NBA 2K11 News Post

Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

12:17 AM - February 2, 2010 by iamemmittsmith

It's official. Mike Wang has returned to 2K Sports as Lead Gameplay Designer for NBA 2K11. ESPN has some of the details.

Quote:


	"When I went over there (to EA), a lot of it was for personal reasons. I wanted to try something new, try a new challenge. But after being there and spending some time over at EA, it was clear that they do things a different way, and in a way it's just inefficient and just not the place to be to make the best games," said Wang in a recent conference call with ESPN to announce his return. "When I went there, I immediately missed VC (Visual Concepts), and it's just one of those things where I tried to stick it out as long as I could, but I wanted to come back. With some of the creative decisions over at EA, it just made it difficult to stay there. They just want to make a different game than I had a vision for. So I reached out to (2K's senior vice president of sports development) Greg Thomas and he was gracious enough to have me back."

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Member Comments

# 101 NINJAK2 @ 02/02/10 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	Yeah it's legit. I just opened up a new tab, went to ESPN and it's there. Wow @ what you quoted. This has me worried big time about Madden 11 now.

I don't think you have to worry about Madden as that game is the #1 seller in it's department. They can make that game as sim or as arcade as they choose since there is no one to lose their audience to. Live on the other hand is not and they are playing catch up to 2k right now. They may be in panic mode about how to shape the product.

Good to see Mike back, but like others said he was giving 2k flack not to long ago about not being able to do what he wanted over at 2k due to outdated tools and animations

. If he can improve the playcalling/execution on the court he will take 2k11 even higher. Hopefully this is a year of tweaking and fixing not just adding more new modes..More modes..More problems.

# 102 coolcras7 @ 02/02/10 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NINJAK2


	I don't think you have to worry about Madden as that game is the #1 seller in it's department. They can make that game as sim or as arcade as they choose since there is no one to lose their audience to. Live on the other hand is not and they are playing catch up to 2k right now. They may be in panic mode about how to shape the product. Good to see Mike back, but like others said he was giving 2k flack not to long ago about not being able to do what he wanted over at 2k due to outdated tools and animations. If he can improve the playcalling/execution on the court he will take 2k11 even higher. Hopefully this is a year of tweaking and fixing not just adding more new modes..More modes..More problems.

You did not just say that did you? Number 1# Madden lol, it's easy to be number one when there is no competition because you bought the exclusive rights to a game. Mikes big objection with 2k when he left was that he felt that they had pushed there engine to its limit, which they proved wrong with 2k10 it's going to be interesting to see what Mike and Rob come up with this year, now that Mike has a inside view on the direction Live is heading this year.

# 103 Gmoney2002 @ 02/02/10 09:05 PM

I am one of those gamers who likes "alternatives" this news, IMO, rips that away for the foreseeable future.

EA was close this year. It's a shame...SMH

# 104 CX1329 @ 02/02/10 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolcras7


	You did not just say that did you? Number 1# Madden lol, it's easy to be number one when there is no competition because you bought the exclusive rights to a game.

That's precisely what he said:

"They can make that game as sim or as arcade as they choose since there is no one to lose their audience to."

# 105 jmood88 @ 02/02/10 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gmoney2002


	I am one of those gamers who likes "alternatives" this news, IMO, rips that away for the foreseeable future. EA was close this year. It's a shame...SMH

So were there no alternatives when he was with VC before?

# 106 NINJAK2 @ 02/02/10 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CX1329


	That's precisely what he said: "They can make that game as sim or as arcade as they choose since there is no one to lose their audience to."

Thank you CX. Good to see some here practice reading comprehension

# 107 Gmoney2002 @ 02/02/10 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmood88


	So were there no alternatives when he was with VC before?

My point is, this year was the first time in this next gen era that we had a remotely decent "alternative" to 2K. His move to EA this year was largely responsible for that.

# 108 d12orlando @ 02/02/10 09:23 PM

I love competition. This gen in consoles has been one of the better ones and imo the best. Less exclusives and all the consoles are different. But in this area of gaming, basketball in particular, I would very much rather have 1 very good game (hopefully) and 1 crap one than having 2 mediocre games.

I can see why some are disappointed that Mike left Live and competition is a good thing, but 2k is trying to make the best game and have the best personnel. The onus is up to live to be competitive and make a good game. I do care about competition but I also care about playing the best ball game possible.

# 109 Gmoney2002 @ 02/02/10 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d12orlando


	The onus is up to live to be competitive and make a good game. I do care about competition but I also care about playing the best ball game possible.

Point well taken. Although, I wouldn't call 2k10 post patch mediocre but I hear you...

# 110 coolcras7 @ 02/02/10 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NINJAK2


	Thank you CX. Good to see some here practice reading comprehension.

