Re: Sales figures?

[Fist Of Kings]

Re: Sales figures?

I think it's poor advertising(I still haven't seen any commercials), and the game still isn't strong enough to compete with the other game. EA didn't do any favors charging $65 bucks for this either, especially when the other game has more customization, modes, and a solid foundation.

I couldn't even find any preorder discounts like I can sometimes with Madden, and I didn't even see it on the shelf when I went to gamestop either. Right now, the few people that have this game are the hardcore live fans and the people tired of the other game.

[magicman32]

Re: Sales figures?

Not surprising. It's a bad basketball game that's why. Also they didn't put any money into marketing the game. Holiday sales should help a bit. But in 2014, this game still isn't ready for prime time. And definitely isn't worth $60 in a lot of people's opinion. Mine included. The live team has a lot of work to do


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[P-Dub]

Re: Sales figures?

VgChartz does not have accurate sales numbers and I would not judge the sales of Live directly from it. It's basically an educated guess and projection of figures. More accurate sales figures come from NPD and it costs money to view them. Also, I'm sure EA knows exactly how much they are selling.

[seanhazz1]

Re: Sales figures?

They had to have figured the sales would be low.. Im not worried about a cancellation of 16 because they didn't market this. Its unfortunate, its a good game.

QFT.

The lack of marketing of this good game is alarming. The sales figures are way too early since most basketball video-gamers bought a new basketball game on Oct 1 that is very good, and saw no need to buy another, especially with the recent history. With the holiday season approaching, those numbers should increase significantly, and hopefully EA will change the marketing approach. This could be a calculated loss this year and one reason why it wasn't strongly advertised. It's like they want the social media and fans to market the game for free this year to build a "buzz" and come out strong with new features and connected modes for next year's marketing approach.

EA has NOT released Q3 earnings (covers the NBA LIVE 15 release) yet, but with EA Access, sales and micro transactions from their various games, and their mobile division, they can more than support this project for a few years until it sells on its own merit again, so I think NBA 16 is still a go from that perspective.

BTW, if you go to the link I posted, the money EA is reporting there is crazy!!!! Madden is killing it this year!!

[rockchisler]

Re: Sales figures?

Not surprising. It's a bad basketball game that's why. Also they didn't put any money into marketing the game. Holiday sales should help a bit. But in 2014, this game still isn't ready for prime time. And definitely isn't worth $60 in a lot of people's opinion. Mine included. The live team has a lot of work to do


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Its not a bad basketball game. It has issues like all games but its not bad.

[magicman32]

Re: Sales figures?

Its not a bad basketball game. It has issues like all games but its not bad.

Agree to disagree. It's an improvement over 14 for sure. But given the power of these current gen consoles, it's a bad basketball game. The people who think otherwise are in the minority and ea isn't getting any praise from me until there is a lot more improvement in regards to gameplay animations, presentation, AI, movements, sig styles and modes.

It's a bad basketball game. IMO ea should just bring back nba street


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[stillfeelme]

Re: Sales figures?

Did yall really expect sales to be improved with an actual delay with a game lacking in features? The only people that are buying Live are hardcore Live fans and hardcore basketball fans that will just want to play hoops games from back in the day and a few people that don't like 2K. There are not that many people that fall into those categories to just going to run out and play $60 for Live.

I think EA ran the numbers and decided to give Live a low marketing budget because projections for sales were going to be low. I mean they were delaying the game why would you give a high budget to a game that sold poorly last year and was going to get delayed? Would you rather have that money go to improving the game or marketing the game? That is what it comes down to.

Marketing these games say on TNT or ESPN is not cheap at all. That is the place where you are expected to get your largest basketball audience demographic 30 second ads can easily approach 20K+. Just to produce and film a commercial you are talking 100K easy, magazines ads $1500 to say 20K+. Advertising money just adds up very quickly, think about it every commercial and add 20K. Now flip that number to number of buyers expected to buy the game after seeing the product. I have seen some advertising on websites

I would expect more local advertising in Portland with billboards with Lilliard because fans will support their star player though. There are simply not enough casual fans or on the fence fans to justify spending a high amount of money on advertising this game .EA is ok right now getting money streams in preferably ultimate team. NBA Live is like a long term project because the NBA is growing globally. They are willing to take some low sales in the short term to make that long term money especially as long as EA overall is not suffering.

Also just to bring this into a music comparison. Releasing the game is like releasing the album the real money seems to be made with the tour money and this case the ultimate team money is now tour money. Now you make money off the album but every artist makes much more money on tour. EA is releasing the albums just to get that tour money.

[zrohman]

Re: Sales figures?

Right.

This game definitely should not have outsold NBA Live 14.

Live 14 had hype behind it. Live 14 was the first NBA Live game to come back in 4 years. It had all the NBA Live people behind it.

Not only that but the game was available at the launch day of the Xbox One, and was available quickly to the PS4 players. That also would help increase sales.

But honestly Live 14 was such a bad basketball game that half of Live's fanbase disappeared. Not only that but 2K14 was so good that it crushed Live out of the picture.

Then Live 15 gets delayed, and on top of that 2K15 comes out to absolutely amazing reviews. The only plus anyone had to buy Live was basically the servers being better.

