I’ve been around gaming for over 35 years and the reality is people aren’t that loyal. if EAs next release is NBA Live 25 and it’s the best basketball game ever people will play it. No one will care the game was cancelled the 4 years before it so I don’t think it matters.
NBA Live has hit rock bottom there’s absolutely no doubt about it. Probably moreso than any other game franchise I can think of. Strides have been made for sure. There’s a handful of people, me included that really like Live and actually even prefer it to 2k and yes that number is growing but it’s still no where near enough customers yet to make a dent in 2ks sales.
This is all going to come down to financial responsibility vs the desire to be in the NBA business. I read an article a few years ago that a higher up at EA said that they(EA) will always make an NBA game as an iconic brand like EA Sports has to represent an NBA product. How much of that statement might change knowing what we know of the price of the 2k licensing deal or how much of that is just bravado I don’t know.
It’s super expensive to be in the Sports game market. You really have to put out a game every year to make the license worth while and if you basically have no sales it’s gotta to be very tempting to fold up your tent and get the hell outta there.
What I foresee is a change in their model. They make a ton of money off the mobile game and they have hinted in the past that they might just stick to that platform. Fortnite has proven that there is a lot of money to be made on consoles with games free to play. 99% of the devs time on 19 was spent on the online portion of Live which is exactly what free to play games would need to focus on.
What’s the biggest knock on 2k? The number one complaint is the micro transactions and grind. Even guys that love 2k will tell you they hate that part of their favourite game. Honestly if 2k was free to play 3 quarters of those people wouldn’t complain but 2k has zero incentive to do free to play. They make a bajillion on sales then a kabazillion on micro transactions and people complain but don’t stop buying it.
Now if we think that Live isn’t riddled with micro transactions because they are nice guys than we would be idiots. There’s no micro transactions because not enough people play the game. Free to play only works if enough people play it and with the juggernaut that is NBA 2k the only way that will ever get enough people to play is making it free. They probably sold 2500 Live 18 and maybe 5000 copies of Live 19, 4700 of those were for $20 or less. And that’s with 19 being a pretty good game lol. The growth isn’t there and with a billion dollar license it’s gotta change. It’s time for a Hail Mary. There is way more money in it for them at this point to make the game free and throw in loot boxes or other micro transactions and honestly people wouldn’t complain. We are all programmed to believe we are playing a “free” game when in fact we will most likely spend more in the long run than if we bought the game outright at the beginning.
I also think a lot of people are pleasantly surprised with how fun Live is when they try it but the reality is, even at $5, most people won’t. The biggest hurdle live has, other than actually making a good game, is to get it in the hands of consumers. No better way than free to play.