Seconded, whole-heartedly. Sim gameplay can't be achieved without balance for both offense and defense; jacking up the gameplay mechanics to allow for higher scores on shortened quarter lengths will only lead to more imbalance and cause more issues.
This is what the "normalized stats" option is for in MyLeague. If you play six-minute quarters, fine, but if you want normalized sim stats, you can have those.
As to EA, I
welcome them back into the fold. I don't find it a coincidence that since NBA Live's implosion and EA's constant missteps that 2K has progressively gotten further away from what it was at it's best. Without healthy competition, focus is lost. I don't know what EA may offer this year, but I will be very curious to see where they are.
If 2K is still suffering from severe issues at that time, I might even consider a purchase (if it hits PC) -- and I've
never gotten an NBA Live title. I've been playing 2K since the beginning, but EA's approach to it this year is the first time I can recall the company actually doing something ... profound?
After all the missteps with the Live series, to say "We're not releasing till early 2017" is not only a big roll of the dice, it says -- at least to me -- that they:
A) Acknowledge how rushed the last two titles have felt
B) Have confidence that what they're releasing will at least be better that what came before.
Live has had some weird and bad last few years, but EA did something I never thought I'd see a sports gaming company do -- they delayed the release of their annual sports title till the middle of the actual sports season. They'll have a starting point not seen in modern sports games and could, potentially, alter the way annual sports titles are done. I'm intrigued by their strategy and even if it does blow up in their faces (I hope not), the fact that they
took the step to delay the release till early 2017 is huge.
We'll see ultimately how it plays out, but competition is a good thing and having Live back can't hurt.