So I think it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to sell more copies. I think they will come close or they may even tie what Live 14 did, because I personally believe Live 15 is a really good game. I think it could be a great game after they patch it. But the are going to be behind due to everything I mentioned.

This is coming from someone who was very hyped about NBA Live. I bought NBA 2K and then I sold it and bought NBA Live 14. I loved how the players moved, and even though the gameplay was terrible, I loved how the players moved, I loved how they dribbled, I love how it put me in control. I hated lots of little things about 2K, like how the commentary, even though it's great, they say the same thing over and over about each player every time I play. I hated how I've heard the same announcers for like 5 years. I hated how the players feet would move. I hated the speed of the game.

So Live 14 was a horrible game but I game I wanted to like. Later I sold it, then I bought 2K14 again. I changed my mind once Live 14 got patched. I bought it again. Later in the year I sold Live 14 again because it just wasn't good. Then I bought it again when it dropped to $12 on amazon.

I have wanted to give Live my money and support. I sell my games on my own so I didn't lose much money experimenting. But bottom line was Live 14, even for a crazy Live fan like me, gave me some hope, but it was pretty terrible if we are honest. Live fans stuck with it because we preferred the style of the game, not because it was a good game.

Live 15 has flaws, but is a great game. But the battle it has to climb is very large. 2K has all but shut out live from the market, and with no marketing and no value it's pretty much done. I read every black Friday ad, and I believe Walmart was the only one who even had the game listed. (It is on sale for $25 on black friday. Great deal).

Anyway. My point is nobody should have expected Live 15 to have great sales. Live 14 had way more working for it. Even though Live 15 is a great game the ceiling is not very high.

I am extremely confident in the devs at EA and I believe with a patch or two this game may equal or be close to as good as NBA 2K. I definitely prefer Live 15 over 2K, I even sold my copy of 2K. I think Live 15 is extremely fun. I prefer how the game plays, and I think so many things are realistic about how it plays. I think it needs some animation work, late game a.i. and a few other things, but overall I think a few patches would make this game fantastic.

So once those patches are made I think the sky is the limit for Live 16. The problem is with sales so bad on 2 straight NBA Live games and 2K only improving I don't know if Live 16 will come out. As someone who hopes it does, I still think they may be hyping us up just to squeeze what they can out of us. It wouldn't be too hard to pull the plug and make an announcement that NBA Live 16 won't be made. Even with the promises it wouldn't do much to hurt EA in the end. I'm hoping that they stick with it, and I'm hoping they save up, patch this game, and market the crap out of Live 16. Because personally I think 2K has many problems that they can't fix. I think they would need to rehaul their engine and change their game. I think they have come so far that they won't change much anymore (Except game modes). I'm confident that Live can make a comeback, it's just a matter of if they have the basketballs to come out with another Live, and to patch Live 15.

One more thing. Will they really patch Live 15 like Live 14 was? Live 14 only had so much work put in because even their loyal fanbase was outraged. But Live 15 has had fairly positive reviews. Fixing late game a.i and a couple of other things might be all they will do. I'm hoping they don't get lazy, just because there is a more positive reception to Live 15.

*drops the mic

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Re: Sales figures?

Maybe they thought marketing wouldn't help numbers much and was a waste this year ?

[cherone21]

Re: Sales figures?

No wonder why I can never get an online match. This is a pretty good two player game. Hope more people buy it.

[The 24th Letter]

Sales figures?

.............

[kobestopper]

Re: Sales figures?

demo was solid but i wouldn't spend 60 bucks on this. maybe if they took the cheaper price route to regain their fans it probably would have done a lot better....still not too late, i'd buy it at 29.99. Maybe 39 but nothing more.

[ChrisCP3Paul]

Re: Sales figures?

^ definitely not worth full price.... I was bored one day and I paid for digital copy,.... $60 I'll never get back, I immediately regretted it the next day.... not so much the money, but just the principle of it.... the way EA operates is shady at best, never mind the whole mess the Live team has created since they came back with 14, it has been nothing but lies and BS...

I don't feel good at all giving people like that money... I mean I don't believe the people who actually make the game are slimy snakes, but the people in charge definitely are and they call the shots

that being sad, I think EA should just give up this console generation and come with something totally and completely new in a few years when the new consoles come out..

My opinion and many would agree that the xbone and ps4 are not at all what they were hyped up to be, Microsoft and Sony really fooled us into thinking we would have a guaranteed 1080p 60fps experience in all the games... typical marketing bull, but it turns out both consoles are quite under-powered as it's extremely rare that we get a graphically intensive game that can do anything close to those specs, and thats the reason these consoles won't last long.

[GisherJohn24]

Re: Sales figures?

I believe in word of mouth, and the user reviews as a whole around the web? I think people will see that and give the game as shot. Amazon even has decent reviews for both platforms, 4 out of 5 avg. I think EA was expecting low sales and 16 is going to be their do and die b'ball game. If the game is awesome, I mean really awesome, and it gets those figures, then that will be it for the franchise IMO.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Re: Sales figures?

Dang I'm surprised they aren't giving up