There may be more to this than once thought. Chris Sanner brought this issue up in a Press Row hang out podcast yesterday. Ian Cummings also chipped in with some info. Encourage yall to check it out on Pasta's YouTube channel.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-2i0I7VSQMg
Also interesting to read what Obrien said about the last successful (review score wise) release the series had.
From an interview with Digital Trends Adam Rosenberg:
Series veteran Sean O’Brien is back as executive producer, and he knows very well the legacy that he and his team are butting up against. “When I worked on NBA Live 10, I feel like we made a pretty good game but our technology was ****,” he tells Digital Trends. “So we were in a position where we were trying to re-write stuff and then stuff happened [that led to the subsequent game's cancellation], but right now I feel really good knowing how much we’ve accomplished in the last 2-3 months.”