NBA Elite 11 News Post

NBA Elite Being Moved to Tiburon, EA Canada Hit by Layoffs (Not Confirmed Yet)

08:30 PM - October 27, 2010 by uponablackstar

According to some 1up sources, Tiburon will now be handling the NBA franchise. Nothing has been confirmed, as of yet.

Quote:


	"History looks to be repeating itself at Electronic Arts. Sources tell 1UP that Tiburon will now be handling the NBA franchise. The report follows a tweet from 3D Realm's George Broussard, who says that EA Canada has laid off more than 100 employees. Broussard also said that he has heard rumors of "large scale layoffs" at EA coming soon. EA Canada was responsible for the development of NBA Elite 11, which has been delayed indefinitely. The studio also handles the NHL series. Need for Speed developer Black Box and EA Canada were consolidated in 2008. If the reports are accurate, this would mark the second time in EA history that an important sports franchise has been transferred to Tiburon following a failure to launch. The first instance came when Visual Concepts failed to complete a PlayStation version of Madden NFL 96. The project was handed to Tiburon, which has been responsible for the series ever since."

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Member Comments

# 1 HoosierDaddy @ 10/27/10 08:57 PM

Sad...

Here's to hoping Tiburon can turn around the franchise, and develop some type of consistency with the franchise. I still have my bags packed and will travel to Orlando if they need me to

# 2 BobbyColtrane @ 10/27/10 09:28 PM

Pardon my skepticism but Tiburon hasnt knocked my socks off lately...will this really be good for this woebegone game???

# 3 sroz39 @ 10/27/10 09:52 PM

So lemme get this straight; good, hard-working people are getting laid off at EA Canada because some higher ups at EA decided to scrap a game well on it's way to becoming great and go in a completely different direction because THEY can't tell a good game from a bad one? Somebody high up the ladder has egg on their face over this decision yet a perfectly competent and talented studio (they proved that with some solid leadership and strong vision from Mike Wang, they can make a very good bball game) gets tossed like it's their fault. You can't always turn lemons into lemonade and the direction they wanted to go with Elite takes years, not months, to develop. Heck, EA didn't release an NHL 06 on 360 but came back strong with 07 to much applause.

I'm stunned if this is true. Getting rid of Visual Concepts worked out great for EA too, didn't it.....

# 4 bigball12 @ 10/27/10 10:02 PM

Wow! This is shocking!

# 5 Spectre @ 10/27/10 10:34 PM

Let's say my faith in Tiburon and any sport, let alone basketball, is minimal at best.

2K is in good shape going forward for the next several years- its gonna take a while for them to build a good engine at Tiburon.

# 6 noshun @ 10/27/10 10:58 PM

wow, this is comedy.

...........1st hockey guys take over, now possibly football.. oh man.

# 7 wileyboy747 @ 10/28/10 12:24 AM

LOL...... c'mon EA, get it together. i still wont buy it anyway, but someone needs to give 2k some competition.

# 8 AMYO @ 10/28/10 12:49 AM

Elite=The new madden

# 9 Wiffyjustus @ 10/28/10 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sroz39


	So lemme get this straight; good, hard-working people are getting laid off at EA Canada because some higher ups at EA decided to scrap a game well on it's way to becoming great and go in a completely different direction because THEY can't tell a good game from a bad one? Somebody high up the ladder has egg on their face over this decision yet a perfectly competent and talented studio (they proved that with some solid leadership and strong vision from Mike Wang, they can make a very good bball game) gets tossed like it's their fault. You can't always turn lemons into lemonade and the direction they wanted to go with Elite takes years, not months, to develop. Heck, EA didn't release an NHL 06 on 360 but came back strong with 07 to much applause. I'm stunned if this is true. Getting rid of Visual Concepts worked out great for EA too, didn't it.....

Couldn't have put it better myself.

# 10 Steve_OS @ 10/28/10 12:55 AM

Interesting timing for this tweet.

@ryansantos Ryan Santos
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# 11 GaryT531 @ 10/28/10 01:40 AM

EA suits you have made one heck of a mess, and you have no one but yourselves to blame. Prayers go out to the families of those who are losing their jobs.

# 12 jWILL253 @ 10/28/10 02:49 AM

Wow. Wow. WOOOOOW. EA just keeps on sticking it's foot in it's mouth. In exception to NHL 11 and FIFA 11, this has been a HORRIBLE year for EA Sports.

