The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

[MDSavageBeast]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

I don't even give damn anymore... After reading this deeply rooted article by WTF_OS, I had to create a burner email to make this account.. I can't stay mad at the fact that this guy has been the voice, the mild temper meant approach he's took over the years to get the authentic sim side of the community heard!! This is truly a masterpiece!!! Hats off!

You don't have to let us down easy WTF_OS... We all know EA has let us down once more... We know EA believes The One will become something in the future! We know PRO AM looks exactly like NBA 2K and 2K1 on the Dreamcast to people that bought NBA live 2000 & 2001... Don't be afraid to say it! I'll do the honors!

EA WILL FAIL TIME AND TIME AGAIN IF THEY DONT REPRESENT WHAT MADE THEM!! Whenever they decide to develop NBA LIVE BASKETBALL again, that's when they'll start selling units!! Period... 2K SPORTS knows this!! That's it!

WTF_OS Thanks for sharing this with us!!! From a franchise only guy for the past 20+ years, I have ONE question for you: DID YOU DROP THE MIC????

This post was almost as good as WTF's article, not even gonna lie lol.

[vtcrb]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

When you have no more news, you hype your mobile game. Lol... https://mobile.twitter.com/EASPORTSN...02325211836416

Obviously I hope I am wrong but after the article yesterday, it was like crickets and then you tweet that. #PRIORITIES

[Bootzilla]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to all of the finer details and minutiae when it comes to being super involved in franchise modes but I appreciate the effort of companies that give you a full franchise experience as long as the user can choose how involved or uninvolved they want to be. That being said, Live 18 gave us nothing. They cannot do that again. Can they?

While I honestly have never in my history of gaming going back to Bulls vs Blazers (or whenever the first of the "modern" gaming systems arrived) finished an 82 game season (Actually playing all of the games). I believe I may have finished a truncated season (28 games). That being said, I love simming and scouting and free agency and drafting. We have to have salary caps and injuries and progression/regression. Those are fundamental and necessary and anything less than that is unacceptable in this day and age. I'd be cool with something similar to Madden's scouting and offseason of free agency and the draft. I know it's not super deep but it at least touches on all of the basic fundamentals of a pro sports simulation.


Live 18 was such a breath of fresh air on the court. Proper spacing, cpu teammates understanding how to rotate defensively, fun on ball defense, the ability to fast break with out defenders sucking into you and morphing through your player, the ability to exploit mismatches ( If Zaza gets caught in a switch against a guard you can blow by him just like IRL). Players not clipping their entire bodies through your defenders when you play good defense. All of those things were such pluses. If they add on to what they laid down last year Live 19 has a chance to be awesome but if the franchise is bareboned unfortunately they will have once again delivered a partial game.

[dasunsrule32]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

When you have no more news, you hype your mobile game. Lol... https://mobile.twitter.com/EASPORTSN...02325211836416

Obviously I hope I am wrong but after the article yesterday, it was like crickets and then you tweet that. #PRIORITIES

Stinks, I already pre-ordered it on PS4. So I'm stuck this year, I'm out next year if franchise and online doesn't get fixed. I don't mind playing the one, but I don't want that to be my main game mode. It just doesn't do it for me. It's cool scanning yourself, it's cool, playing through the league and all, but it's just not the same as playing a franchise. I miss online leagues as well, and really want them back.

Please EA, for the love of Pete, listen and bring back the meat and potatoes, I'm tired of the fluff!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Fist Of Kings]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Hope that I'm wrong, but I feel that if there were notable improvements in franchise mode, we would have heard it by now. It doesn't just need a minor buff either, it needs a total teardown.

[swac07]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Yoooo..... Excellent write-up WTF :Applause:
Been playing live since the bulls vs blazers days myself and I agree with everything you mentioned!

Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

[WTF]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Appreciate it swac07. I've always brought the same voice down to Tiburon when I go down and try to represent the collective voices of this community man.

I want this game to succeed... but right now man... with the state of 18 and the total experience, I'm finding a hard path to success until they start focusing on something other than The One, I just don't see it.

They're missing a HUGE part of the market. Guys like us, who are older, who have the money to spend and buy games, etc, but who also won't buy a game if it's not what we're looking for.

I battled to get Roster Editing in. And although it wasn't implemented as well as I'd have liked, it got in. If 19 doesn't have a more robust Franchise, I won't be onboard any more.

[Barncore]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Great article.


I think the crux of the issue is that these days "the people" want the NBA experience from the perspective of the invididual (MyPlayer etc), whereas people like us want the NBA experience from the perspective of the universe (MyLeague etc). We want to play god with the entire NBA landscape. But the kids want to BE the player. That's the difference. And we're the minority.