Dude you do get that he was agreeing with me about your statement making no sense about Madden being number 1 right.

# 111 CX1329 @ 02/02/10 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolcras7


	Dude you do get that he was agreeing with me about your statement making no sense about Madden being number 1 right.

Uh, actually, I was showing you that excerpt from his post so you could see that he was actually saying the same thing you said, only in different words.

# 112 spankdatazz22 @ 02/02/10 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Court_vision


	2K10 is an excellent game and Beluba had no hand in it.

Perspective.

# 113 TheKingOfVa @ 02/02/10 10:05 PM

So glad Wang is back, hope he fixes 2k10's so-so game play pre-sliders. For the first time ever I bought both Live and 2k. I was impressed with Live's gameplay but it was way behind 2k in other departments.

# 114 SageInfinite @ 02/03/10 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKingOfVa


	So glad Wang is back, hope he fixes 2k10's so-so game play pre-sliders. I was impressed with Live's gameplay but it was way behind 2k in other departments.

Co-sign.

# 115 NINJAK2 @ 02/03/10 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolcras7


	Dude you do get that he was agreeing with me about your statement making no sense about Madden being number 1 right.

Cool, you do get that Madden is currently the only nfl game out right? They have no direct nfl game competetion right? It is routinely the top selling/grossing sports game of the year every year? I'm not saying that Madden is the best game ever, I'm saying that Madden is in a position to do whatever they want in regards to taking chances, innovating, etc regarding their title. They don't have to look over their shoulder like Live and 2k.

Live on the other hand made possibly the best sim hoop game of it's long lifespan and got basically curb stomped by 2k10 in sales. This is possibly making the higher ups think they need to do something different with the series in order to regain supremacy in hoop sales. This is cause for fans of Live 10 to be nervous about Live 11. If Wang didn't like the direction Live was going this year and he is a sim guy that may give off the impression that Live is going in the opposite direction.

Live is in a completely different space than Madden because they have a tough enemy in 2k ready to take away market share if they drop a bad title.

# 116 madmax17 @ 02/03/10 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalsanto0026


	I think your comments are spot on. Great post.

I say screw em for caring more about sales than the game itself

# 117 bamalam @ 02/03/10 08:51 AM

didnt read thru all these , but

beluba proven track record:

inside drive- excellent series
2k7,8 -great games

2k9- no beluba, bad game

2k10- good game- per rob they went back towards 2k7 direction

live10 - 1st full year of beluba influence- big strides in improving that game

2k is only 6-7 mo away from shipping 2k11, so beluba influence going to be limited

i would guess 2k12 going to be the big jump like 2k7 was from 2k6 and live 10 from 09.

whatever your opinion, his success is undeniable. the man knows video bball.

# 118 spankdatazz22 @ 02/03/10 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bamalam


	whatever your opinion, his success is undeniable. the man knows video bball.

First, he didn't work on those games by himself.

Second, for all the accolades people give to Inside Drive, it went away not because of exclusivity, but because there weren't enough people buying the game.

Have to disagree with the need for some people to only comment on games at either end of the spectrum. 2K9 imo wasn't a bad game - there were many obvious gameplay improvements that occurred in 2K9 that were being put out as features for Live 10. It's your right not to like the game, but I don't see the need for some to always overstate issues.

Live 10 is supposed to be a good game, yet in a heads up battle w/no discernible advantages to either (other than maybe EA having more marketing muscle) it got smoked. 2K10 is clearly the better/more feature rich game.

All this talk of "I hope Mike Wang fixes the color palette on the cover" "I think Mike Wang's involvement means we'll get 240-page manuals with the game" like talk is silly. Like before, he'll add to an already strong dev team. He's not THE team. They've succeeded with him, they've succeeded without him. I'm guessing they'll be that much better with him back.

# 119 DaveDQ @ 02/03/10 03:24 PM

Here's a direct quote from a recent Game Informer interview with Wang, Boenisch, Jones and Greg Thomas. Greg Thomas speaking...

"And I would say the other thing too is at some point you get to be close to a Swiss army knife, and we don�t want to be that. We don�t want to be everything to everybody. We want to make the best basketball game we can, and we want to make sure we focus on the sport of basketball. I�m not interested in hot dog vendors, for example."

I happen to think this is why Visual Concepts, not 2K Sports, has traditionally made good to great games. They take the core of the sport they are representing in video game fashion and respect it without fluffing it with nonessentials.

This to me is the direct opposite of what EA tends to do. Yes, Live made great progress this year, but when you hear things like they tend to "always reinvent the wheel," you understand why their games tend to slack. I'm not saying the games are all together awful, but it makes sense to me why Wang would want to leave.

# 120 m1ke_nyc @ 02/03/10 04:14 PM

I hope 2K focuses on better online

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