Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

[Jonesy]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

It's not so much Beluba himself man...

It's the whole fact that EA went and poached a well known harcore SIM producer. That basically said "we are back". EA has then spent two years on these forums selling the whole "vision" of the new LIVE series.

For that same producer to walk out mid way and say "hey, you can't make a serious game over there...they've basically got no idea, there's too many people trying to interfere"...

Is pretty 'significant'.

Pretty much the ultimate slap in the face.

Game over in a lot of ways.

Great post as always mate. I agree with everything you said 100%.

Sure it's only one man but he's pretty much the guy when it comes to being synonymous with sim bball gaming so it speaks volumes that he's back with 2k so quickly imo. Too many suits at EA trying to come up with gimmicks, worrying about marketing and focus groups and not focusing on the core gameplay it seems.

[Pappy Knuckles]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

I find it funny to see so many people who were dogging 2K10 when it first came out, and said that Live was better, are now playing 2K exclusively. Live is my game of choice this year, and I really hope that they don't fall back off now that this dude has jumped ship. I've owned every single NBA2K, but that **** was just hard to play this time around. I'm a little worried about the direction of both products, honestly. I guess we'll see how it plays out next year.

And regardless of what Wang said about EA's practices, in 2009 they produced some of the best sports titles that I can ever recall them dropping in a single year. If 2010 is anything like that, I'll be very happy with them once again.

[tabulaRasa]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

Every time Wang goes another place the 2K forum goes nuts. Why all this fuss? It's only one guy, as good as he is, he's only one. He doesn't make the game wonderfull or awful himself.

Funny thing, I remember the EA guys just went bananas and thought Mike Wang was the Guru of all things basketball.

[Sinner]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

This is good news, having as many talented people working on the 2k series as possible can only make the game better. You always think the grass is greener on the othe rside till you cross the fence, and then you find out the truth. I think this is worse than when he left 2k cause over all he didnt have the bad things to say like he did about EA. Still thinking there is more because Simballers comments made it seem like it was something more...but maybe not.



hmmm so basically Mike was a double Agent? ..............I kid heh....Welcome back Mike!

[DaveDQ]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Check out the differences in how the two company's leadership responds to this...

Senior VP of 2K Sports, Greg Thomas...
"Over at EA, you have so many levels of management, and you have somebody up there looking at unit sales and how 2K is kicking their asses, so now they want to change things in a great way because they can't afford to sell this many units through a three-year plan or a five-year plan. Here, we're always trying to do the same thing, we're always trying to make the best basketball simulation we can."

EA Sports Spokesman...
"We appreciate Mike's contribution to the "NBA Live" franchise and wish him well in future endeavors. "NBA Live 11" pre-production is well underway and the team is poised to raise the bar on quality, innovation and authenticity."

I don't want to take sides or promote one over the other, but look at how hollow and lifeless EA's comments are. You can almost see that one person didn't come up with that. You get this feeling that comment had to be cleared and filtered before it was made. Of course, EA is stuck being the reactive one here, while 2K gets to be ride on their high sales and the fact that Wang is coming back, but still, EA just proves Wang's statements true about the direction of leadership with such a shallow response.

EA is going to make me despise the word "innovation" by year's end.

[Hassan Darkside]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Check out the differences in how the two company's leadership responds to this...

Senior VP of 2K Sports, Greg Thomas...
"Over at EA, you have so many levels of management, and you have somebody up there looking at unit sales and how 2K is kicking their asses, so now they want to change things in a great way because they can't afford to sell this many units through a three-year plan or a five-year plan. Here, we're always trying to do the same thing, we're always trying to make the best basketball simulation we can."

EA Sports Spokesman...
"We appreciate Mike's contribution to the "NBA Live" franchise and wish him well in future endeavors. "NBA Live 11" pre-production is well underway and the team is poised to raise the bar on quality, innovation and authenticity."

I don't want to take sides or promote one over the other, but look at how hollow and lifeless EA's comments are. You can almost see that one person didn't come up with that. You get this feeling that comment had to be cleared and filtered before it was made. Of course, EA is stuck being the reactive one here, while 2K gets to be ride on their high sales and the fact that Wang is coming back, but still, EA just proves Wang's statements true about the direction of leadership with such a shallow response.

EA is going to make me despise the word "innovation" by year's end.

Funny. A lot of people here would consider 2k's comment immature and childish while EA's is more professional sounding. All you have to do is look back at the "beef" around the initial release of the two games.