Note to the suits: let the devs make the game, not you. This is what's wrong with gaming and music these days: the suits think THEY'RE the stars, and THEY know what's going on, but they don't. In fact, they're more out of touch with the masses than ANYONE. So, we get hit with these gimmicks that they think will draw over the Wii/casual gamer crowd, but end up alienating loyal customers.

This exact same thing happened at Infinity Ward, minus any game-cancellation. The suits though Infinity Ward was expendable, and that they can have a game of similar quality with Treyarch. So, IW got the boot. Now, while Activision may end up getting the last laugh anyway, EA will not. Personally, I think we're seeing the collapse of EA Sports before our very eyes...

# 13 mike24forever @ 10/28/10 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFRMIC$


	RIP EA Canada Tiburon sucks as well. Madden is an arcade game, and Elite will join them.

What is it with 98% of the people that joined OS in 2010? Are they all pylons and fanboys/trolls? Why is it almost always crap like this, that comes from their keyboards?

Madden has nothing to do with this thread.

EA should have stayed the course with the foundation of NBA 10 and as many have said here, built on what was becoming a good competitor in the basketball market.

# 14 cbass1 @ 10/28/10 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sroz39


	So lemme get this straight; good, hard-working people are getting laid off at EA Canada because some higher ups at EA decided to scrap a game well on it's way to becoming great and go in a completely different direction because THEY can't tell a good game from a bad one? Somebody high up the ladder has egg on their face over this decision yet a perfectly competent and talented studio (they proved that with some solid leadership and strong vision from Mike Wang, they can make a very good bball game) gets tossed like it's their fault. You can't always turn lemons into lemonade and the direction they wanted to go with Elite takes years, not months, to develop. Heck, EA didn't release an NHL 06 on 360 but came back strong with 07 to much applause. I'm stunned if this is true. Getting rid of Visual Concepts worked out great for EA too, didn't it.....

MAN your dead on.... the suits got these hard working, talent people fired because of their direction. I figure some heads would roll because of this but I figure it would be some of the producers not the actual studio workers!......I bet those same guys who made those decisions will still be getting extra nice holiday bonuses for all their HARD WORK this year. This is crazy to say the least.

# 15 Goffs @ 10/28/10 07:53 AM

tiburon :/

# 16 yamabushi @ 10/28/10 10:00 AM

So the people who do nothing with madden are gonna do nothing with the NBA. fantastic.

# 17 Kully @ 10/28/10 10:06 AM

Terrible for the people working there if true. sroz39 made a good point; Live 10 was pretty good and they should have continued on that path. The higher ups at EA made the decision to change the focus of the game and the devs have to pay for it. Cutthroat business man.

# 18 Tomba @ 10/28/10 10:19 AM

EACanada is Fifa and NHL.

This actually might work. Tiburon's in Florida in the heart of a lot of basketball schools and professional franchises.

# 19 BlackCloudDoggy @ 10/28/10 10:23 AM

Something needed to be done. Could be coming off as ignorant and I'm not anti-Canada but maybe it will do this series good bringing it stateside. I just want a good b-ball game from EA, whatever it takes. Sorry for those who lost their jobs.

# 20 sroz39 @ 10/28/10 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackCloudDoggy


	Something needed to be done. Could be coming off as ignorant and I'm not anti-Canada but maybe it will do this series good bringing it stateside. I just want a good b-ball game from EA, whatever it takes. Sorry for those who lost their jobs.

We had a good game from EA last year, made by this exact studio, so I don't see how moving the project is going to change the quality of the product for the better. Tiburon's recent track record is nothing to write home about. EA Canada's track record is a lot better. It all comes down to leadership and the improvement this series made from Live 09 to Live 10 was remarkable. A true testament to not only Mike Wang and more importantly, the dev team behind the game.

Does solid leadership always mean a game is going to be great? Obviously not and the most recent example I can think of is the much-hyped hiring of Ben Brinkman (former MVP Baseball Producer) by 2K to work on the MLB games for them. The game seemed to get worse, not better. But that's all the MORE evidence that this is an outstanding studio because when they finally had a strong leader, they turned out a game that challenged the genre leader for best bball game that year, in only a year and a half's time.

I think this is a terrible mistake. Every time I think this series hits rock bottom, it manages to find a way to dig a deeper hole. How long before this game becomes good again? Forget about challenging 2K, how long until its even as good as Live 10 or even Live 09? Moving to Tiburon, you would assume this means yet another reset for the series. Is it going to be worth it just to MAYBE get back to the level of quality of Live 10 in 2 or 3 years? Seems like a waste of 5 years, no?

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