I was gonna make the switch over to NBA Live 19 this year because i've had enough of 2K's animations and creative direction (more about online than offline), but it appears NBA Live is trying to replicate 2K's creative direction rather than offer an alternative. I have only just discovered that now and it's disappointing. The alternative would be to make the best and deepest franchise mode ever created.
Maybe i'll just have to move on from basketball videogames in general and get a new hobby. My favourite mode is dying and it doesn't look like any company sees it as a worthwhile venture to bring it back.


I wish there was a game as deep as Football Manager but for basketball. Ohhhhh how i wish!!!

[tonysnow45]

Great article.. I've saying this for a very long time and it's not just NBA LIVE, the same goes for Madden. EA has lost focus on developing a true sim game and started catering to the casual gamer and microtransaction crowd. EA is no longer relevant in sports market. The only reason people buy madden is because they have no other choice. I think if EA was ti close its doors, i dont think anyone would miss them. 

[BANNED_OCFM]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Great article.


I think the crux of the issue is that these days "the people" want the NBA experience from the perspective of the invididual (MyPlayer etc), whereas people like us want the NBA experience from the perspective of the universe (MyLeague etc). We want to play god with the entire NBA landscape. But the kids want to BE the player. That's the difference. And we're the minority.


I was gonna make the switch over to NBA Live 19 this year because i've had enough of 2K's animations and creative direction (more about online than offline), but it appears NBA Live is trying to replicate 2K's creative direction rather than offer an alternative. I have only just discovered that now and it's disappointing. The alternative would be to make the best and deepest franchise mode ever created.
Maybe i'll just have to move on from basketball videogames in general and get a new hobby. My favourite mode is dying and it doesn't look like any company sees it as a worthwhile venture to bring it back.


I wish there was a game as deep as Football Manager but for basketball. Ohhhhh how i wish!!!

Well said.... All of it is understandable though because of the tough road NBA LIVE has had but again, THERE IS NO EXCUSE WHY ANY NBA TITLE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MARKETED THIS WAY!!! THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS TITLE TO NOT HAVE AN FRANCHISE MODE WORTH OUR TIME AND PATIENTS!!

Can y'all IMAGINE a 30 TEAM ONLINE/OFFLINE NBA LIVE CONNECTED FRANCHISE MODE as deep as MYLeague BUT with EA's authentic point of view??
COMBINE
DRAFT
SUMMER LEAGUE
PRESEASON

Run our teams like our own!! Etc Etc but we already know! God this is sad!!

All with those licenses they all ready have!! The gameplay is there!! Why these guys only want a streetball community bugs the hell out of me!

[WTF]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

Great article.


I think the crux of the issue is that these days "the people" want the NBA experience from the perspective of the invididual (MyPlayer etc), whereas people like us want the NBA experience from the perspective of the universe (MyLeague etc). We want to play god with the entire NBA landscape. But the kids want to BE the player. That's the difference. And we're the minority.


I was gonna make the switch over to NBA Live 19 this year because i've had enough of 2K's animations and creative direction (more about online than offline), but it appears NBA Live is trying to replicate 2K's creative direction rather than offer an alternative. I have only just discovered that now and it's disappointing. The alternative would be to make the best and deepest franchise mode ever created.
Maybe i'll just have to move on from basketball videogames in general and get a new hobby. My favourite mode is dying and it doesn't look like any company sees it as a worthwhile venture to bring it back.


I wish there was a game as deep as Football Manager but for basketball. Ohhhhh how i wish!!!

I don't think we're as much in the minority as they think we are. If this is truly what the people want, why is the game still selling 500k copies, most of which were $5 a pop. That's less than a happy meal, yet people still aren't willing to give this game a shot, when The One is getting rave reviews.

People are looking at it, and saying what else is there after I play this mode. And the answer they're coming up with, is nothing. There is nothing there engaging enough to play after The One. They can play it, and have their fun, but at the end of the day, they still want something more to fall back on.

With the established user base of PS4 and Xbox One consoles out there, if you aren't breaking 1 million copies at $5 a piece, you're doing something wrong.

People gave it good scores on the gameplay front last year, which I somewhat agree with. It's a more free/fun pick up and play game. The demo won a lot of people over, but they still aren't buying it because there's nothing that intrigues them.

If this game, Live 19 doesn't pass 1.5 million combined sales, I'd say it's a gret failure and they need to rethink their strategy.

2k has 10 million copies out there. Even if 10% of the base of 2k ONLY care about franchise mode, that's a pool of 1 million people. If Live gave 1 million additional people another opportunity to see a fresh perspective of franchise mode, at a discount, on a game that's fun and easy to play, I'd say you could convert quite a few players. Not only convert them, but be like me and pick up both of them.

