer the game, he didn’t put content into the game—he was just a producer.
GI: Obviously Mike was very intimate with the ideas being thrown about at Visual Concepts in regards to the NBA series. Have you had to take that into account now that he’s leading the competition?
Jones: I think that the best answer for that is, if you ever look at two games in the same genre the kind of evolve in the same way anyway. What he knew at the time was only through what we did in 2K9. NBA 2K10 is all stuff that he had no idea what we were going to move to. From a standpoint of what’s being implemented up there [in EA Canada], I think he’s taken a lot of concepts that we had already developed here, whether in unison with them or before he was there, and try to bring that flavor that they have been lacking so long. Let me put it this way, I know they have capable guys up there outside of Mike, and we have capable guys here that picked up from where he was with the same type of ingenuity for coming up with new, good stuff.
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