But all in all, this is great news. One needs to look no further than the overall consensus of how Live has progressed the past two years and 2k has more or less stagnated.

[tabulaRasa]

NBA2k10 rocks, can´t believe there were any doubts

[DaveDQ]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Funny. A lot of people here would consider 2k's comment immature and childish while EA's is more professional sounding. All you have to do is look back at the "beef" around the initial release of the two games.

But all in all, this is great news. One needs to look no further than the overall consensus of how Live has progressed the past two years and 2k has more or less stagnated.

I don't think Wang has said anything childish or immature. It's really no different than what he initially said about 2K when he left for Live. Now, if he continues to go on about things, then yes, it's silly. Here you have two very different responses from leadership, not Wang.

I enjoyed Live this year and do agree it has made great progress, especially with gameplay controls. They also continue to deliver on the online functionality with team play etc. That's an area 2K has failed at. My comments though are about the obvious lacking in leadership that EA has with the title. Not EA as a whole, although I can see how this would spill into other titles.

Like Pappy mentioned, EA has put out some good titles this year. I have enjoyed most of their sports games. I just happen to think those comments show 2K's perspective is more refined with basketball.

[ctu130]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Mike never left 2k , he worked as a spy to get info from NBA LIVE ..

<_< lol

[WTF]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Very big news indeed. I liked the direction Live was heading... Can't wait to see what Rob and Mike are working up for 2k11

[backbreaker]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Batman has his Robin back.

And an interesting statement from Rob Jones in the Game informer interview. I never knew he once worked for EA. So he knows how EA works.

"Rob Jones: One of the things I wanted to add to what Mike is saying, having been a person that worked at EA myself, is that a lot of the times you can influence, but you really can’t create. You can’t actually implement. Here at VC, we can make changes to make things work the way we want them to. We actually can mold it ourselves – you can get into it as much as you want to, whereas EA it’s much more of a structured process where there’s so many layers that things don’t get done necessarily the way you want them to because you’re not the guy doing them".

[ehh]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

The expectations for 2K11 are going to be very, very high. Not only does 2K have the return of a very talented lead man, they now have someone who knows what works well in NBA Live and exactly how to implement it.

2K11 could be legendary. On this forum we always say, "Wow, it'd be great if we could combine two sports games and take the best from each to make one ultimate game."

We could wind up with this October. If the player control is brought over from Live and the playbooks, man 2K11 may permanently end the Live series.

EA dug it's own grave, built it's own coffin and supplied the hammer and nails for 2K to close it with this move.

[rspencer86]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

2K11 could be legendary. On this forum we always say, "Wow, it'd be great if we could combine two sports games and take the best from each to make one ultimate game."

We could wind up with this October. If the player control is brought over from Live and the playbooks, man 2K11 may permanently end the Live series.

EA dug it's own grave, built it's own coffin and supplied the hammer and nails for 2K to close it with this move.

I agree. 2K10 set the base with the introduction of all of these new features (My Player, NBA Today, etc.), so the focus for 2K11 should be entirely on tweaking and tuning to make everything work to perfection. There shouldn't be an ounce of energy wasted on coming up with new modes or new features—2K10 was already one of the deepest, feature-rich sports games ever. The attention should shift to making everything that is already in place work very well.

If they do this and 2K11 is a game with little to no online connection issues, a rock-solid sim engine, player tendencies that truly work, playcalling that is both simple to use and deep, and controls that give us the ability to move with precision, we'll have a surefire winner.

[edubbs]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

2K11 could be legendary. On this forum we always say, "Wow, it'd be great if we could combine two sports games and take the best from each to make one ultimate game."

We could wind up with this October. If the player control is brought over from Live and the playbooks, man 2K11 may permanently end the Live series.

EA dug it's own grave, built it's own coffin and supplied the hammer and nails for 2K to close it with this move.

I agree.

Playbooks, control, and sig shot releases. Hopefully, Beluba addresses these issues ASAP.

Nice to know that he has been on board since Nov.

This game is already my most anticipated title for this year.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

Of course Wang will only make 2K more solid again. If 2k indeed sold 2 million copies, they just proved 2k didn't even need Wang, not sure what terms Wang left on, but after selling 2 million copies without him, I would have say thanks but don't really need ya, Sorry Wang. I think EA was heading in the right direction, but I think Wang should have gave EA another year, IMO.