RaychelSnr's Blog
What I'd like to do instead is to play some blame game as to who is to blame for what might be one of the biggest disaster releases from a major gaming company in quite some time.
Because somehow, somewhere, someone is to blame for what accounts to the worst basketball title on the market in this generation of consoles. Sony's NBA game outclasses Elite 11, and I'm sure I can name several games over the past decade on far inferior hardware that outclass Elite's gameplay, some completely and laughably dominate Elite.
I wrote about Elite earlier this year, I thought the name change signaled that EA had hit the panic button. Now that we've played Elite and saw the entire Live series was blown up, I think it's safe to say EA definitely panicked.
Live was being outclassed by NBA 2K both in sales and in quality at every turn. EA brought in Mike Wang to shore up the Live series, and I believe he made Live a very competitive game to 2K last year. But for some reason or another, perhaps we'll find out sometime exactly what went down, Wang and EA had a difference in opinion and Wang went back to 2K.
And EA was left in a very tough position, so they panicked.
It appears EA decided that their approach wasn't working and that they had to shake it up. In the process, EA blew up the old Live series and decided to forge a new path to recreate how basketball games are supposed to play. Because "if it ain't broke don't fix it" didn't seem to apply to this case -- except it did. And that's where the story goes bad.
If I were in charge of EA, I would've canceled the release of NBA Elite 11 as soon as it became apparent that one year is not enough time to recreate an NBA franchise. And then I would've made my team watch their competition, their previous effort, and a few real NBA games. Because what I'm seeing just doesn't come close to any of the three.
And because of Elite 11, gamers are looking for someone to point the finger at. I want to caution OSers that I don't think you can blame any one single person, but I think you can clearly blame the culture that pushes for yearly releases no matter the cost. NBA Elite is a good concept in theory, redo how basketball games are played by introducing some things no one else has done.
But something that big and that large requires time, more than 12 months for sure, although the Elite developers probably got less anyways. I can't blame the guys working on the game. Like I said yesterday in my demo impressions, they faced a no-win situation. I feel for the developers of Elite, and perhaps another year of development might get the title going in the right direction again.
But it just feels like EA took us back to Live 07 and decided to try the climb the ladder again, except this time NBA 2K is now 4 years ahead of where it was then and Live is no longer outselling NBA 2K, so the climb will have to take longer and EA will have to do it while taking yearly losses because the game's sales are way down.
The decisions made by EA that have led up to Elite 11 will be the downfall of the franchise. Whatever sales Elite generates will be people who probably don't return the next year, especially if they see NBA 2K11 in action. After what seemed to be a shaky throne last year, NBA 2K has unquestionably captured the title of the sim gamers choice for basketball for years to come.
Look for the panic buttons to be pushed across the entire company when Elite gets horrendous reviews and sales are in the toilet. The future isn't bright for EA basketball, but at least NBA Live was given a chance to die a dignified death before this race to the bottom began.
Perhaps this will be a wake up call for EA basketball, but I think it's really closer to a wake.
Chris is the Executive Editor of Operation Sports and maintains this blog on the site. He is also a native Oklahoman and avid storm chaser. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisSnr.
# 31
boomhauertjs @ Sep 23
I feel bad for Durant being stuck on the cover of a bad game. Too bad they didn't put the 3 Miami D-bags on the cover instead.
# 32
quietcool72 @ Sep 23
As a former member of the "EA Community Leaders", I can say this- The individual designers who work at EA are powerless. Every game they have has an in-depth "3 year road map" of what corporate wants that *must* be followed. There's little, if any, flexibility for design. I remember talking to EA dev Daniel Castorani during Madden 09 Community Day, and he said something to Community Manager Will Kinsler to effect that "They (Community Leaders guys) seem to be down on the Madden 09 presentation a bit, but I bet they'll be happy with what the roadmap for next year."
The "roadmap" is the driving (and seemingly ONLY) marching order for these guys. It is the singular focus in a given release cycle, and it does not allow for much, if any, deviation. At least from what I've seen and heard.
And, to be perfectly honest, there's many suits at EA that are still stuck in a mentality that still looks at early Wii sales as some untapped mega-****** audience that EA simply MUST grab with each of its games, and they have focused so much of the "roadmaps" to account for "Growing" the product...not with new features, but with easily swallowed ****** selling points.
It is also one of the reasons why the EA NHL series and EA NBA series (under any name, Live or Elite), still have NO online season/franchise whatsoever, and Madden's online franchise variant is inferior to what 2K has been offering in its games since late last gen.
We are currently at the mercy of EA Corporate's mis-reading of the ****** Wii audience and trying to push that misguided aim into their games, coupled with the idea that because NHL 07 had fun new controls that translated well in the hockey arena, the same thing will work like a charm in the hoops arena.
And the devs who work under them MUST comply.
Or leave.
The "roadmap" is the driving (and seemingly ONLY) marching order for these guys. It is the singular focus in a given release cycle, and it does not allow for much, if any, deviation. At least from what I've seen and heard.
And, to be perfectly honest, there's many suits at EA that are still stuck in a mentality that still looks at early Wii sales as some untapped mega-****** audience that EA simply MUST grab with each of its games, and they have focused so much of the "roadmaps" to account for "Growing" the product...not with new features, but with easily swallowed ****** selling points.
It is also one of the reasons why the EA NHL series and EA NBA series (under any name, Live or Elite), still have NO online season/franchise whatsoever, and Madden's online franchise variant is inferior to what 2K has been offering in its games since late last gen.
We are currently at the mercy of EA Corporate's mis-reading of the ****** Wii audience and trying to push that misguided aim into their games, coupled with the idea that because NHL 07 had fun new controls that translated well in the hockey arena, the same thing will work like a charm in the hoops arena.
And the devs who work under them MUST comply.
Or leave.
# 33
jestep123 @ Sep 23
I may be on the limb here but I actually didnt think the Elite demo was that bad. The shooting and dribbling mechanics were pretty cool and so forth. The problem is that NBA 2k11 just looks SO DAMN GOOD. If it was the only game in town, it wouldnt be terribe (dont even think about it EA) but there is just so much depth to the 2k game.
The problem with Elite, in my mind is not necessarily the game itself, it is the timing. After gaining some "MO" last year, it was a terrible business decison to take a gamble like this..this year. You cant introduce a game with such a steep learning curve when there is a reliable and challenging and deep and better game out there to play.
With no NCAA BB game this year, they should have tested these controls there before trying to go up against the Kingpin of basketball games.
I mean seriously, what kind of bad luck (or bad planning) is it to run up against the one thing that NBA fans have been clamoring for most, MJ on the cover and playable in their game? Ouch!
The problem with Elite, in my mind is not necessarily the game itself, it is the timing. After gaining some "MO" last year, it was a terrible business decison to take a gamble like this..this year. You cant introduce a game with such a steep learning curve when there is a reliable and challenging and deep and better game out there to play.
With no NCAA BB game this year, they should have tested these controls there before trying to go up against the Kingpin of basketball games.
I mean seriously, what kind of bad luck (or bad planning) is it to run up against the one thing that NBA fans have been clamoring for most, MJ on the cover and playable in their game? Ouch!
# 34
Shinyhubcaps @ Sep 23
Everything about the PS3 NBA Live series was broke, so they did need to fix it... in fact, they needed to tear it up and build it from scratch. I haven't played the demo, but I cannot imagine a game worse than NBA Live 08 or 09, and even NBA Live 10 was all kinds of terrible in my opinion.
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