23, the blind faith in NBA Live is there and in full affect. I honestly believe no matter how bad this game is, it will sell for a few reasons. People LOVE NBA Live, certain people will look past all of its flaws no matter what and say the it's the greatest game ever.
People will buy it because it's not 2K. Some guys just wanna stick it to 2K, some guys just want a different game, no matter how bad it is. Just because it's different, they'll say it's better.
In all honesty, I think EA would have sold Elite 11, and it would have did a decent amount of sales if it weren't for Hard8times getting everyone on the Elite hating bandwagon.
It's a sad fact that EA can make this game, release it with all the same legacy issues and people will still buy it and defend it to the death.