I would almost venture to say, that on a limited install base, the Switch version of NBA 2k18 probably outsold Live did on both Xbox One and PS4, and that's pretty sad.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

The problem is, among that imaginary 10% are probably more than half that play franchise modes, but could honestly care less about their depth. Heck, most would prefer as little depth as possible so that the emphasis is on playing games.

Not all franchise players are equal. The niche of team and roster management fans is the actual small part of the people who play.

I think trying to blame Live’s sales struggles on a shallow franchise mode is questionable. 2K has earned a monumental mindshare lead. And while it’s franchise mode is lauded by fans of franchise modes, it’s the MyPlayer and MyTeam modes that dominate the interest in in their target demographics. Younger gamers represent a much better demographic to target, because they have significantly more years of faithful annual purchases. The older we get, the more discerning we get, and the more likely that we leave sports gaming, or gaming in general.

The NBA Live series fell apart due to terrible gameplay. That’s what they had to nail down first. And as much as many of us enjoyed 18’s gameplay, it’s also pretty clear it is still a work in progress.

I expect 19 to sell better, becausecword has gotten out that the gameplay is better. And many, like me, find Live to just feel lighter and more responsive than 2K’s game. If EA wants to build the series, they need to reel in the younger demographic, not the aging franchise guys. They need to sell kids on gameplay, and The One and LUT are much better positioned to do that.

I’m not saying anyone needs to like it. But I think it is foolhardy to expect EA to take an approach to focus on the needs of their smallest and oldest demographic.

[WTF]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

If it bombs again this year though, do they continue down the same path?

And on the imaginary 10%, I was saying that 1/10 of 2k gamers only care about MyGM/MyLeague. I'd venture to sya that number is larger than it is, but still yet, even if you get half of that, so 5% of 2k's sales, that's still selling double what you're currently selling.

People are coming back around to Live, but I've heard the same comments over and over. It's not a full title. It's not worth $40-60. It doesn't offer as much. It's fun, but won't hold my attention.

So I guess what I'm thinking, is that if a $4.49 game, and I actually think it sold at $1.49 on PSN for a few weeks, can't get you a TON of sales with the demographic that you're targeting, maybe it's time to rethink things.

I'm not saying you need to ditch that mode and go gung ho on franchise & LUT. I'm just saying bring half the resources over to other modes, and continue forward with the other half towards The One.

And to say some people don't want that much of an indepth franchise, I agree there too. It doesn't need to be as crazy as MyLeague. But in game injuries isn't asking for much. Asking for CPU to generate trades, isn't asking much. Asking to even see the list of prospects in an upcoming draft class, prior to the time you get ready to enter the draft... isn't asking much. The mode is horrible. There is nothing redeeming about it, sans maybe the interface.

I also don't think giving them a pass because we aren't their target demographic is the right way to go about it. I've given feedback for 5 years. When I look at feedback that I've given and things that have been implemented (basic things keep in mind), how much would you venture to say has gotten implemented?

[CMH]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

You covered it all, WTF.



Their time is now. I see the discount available to last year's buyers, but I have not taken the dive yet. I need to know there's more to the game than The One or endless exhibition games against the CPU.

[MDSavageBeast]

Re: The State of NBA Live Franchise Mode

The problem is, among that imaginary 10% are probably more than half that play franchise modes, but could honestly care less about their depth. Heck, most would prefer as little depth as possible so that the emphasis is on playing games.

Not all franchise players are equal. The niche of team and roster management fans is the actual small part of the people who play.

I think trying to blame Live’s sales struggles on a shallow franchise mode is questionable. 2K has earned a monumental mindshare lead. And while it’s franchise mode is lauded by fans of franchise modes, it’s the MyPlayer and MyTeam modes that dominate the interest in in their target demographics. Younger gamers represent a much better demographic to target, because they have significantly more years of faithful annual purchases. The older we get, the more discerning we get, and the more likely that we leave sports gaming, or gaming in general.

The NBA Live series fell apart due to terrible gameplay. That’s what they had to nail down first. And as much as many of us enjoyed 18’s gameplay, it’s also pretty clear it is still a work in progress.

I expect 19 to sell better, becausecword has gotten out that the gameplay is better. And many, like me, find Live to just feel lighter and more responsive than 2K’s game. If EA wants to build the series, they need to reel in the younger demographic, not the aging franchise guys. They need to sell kids on gameplay, and The One and LUT are much better positioned to do that.

I’m not saying anyone needs to like it. But I think it is foolhardy to expect EA to take an approach to focus on the needs of their smallest and oldest demographic.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Live is in the business of making money, not appeasing an older/smaller demographic. Still think there needs to be some foundation-level stuff in franchise (CPU trades, etc.), but I see why they are marketing "The Streets" more than anything.