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

[Dalsanto0026]

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

This sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism, lol.



For EA, competition seems to have the opposite effect—instead of pushing their development team to make a better product, it causes the upper-level management to freak out and call for a change in direction.

The reason why, I would argue, is that EA Sports' upper-level brass do not believe the basic idea that a more realistic (what most of us here at OS would consider a "better") game leads to more sales. If EA's sales are lagging, their automatic response is not that the core gameplay needs to improve, it's that the product isn't targeting the main (read: casual) audience enough and is in need of a "new direction" or some kind of "innovation."

I'm just a firm believer that a solid, realistic sports game will beat out back-of-the-box marketing tactics every single time. Just look at MLB The Show. SCEA has given its developers the ability to make the game as realistic as possible without forcing them to whip up some mode that will help the marketing team do their thing. And The Show is killing the competition, not with marketing and glitz, but with great gameplay and attention to detail that improves the realism of the game.

I think the NBA 2K has a similar amount of leeway from the upper-level management to make a realistic game, which is why Mike Wang has returned and we have a reason to be excited about the future of the title. I just hope NBA Live doesn't end up going up in a puff of smoke for the reasons I stated in my last post.

I think your comments are spot on. Great post.

[NINJAK2]

Re: ESPN: Mike Wang returns to 2K!

Dude you do get that he was agreeing with me about your statement making no sense about Madden being number 1 right.

Cool, you do get that Madden is currently the only nfl game out right? They have no direct nfl game competetion right? It is routinely the top selling/grossing sports game of the year every year? I'm not saying that Madden is the best game ever, I'm saying that Madden is in a position to do whatever they want in regards to taking chances, innovating, etc regarding their title. They don't have to look over their shoulder like Live and 2k.

Live on the other hand made possibly the best sim hoop game of it's long lifespan and got basically curb stomped by 2k10 in sales. This is possibly making the higher ups think they need to do something different with the series in order to regain supremacy in hoop sales. This is cause for fans of Live 10 to be nervous about Live 11. If Wang didn't like the direction Live was going this year and he is a sim guy that may give off the impression that Live is going in the opposite direction.

Live is in a completely different space than Madden because they have a tough enemy in 2k ready to take away market share if they drop a bad title.

[madmax17]

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

I think your comments are spot on. Great post.

I say screw em for caring more about sales than the game itself

[bamalam]

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

didnt read thru all these , but


beluba proven track record:

inside drive- excellent series
2k7,8 -great games

2k9- no beluba, bad game

2k10- good game- per rob they went back towards 2k7 direction

live10 - 1st full year of beluba influence- big strides in improving that game

2k is only 6-7 mo away from shipping 2k11, so beluba influence going to be limited

i would guess 2k12 going to be the big jump like 2k7 was from 2k6 and live 10 from 09.

whatever your opinion, his success is undeniable. the man knows video bball.

[spankdatazz22]

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

whatever your opinion, his success is undeniable. the man knows video bball.

First, he didn't work on those games by himself.

Second, for all the accolades people give to Inside Drive, it went away not because of exclusivity, but because there weren't enough people buying the game.

Have to disagree with the need for some people to only comment on games at either end of the spectrum. 2K9 imo wasn't a bad game - there were many obvious gameplay improvements that occurred in 2K9 that were being put out as features for Live 10. It's your right not to like the game, but I don't see the need for some to always overstate issues.

Live 10 is supposed to be a good game, yet in a heads up battle w/no discernible advantages to either (other than maybe EA having more marketing muscle) it got smoked. 2K10 is clearly the better/more feature rich game.

All this talk of "I hope Mike Wang fixes the color palette on the cover" "I think Mike Wang's involvement means we'll get 240-page manuals with the game" like talk is silly. Like before, he'll add to an already strong dev team. He's not THE team. They've succeeded with him, they've succeeded without him. I'm guessing they'll be that much better with him back.

[kcxiv]

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

didnt read thru all these , but


beluba proven track record:

inside drive- excellent series
2k7,8 -great games

2k9- no beluba, bad game

2k10- good game- per rob they went back towards 2k7 direction

live10 - 1st full year of beluba influence- big strides in improving that game

2k is only 6-7 mo away from shipping 2k11, so beluba influence going to be limited

i would guess 2k12 going to be the big jump like 2k7 was from 2k6 and live 10 from 09.

whatever your opinion, his success is undeniable. the man knows video bball.

I dont think its going to be limited. Dude has been on the team for over 2 months already.

[DaveDQ]

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

Here's a direct quote from a recent Game Informer interview with Wang, Boenisch, Jones and Greg Thomas. Greg Thomas speaking...

"And I would say the other thing too is at some point you get to be close to a Swiss army knife, and we don’t want to be that. We don’t want to be everything to everybody. We want to make the best basketball game we can, and we want to make sure we focus on the sport of basketball. I’m not interested in hot dog vendors, for example."

I happen to think this is why Visual Concepts, not 2K Sports, has traditionally made good to great games. They take the core of the sport they are representing in video game fashion and respect it without fluffing it with nonessentials.

This to me is the direct opposite of what EA tends to do. Yes, Live made great progress this year, but when you hear things like they tend to "always reinvent the wheel," you understand why their games tend to slack. I'm not saying the games are all together awful, but it makes sense to me why Wang would want to leave.

[m1ke_nyc]

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

I hope 2K focuses on better online

[DaveDQ]

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

I hope 2K focuses on better online

Thomas mentions it will be fixed in 2K11. While I am frustrated with this year's effort, I think they can get it done.

[rspencer86]

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

Thomas mentions it will be fixed in 2K11. While I am frustrated with this year's effort, I think they can get it done.

How many years in a row have they said this? I have no confidence in the NBA 2K team when it comes to making online work properly.

[kcxiv]

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

How many years in a row have they said this? I have no confidence in the NBA 2K team when it comes to making online work properly.

DId you even read the reason why he said it was broken? he said, that they wre using old old coding since the dreamcast days. it was fine up until 2K9 when their sales spiked and they had alot more people playing online. They tried to tweak that in 2k10 and it didnt work. He basically said they had to redo the whole way it works and thats why it will be fixed for 2K11.

We still have to see it working correctly, but he gave the honest truth on why online has been screwy the last few years. When they doo all their internal testing everything works, but when they get 100,000 people on the servers, it just chokes the connections because not enough bandwidth can be let through. Its the funnel thing. Slows down the flow.

At least thats my interpretation of what he was saying. I could be wrong

[rspencer86]

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

DId you even read the reason why he said it was broken?

Yes, and that is exactly why I don't have much confidence. They are still using netcode from the Dreamcast era? Come on, now.

[DaveDQ]

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

Yes, and that is exactly why I don't have much confidence. They are still using netcode from the Dreamcast era? Come on, now.

That very well may be the case. It does explain a lot because 2K's code is very unreliable. Play a game like Fight Night 4, and experience how fluid it is and you will see 2K just fails there.

[Rocboyz101]

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

I can't believe it. Wow.

[jmood88]

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

Yes, and that is exactly why I don't have much confidence. They are still using netcode from the Dreamcast era? Come on, now.

They kept using it because it worked and since they are having problems with it they are changing it.