NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

I think things have turned and companies don't see people love choices. Sony has a name for baseball which wasn't a big name once but its now recognizable

No, they see it. The problem is that they need to be able to afford to give choice. If 5 million people want choice, and 5 million people choose the same title, then the choices go away. You don't get "choice" for free. That's what happened with NHL 2K. People continued to "choose" EA title - which most people thought was better - by IIRC a 5:1 ratio, but no one considered the improvements in 2K and it died. EA's may have been better, but by THAT much?

What these companies didn't do that two Kay did was keep plugging at it because that's the difference I see.

2K kept at it because the trajectory of the sales warranted AND the fact that the sales were enough to sustain a team. I bet money that if after 2K7, they were still only barely selling a million units, we would not have the game today.

As it stands now sony couldve made a nice hoops game while people were clamouring for an alternative hoops title to sell

I don't understand this though. It wasn't as if this was Sony's first basketball game. And even though I liked it in the PS1 days and thought it was the prettiest game down the line, it still was quite broken in gameplay. When Live 06 released, it was BY FAR the prettiest. Five years later, the visuals either stagnated or took a step back and the gameplay didn't wow enough people. So, just assuming that a game that looked good would actually be good isn't a good idea. Not saying your wrong - just saying I wouldn't assume that it would be a competitive product now. You can I can debate this further in PM if you wish. :P

You can't just say on we aren't number one so we,ll just go home.

Absolutely. I didn't say you had to be number 1. I said you had to have enough sales to continue to operate. You can NOT continue to operate at a lost. ESPECIALLY during the recession - people are forgetting that recession at the time.

If that's the case tons of companies would be dead right now

Uh... There MANY dead companies man. Either folded into other companies or totally gone now. Should I start a list? Acclaim, Midway, Eidos, Infogam, Westwood, etc... It's really sad. The industry is actually hurting more right now than people think.

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

It seems like they just decided to start over (again). How many times does EA have to demonstrate to themselves that writing a AAA sports title on this generation of platforms more or less from scratch is more than a year's work? I don't think anyone has done that. It was hard to do on PS2/XBox. I doubt anyone but EA would have the nerve to try it at this point!

I think that's why they chose the Elite engine. It's basically the NHL/FIFA engine right? I would bet that they assumed that all they had to do was "replace hockey/soccer with basketball" and they were done. That's just a guess though.

[Caveman24]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

I didnt like the trailer at all I hope EA bounce back next year or maybe release a disk version of this game later on like after Christmas or something having as a DL game is not looking good for them

[mrprice33]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

This certainly sound plausible, but there's one thing I don't get. When they realized they had to throw away all of Elite, why didn't they at least go back and look at Live 10 and see whether they could salvage anything from that? Surely they had that code backed up somewhere, they can't have literally wiped every tape and disc, can they?

It seems like they just decided to start over (again). How many times does EA have to demonstrate to themselves that writing a AAA sports title on this generation of platforms more or less from scratch is more than a year's work? I don't think anyone has done that. It was hard to do on PS2/XBox. I doubt anyone but EA would have the nerve to try it at this point!

I hope they've now learned not to attempt it again!

As far as I know the Live 10 code was not available. Don't know specifics as to why.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

You might want to think it was big enough, but your wrong. If your game isn't going to sell at least a million units, you won't come close to breaking even. And now that cost has risen. Considering the PS3 market is barely over 2 million back then, how was Sony going to cut into the 2K/Live slice enough to survive?

2k11 saw/helped the market grow to the 5-6 million range you see today. But we don't know if that is sustainable yet. We will see. Still the PS3 portion of it split three ways isn't going to cut it for anyone. Hindsight is 20/20.

Now, the price of producing games has exploded. Check out the EA and 2K financial reports. Any game company. Making AAA console titles has gotten much more expensive at a rate faster than the market growth.

As for NCAA, Choops was considered one of the best basketball titles of all time. So, obviously, they treated that market well. If you are talking about the decision to not make a game, it's well documented that they were forced into that decision by the CLC. EA lost money on theirs, so to criticize them for being out of it is unfair.

The bottomline is this, you can't complain because a company bows out of a market that loses money for them. Find out more about the finances instead of assuming.

Like I said, Sony already was the second company in line, you're talking about cutting into 2K and EA's slice, they let 2K take they're slice cause they weren't putting the proper resources into the game to improve it. Sony has more money to throw at their game than 2K does, they didn't stick to what they were doing because they put a dollar cap on it and pulled out. 2K probably had they're years or dollar cap as well that they were going to decide they'd stuck with it long enough, but they put in the resources to the basketball team to get the best talent available to put together a game that people will care about.

With college hoops, it's most certainly fair to criticize them because they didn't do their part to grow the college basketball market. The promotion of the titles was piss poor at best and they set the things up to fail by having November release dates for them when November is when the biggest and best games come out every year already to kick the game in the face repeatedly. Nevermind the fact that the games were dropping mere weeks AFTER the NBA games where most casual gamers can feel comfortable just buying only one basketball game and taking the money that could/would have been spent on a college game and spending it on the Halos and Gears of Wars of the world.

