Peter Moore just confirmed NBA Elite 11's delay on his blog:
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Over the past three years, EA SPORTS development teams have had a laser focus on creating titles packed with innovation and unsurpassed quality. The acclaim from fans and critics on most of our titles the past few years makes us proud and it also motivates us to keep getting better.
This year, we set extremely ambitious goals for our new franchise, NBA ELITE. We are creating a game that will introduce several breakthrough features that have been missing from the basketball genre. Unfortunately, NBA ELITE 11 is not yet ready and we have made a decision to delay next month’s launch. We are going to keep working until we’re certain we can deliver a breakthrough basketball experience.
I agree that this is done for us ,but because of us.
But I do disagree about what can be done in a 3-5months. 5months is probably more than half a development cycle. There is a lot the can improve in that time.
I will speak for the whole board and say I'd rather just wait for 12 than get 5 months spent fixing 11 and then get a short cycled 12
absolutely no reason to release a game in April, when in 6 more months it will be time for the 2012 titles. Not to mention the fact not many people would play a basketball game during an offseason. If EA is wise, they'll just wait until next October.
No way i am going to praise EA for what they did....NO EXCUSE ,EA for trying to sell a broken product, PERIOD.... EVERYONE at EA HEADQUARTERS gets the blame, expect David Littman.... It wasnt right for EA to have a HOCKEY guy worked on a Basketball game....
Wow...surprised a company would come out and admit a mistake like this. Props on that end for not taking money from consumers when they felt the product wasn't up to snuff, but this has to go down as a bit of an embarrassment for EA.
No disrespect but for me this completely undermines rEAnimation word. He has been pretty honest ,but this makes him seem like a lair. If the game is as good as he says it is why this delay?
That seems like kind of an unfair statement. We dont know who made the decision for the delay. I'm sure he was doing the best he could with the tools available he had at the time. He may have been as surprised as some of us.
I agree that this is done for us ,but because of us.
But I do disagree about what can be done in a 3-5months. 5months is probably more than half a development cycle. There is a lot the can improve in that time.
As I said, if they were truly only 70% done with the game they storyboarded from the start and need that extra 3-5 months to finish, that's one thing (after all, Polyphony has been doing that with Gran Turismo 5). However, if they were finished with their intended product and need to wipe away or tack on percentage points to get the game to be successful, that is quite an invaluable waste of time just for them to get their game on par.
The only good that can come out of this is that means they will get 16 months for NBA Elite 13, so they can pre-plan it as so. I'll have high hopes for that basketball game.
Swallowed a lot of pride to do this. This is basically the white flag for this year. I won't say wise move because this will clearly hurt them in the short term. We'll see if it will help them in the long run as they now have more time to work on the game.
Like I said previously, Give Littman time with this series and he'll do for basketball what he and the NHL team did for hockey. I have no doubts that within 2-3 years, Live/Elite and NBA2k are on the same page if not Live/Elite being the better game much like NHL being the better of the two currently.
come on now, just because they have delayed the game doesn't change the opinion a developer has on the game, or even a consumer. Some people think it's a decent game, most of us are in agreement that it's a beta-like game that needs tons more depth. Whatever the case may be, I commend EA for swallowing their pride and admitting it's not a finished product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Wednesday
I wouldn't go that far and call him a liar. He said (I'm paraphrasing this), the game was good to him. It's just his opinion. He also said the demo was a pretty good representation of the final product. Based on the reaction to the demo, I think it was a good decision to delay it.
I think you guys missed the point of my post. I think rEAnimator has been one of the most honest dev. since I started following the development of games. ,BUT There is no way this game would be getting delayed months if it was up to par. You guys have any idea how much money they are losing delaying this game? So either he was lying or his opinion of what a good basketball game is completely off. Something is really wrong if the Head of EA has to come out and basically issue an apology and delay the game. There is no way you can tell me a game that is so bad it needs to be delayed a week before release is good enough to come here and endorse. Sorry but somebody is wrong here.
Very very good move and this instills a lot of confidence in EA from me that they are trying to please the customer as opposed to tricking the customer. I haven't bought an EA basketball game in five years now. Looking forward to seeing what they bring to the table next year.
No way i am going to praise EA for what they did....NO EXCUSE ,EA for trying to sell a broken product, PERIOD.... EVERYONE at EA HEADQUARTERS gets the blame, expect David Littman.... It wasnt right for EA to have a HOCKEY guy worked on a Basketball game....
EA, SHAME ON YOU..
See, this is how I felt when 2K Sports gave us MLB 2K9. Visual Concepts came late into the game and had to put out what they could, and it was an awful mess. Not only did they willingly take our cash like they were initially proud of their product, but before 2K10 came out they even threw a video at our faces about the necessary corrections that were made in the next development cycle, confirming the crapshoot that MLB 2K9 was.
I made that point in the thread when the video came out, and people weren't quite agreeing with me with responses similar to the responses we're getting in this thread. I feel like EA very well could have done the same thing, but I also have an inclination they knew what was coming for them if they even tried to release it, so they held back.
Gosh, I wish VC did the same thing with MLB 2K9 (except they planned it out beforehand... imagine what 2K10 could have been).
The good news about this (though I know this will never happen) is this gives VC an incentive to actually not make an NBA 2K12, and work on a two-year cycle for NBA 2K13. Whether EA releases Elite 11 in February or October of 2011, either would make sense for VC to stick to a 2K13 only. If Elite 11 comes out in just a few months, they won't be releasing a 12 anyway... that development cycle won't even get them out of the beta stage. If they release it next October however, I say let EA get some sales their way so they can stay competitive in the long run. You don't want them to shut down the title like SCEA had to.
I hate the fact that people now are seeing EA as some kind of hero for not bringing out the game. They just tried to insult our intelligence by selling us a game they knew was bad from the start.
Now EA is acting like they are listening to us. If they did listen we would have good game now instead of a delayed and maybe even cancelled garbage
Seriously. Excellent point, If they would have release this game I would consider it the equivalent of a bank robbery. All of sudden it's like "oops, our bad we knew this game sucked but since we didn't reach our Pre-order quota it's back to the drawing board."
Makes me wish I didn't get rid of my LIVE 10 copy...
No way i am going to praise EA for what they did....NO EXCUSE ,EA for trying to sell a broken product, PERIOD.... EVERYONE at EA HEADQUARTERS gets the blame, expect David Littman.... It wasnt right for EA to have a HOCKEY guy worked on a Basketball game....
EA, SHAME ON YOU..
I feel the same way. Why not just swallow your pride release the game and sell it for $20. Why delay so close to the release date. Unless your going to scrap the entire thing and go back to the Live 10 engine.