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

[King_B_Mack]

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

I don't think the NBA is that huge of a selling point anymore. I also think people are tired of sweaties on the other game. I mean, kid on that game are actually crying on the mic when they get frustrated. It's its own beast.



Just a basketball game would be fine, as long as it's not straight moon-physics like NBA Jam. I don't think we need that. A "Street" game branded with a modified Live engine and y'know rando players + maybe some NBA Legends they can buy up, maybe some street lengends, celebs lool, whatever. It would be ok.



WE WANT A GAME WHERE WE CAN COMPETE AND HAVE FUN. Expectations are not that high.



It's like, in mentioning college bball, I think it makes more sense to stick with a coach, even through bad times, if you are a legit program. If you keep firing your coach and starting over, you have no consistency and are stuck in the same rut.



Same with "Live", whatever they are doing is making them meme-ier, and the more they mess around, the more they become irrelevant. They should worry less about being a meme on Reddit w/ Bynum Elite pix and just put out a bball game. Brute force through it. It'll work out.



I'm not an economist, but I feel like just having a bball game, as long as they aren't taking a massive loss, is good for the EA sports brand and will probably pay off in the long run.


-Smak

I think you are severely underrating the value of a licensed product man. For people like the majority of us who just want a good basketball game to play, sure that would be fine and yes I’m sure a lot of us would buy your hypothetical game. But if it’s just a random *** basketball game with no NBA license, no licensed teams, no current players, nobody that moves the needle for game developers to continue supporting and making games like that are buying that product.

You basically just described All-Pro Football and we saw it’s fate without the NFL license. Money talks and sales matter. Whether we like it or not if the kids and casual fans aren’t buying the product the product either won’t get made or won’t be made for long. And that crew NEEDS their favorite teams and players represented.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[scottyp180]

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

"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]

Re: EA Still Working on Basketball Game, But Won’t Confirm Title

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]

Re: EA Still Working on Basketball Game, But Won’t Confirm Title

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]

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

Spoiler

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]

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

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?

[zello144]

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

EA is too quick to pull the curtain as soon as they see it struggling they cancel the next years game and have to start all over again.

I don't think they'll ever catch up to 2k ever. 2K already has the advantage casual gamers will buy it automatically.

[Schnoodle321]

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

At this point I’d rather it be

A - a college BBall game.

Or

B - an arcade Jam or street style game.

Or

Both…

Not sure EA can get back in the NBA sim game at this point…

I’d love a college game…. I’d like all three but I’d Put NBA sim at bottom as I believe it’s the one they’d make a mess of most with ultimate team and no effort to franchise mode and that’s all I want

Perfect time for EA to get back into the NBA sim space as 2k is transitioning out of it. 2k is becoming a gambling open world that focuses on everything but sim basketball.

Need EA back if not to just attempt to keep 2k honest and re focus on what’s in the title of the game

[noshun]

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

Perfect time for EA to get back into the NBA sim space as 2k is transitioning out of it. 2k is becoming a gambling open world that focuses on everything but sim basketball.

Need EA back if not to just attempt to keep 2k honest and re focus on what’s in the title of the game

Just to clarify, so EA is supposed to keep 2K honest when Live can't even be honest with the fans, or themselves, as to what their basketball game is supposed to be? Live was never sim to begin wiith (95-,99 were) trying to get into a sim space? 2k has always been sim focused, with Park being the non sim hybrid aspect. People don't play Live for the NBA side of things majorly because that side severely lacks when compared to 2K. And which is better between the One/Park is subjective because people who play Park aren't buying Live just to play The One. Also how is 2K transitioning from sim, or do you mean just Park mode?

[VoltSwoosh]

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

Just to clarify, so EA is supposed to keep 2K honest when Live can't even be honest with the fans, or themselves, as to what their basketball game is supposed to be? Live was never sim to begin wiith (95-,99 were) trying to get into a sim space? 2k has always been sim focused, with Park being the non sim hybrid aspect. People don't play Live for the NBA side of things majorly because that side severely lacks when compared to 2K. And which is better between the One/Park is subjective because people who play Park aren't buying Live just to play The One. Also how is 2K transitioning from sim, or do you mean just Park mode?

Competition will keep 2k honest, instead of releasing the same game over and over.


Sent from my iPhone 12 Pro Max

[King_B_Mack]

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

Competition will keep 2k honest, instead of releasing the same game over and over.


Sent from my iPhone 12 Pro Max

Lmao! 2K hasn’t had competition for a decade now. Still innovating. But y’all want EA to give you one good Live and just update the rosters every year


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[VoltSwoosh]

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

Lmao! 2K hasn’t had competition for a decade now. Still innovating. But y’all want EA to give you one good Live and just update the rosters every year


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Ok Ronnie.


Sent from my iPhone 12 Pro Max