Mike Wang Has Left EA Canada and the NBA Live Development Team

[Tomba]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

Much like 2k did with their baseball game last year. This isn't delegated to ONLY EA.

True...good point...though I feel VC is in a much worse 'show and prove' situation...

Live just needs a good set of eyes and needs to have it's game be developed next to real game footage...simple. direct comparison is what's needed not 'ohh you have to do this" and then have that said producer waving his hands...but i digress...this is a Wang/beluba thing

I think we were equally sad to see him go from 2k. Not having him with EA means one of two things hypothetically... and their both good

1)He's going to work on Sony's NBA 11 The Inside for PS3?
or....
2)He's off to work for the actual NBA!

[travis72]

I wonder if he is going back to 2K? That would not be good for live at all.

[blues rocker]

hmmm...well, this is obviously not good news. It's hard to say why Mike left - maybe he just got a better opportunity somewhere else (more money, a different type of game that he wanted to work on...maybe he was just allergic to Canadians...) - just because he left doesn't mean he left for a bad reason.

anyway, I will give the dev team the benefit of the doubt and hope they build upon the foundation that was laid in Live 10 - I think Live 10 was a great start, and if they use that foundation to really improve the areas that are still lacking, then I am pretty confident in Live 11. can they make all of those improvements without Mike Wang? I hope so. We will all have to wait until the 2011 demos drop and then compare ourselves.

Hopefully Mike left his "philosophy" behind and the current dev team learned enough from him to continue what they started with Mike. I really hope they don't scap the Live 10 foundation and "go in a new direction," because I thought Live 10 was going in the right direction with the controls and gameplay.

[jlbrown143]

I 've read all of the threads in here and I have to say I don't know to what degree Mike Wang's contribution made on the game but to me Live was a disgrace until he got there..lol

I appreciate the mods and devs trying to take the sting off of the news ..but come on fellas...be real...live is improved over 09 but that's it. The game is still a year or two away from being great! We need to just be resigned to the fact that we love basketball and that EA and 2K have given us a great experience in getting as close to the game as we ever will outside of attending the games themselves.

I am truly grateful for all of the games made good and bad because all of my winters and most of my summers have been filled with game playing...... mostly basketball games. Marcus and blackflash you guys want a good game just like the rest of us...we know that, but we have to blame somebody and since you guys are the closest you guys are it...not fair but true........I have one request for the company...quit acting like were idiots...and shoot straight from the hip with us!! we can handle the truth....give us that much atleast.

You would have more respect for dealing straight up with us than running and hiding when the sh_t hits the fan....!! If the game is having issues, fix them and if you can't fix it, then just say you can't fix it...(is that really hard to do?) Empty hype and hollow promises will only lead to more disappointment and ridicule.....

if you want your sales and your fans back...give us a game worth buying not one just getting you guys by.....we deserve better..really......we can't get our money back...were stuck once we give that 60 dollars to the game stop clerk. Respect is all we want!!! RESPECT!!! (I'm tired of wasting my hard earned money on unfinished products)

[Jano]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

krazyboy is actually right. The overreaction is phenomenal. It takes more than one person/two people to make/break things. And let's not all pretend the staff in place don't all have a different way of looking at game development after last year. These guys deserve a lot more credit than they're being given. Go look at the credits for Live '10. Way more than one or two names but if you'd read this forum you'd never know that.

QFT this is basically my feelings on this whole situation. I understand all the anger and frustration but I'm not going to sit here and say that Live 11 is going to be a bust just because Wang and Marcus are gone. This game was still built by a team of guys so it still has a chance.

Now one thing I can say is that this game is probably not going to sell well but thats because EA dug themselves a huge hole with Live 07. That game buried them deep and the only way they are going to build up a bigger fanbase is to continue improving.

And imo they have been doing that just look at the progress from 07 to 10 its huge. Now that jump in quality isn't all that huge compared to 2K but its still something.

I agree that the loss of Wang and Marcus was huge but I feel like it was one that took more credibility away from the team. I dont feel that losing them will completely destroy this teams ability to make a good basketball. Just look at 2K they lost Wang too but it did not take away from there ability to make a basketball game.

This is all this team has left because imo they lost most of there credibility with Live 07. A lot of people didnt even want to look at Live again because of that disaster. And while Wang and Marcus did help the situation it only caused a minor look back from some fans as evidenced by the sales.

Right now the Live development team's mission is to keep improving they cant do anything else at this point. They are not going to gain the respect of the bball community until they put out a great bball game. It may take them a couple years to get to that level and that's the problem here. Time is not on there side and it doesn't help that they are still trying to dig themselves out of that hole created by Live 07.

So to sum this up the problem with Live right now is not the team that's creating the game but the problems that were created in its past. If the team that worked on Live 10 were to have developed the first next gen Live I think we would be in a better place right now.

The team that is in place now is one that is actually dedicated to making a sim basketball game that could not be said for Live dev team's of the past. As gamers that's all we can really hold onto because if that's not there goal then we are in trouble.

[SageInfinite]

Sad to see Mike Leave EA. I would've truly loved too see what Mike would've brought to NBA Live in the next couple of years. I wish the team left to work on NBA Live luck. You guys are going to need it.

[23]

Quote: Originally Posted by stephensonmc

I hope you guys are doing well, CV -- you're an animal BS -- you're a homer (j/k) 23 -- keep the peace my man Take care, Marcus

lol true enough

good to see you man, hope things are working out well for you.. we still miss you man

[moefooljoe]

If you check on espn.com you'll see that mike wang is going to work for 2k again and had some very interesting things to say about ea sports.

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames...ory?id=4877673