[VUUAASSHHH!]

I farted when I watched this trailer? My brother did something worse than farting though.

[BOSsTOwN]

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

Like I said, Sony already was the second company in line, you're talking about cutting into 2K and EA's slice, they let 2K take they're slice cause they weren't putting the proper resources into the game to improve it. Sony has more money to throw at their game than 2K does, they didn't stick to what they were doing because they put a dollar cap on it and pulled out.

Sony's money comes from quite a few source. One being 3rd party. So why would they continue to throw money into a genre they were already profiting from for free? That makes no sense.

2K probably had they're years or dollar cap as well that they were going to decide they'd stuck with it long enough, but they put in the resources to the basketball team to get the best talent available to put together a game that people will care about.

The key members of the 2K team have been in place for a long time. There was very little additional investment in talent for them. No one is setting a spending limit. At the end of the day, they just need to make ENOUGH to continue to make the game plus some extra. It's basic business.

With college hoops, it's most certainly fair to criticize them because they didn't do their part to grow the college basketball market.

Come on man, that's a silly statement. "didn't do their part to grow the ... market"? You make it sound like these companies just drag their feet. Like all the answers to every problem has already been solved in a 5th grade class. If you know the secret to growing the college hoops market - do share. Because I'm 100% SURE every company has attempted to do just this and has had limited success. If it was easy, it would have already been done. So, pray tell, what exactly what their part?

The promotion of the titles was piss poor at best and they set the things up to fail by having November release dates for them when November is when the biggest and best games come out every year already to kick the game in the face repeatedly.

You REALLY think it's that simple? First, the release date isn't completely at the discretion of the publisher/developer. Talk to the licensor. Marketing is a field studied by people who know what their doing. Much more than you and I. But even the casual observer knows you get to a point of diminishing returns - you're spending more money than you gain back in sales. Not to be condescending, but I think EA and Take Two know how to sell a game. Just because YOU think there are 10 million people out there waiting to buy a college basketball game doesn't mean that it's true.

Nevermind the fact that the games were dropping mere weeks AFTER the NBA games where most casual gamers can feel comfortable just buying only one basketball game and taking the money that could/would have been spent on a college game and spending it on the Halos and Gears of Wars of the world.

And there you go! You hit on a HUGE point. The main limiter to the college market is the fact that many casual gamers need or want only 1 basketball game. And given the choice, the majority take the pro game. The audience is less segmented (32 teams versus >100), starts earlier (almost a month not including pre-season), is considered the "higher level" game, has more name recognition of the stars, an doesn't have the legal limitations of amateurism. So tell me again how the college basketball market is supposed to be on a comparable level to the NBA market.

Seriously man, I'm not trying to burst your bubble. I'm just making you aware of noting the reality of the situation. You're asking these companies that you would not make as a businessman and that's not right. I know you want to believe there are millions of folks out there dying for a reason to buy a college basketball game. If they were there, we would not be having this particular discussion.

[coolcras7]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

What is funny is all the praise the trailer is getting on you tube.

[youvalss]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

What is funny is all the praise the trailer is getting on you tube.

You're right, lots of positive comments. Maybe EA should put the trailer on a Blu-Ray and sell it for $20.

"It's the most complete trailer ever seen in a basketball simulation".

[Hydraz]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

I think you guys are just naturally hating the trailer and the game for some odd reason. Just because it doesn't look like 2K doesn't mean its garbage.

[chandlerbang]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

I think you guys are just naturally hating the trailer and the game for some odd reason. Just because it doesn't look like 2K doesn't mean its garbage.

it doesnt need to look like 2k because it looks like live is supposed to look. Thats the problem. Their motion capture tech must be from the days of PS2 because players move so still ( dirk doesnt even extend his arm on the shot release when he fades), everyone has the same body type and the ball/rim physics are the same as they were in old nba live games. Its 2012 , these things should be greatly upgraded by now! Expect more for your 60 dollars

[chandlerbang]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

You're right, lots of positive comments. Maybe EA should put the trailer on a Blu-Ray and sell it for $20.

"It's the most complete trailer ever seen in a basketball simulation".

quote of the year, that live trailer was worse than their old trailers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1f8EZE5CcY

the movements and animations looked better in live 09!

[TUSS11]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

quote of the year, that live trailer was worse than their old trailers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1f8EZE5CcY

the movements and animations looked better in live 09!

Those aren't in-game clips, they're cut-scenes you'll never find in the game.

[coolcras7]

Re: NBA Live 13 Trailer Arrives, But the Game is Delayed Indefinitely

Those aren't in-game clips, they're cut-scenes you'll never find in the game.

Exactly there was almost zero player interaction in any of those clips.