NBA Live 14 News Post

Sean O'Brien Issues Apology for NBA Live's Quality, Promises Improvements

05:28 PM - November 22, 2013 by The 24th Letter

Let's face it, it's not often you see a gaming company not only apologize for a lackluster release but also vow to make tangible improvements to the product before the next version releases.

NBA Live 14 Executive Producer Sean O'Brien is doing just that, commenting on the rough week the folks at EA have had with the largely hugely negative feedback on NBA Live 14 and vowing to improve the title.

"We hear loud and clear that some of you are disappointed in various aspects of NBA LIVE 14, and I�m sorry if the game doesn�t live up to your expectations," O'Brien said. "Looking at your feedback, we have laid out a plan to make NBA LIVE 14 a better game as quickly as we can."

The plan to improve NBA Live 14 will involve Twitch Live streams to teach the skills that will help make the experience with Live 14 a better one by teaching about the gameplay mechanics within the game as well as blogs on the EA website. Currently there are three new posts on the Live website: a controller guide, perfecting your style, and levels of dribble.

O'Brien is also promising tangible improvements to the game. Graphics and animations will see "drastic and immediate" improvements in the coming weeks and months within the game.

With such a negative reaction thus far to Live 14, it is definitely a good sign that EA is ramping up to improve the product post-launch with so much support. This bodes well for the series' future, but this also puts EA behind the 8-ball to truly improve the Live experience sooner rather than later.

Game: NBA Live 14Reader Score: 4/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 17 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 ProfessaPackMan @ 11/22/13 06:09 PM

Much props and I'm glad they're acknowledging the game does have issues and that they're going to make every effort to improve the game, which could also help in the future.

# 2 Boilerbuzz @ 11/22/13 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The 24th Letter


	Good stuff.. The guys at EA know where they need to make improvements...the best thing we can do is continue to give honest feedback and help them...not make excuses..it's the only way this series improves and we regain true competition...

But that's all I see. 12 months. Focus on (fill in blank) instead of visuals. It's intrigues me that the main issue he mentions his that the game is hard to learn... Really? That's the first issue you mention? Just the whole mantra that the game is hard to learn is troubling. I've known the game of basketball for a long time. Why should this game be hard at all?

With that said, it's fantastic that there is a public acknowledgement. Even though they've done this before (last year actually), still good to see.

# 3 King_B_Mack @ 11/22/13 07:01 PM

Refreshing to see something like that come out of EA. Here's hoping that they actually can get things done. Interesting to see how they plan on making drastic visual improvements to Live 14. Maybe he meant 15?

# 4 Dr. Poe @ 11/22/13 07:11 PM

Whatever. You had three years to come out with a good product. At least score in the7-8 range. All reviews have this in the 4-5 range. They just put something out to get quick money. They didn't even try.

# 5 bigeastbumrush @ 11/22/13 07:13 PM

SMH.

How about refund those beta testers who paid $60 and went out and bought the game.

If the game wasn't worth $60, they shouldn't have released it just to release it.

They don't deserve any type of props for this statement when they sat quiet for 3 full years and made no attempt to reach out to the gaming community for feedback.

Unreal.

# 6 Scribe1980 @ 11/22/13 07:20 PM

No letting EA skate here. Sorry. Owning up? Are you kidding me?

Hasn't released in FOUR years, still find a way to massively screw it up. Zero kudos. Tough. Only reason they even addressed it was because (surprise!) -- there is competition.

I might be turning into a crusty old man but you kids are way too forgiving.

# 7 oldman @ 11/22/13 07:23 PM

This is bogus. They knew the game was going to be garbage, that is why they didn't release any gameplay footage. Had they came out and said this two weeks ago and told people the game they would be releasing wouldn't be a final product I would feel different, but doing this now after they obviously knew it was going to be garbage is too little too late.

# 8 spike83 @ 11/22/13 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigeastbumrush


	SMH. How about refund those beta testers who paid $60 and went out and bought the game. If the game wasn't worth $60, they shouldn't have released it just to release it. They don't deserve any type of props for this statement when they sat quiet for 3 full years and made no attempt to reach out to the gaming community for feedback. Unreal.

Sorry, but EA's apology means nothing. A good start would be to offer a full or even partial refund to the people who bought the game and are not satisfied...

# 9 Nexgenrulz @ 11/22/13 07:26 PM

I guess the 3+ years they had to make improvements wasn't enough.

# 10 DirtyJerz32 @ 11/22/13 07:48 PM

Wow! Well done here EA. Now let's deliver on that and we'll see what happens.

# 11 tril @ 11/22/13 07:48 PM

ok. They obviously knew that they had a subpar game being released. Ive never heard of graphics being patched. This leads me to believe that the game, graphics wise, was never ready in the first place. To just say they are going to patch graphics within the next few months, means that they were working on the graphics all along, and they just werent ready by the deadline.

The harm has already been done. To really save face and cut loses they need to release a patch before the Christmas holiday. Other than that, it will be wait till next year.

# 12 tedus @ 11/22/13 07:55 PM

Like I said! If EA start to listen to our opinion from now!
It's never too late....
I'm very interesting in what they change in next weeks!
This game is not good, but have some potential !
So keep going EA!

# 13 ZoneBlitz @ 11/22/13 07:57 PM

In the immortal words of Sunshine Anderson:

Heard it all before
(Heard it all before)
All of ya lies, all of ya sweet talk
Baby this, baby that
But your lies ain't working now
Look who's hurting now
See I had to shut you down
(I had to shut you down)

Played the fool before
(Played the fool before)
I was your fool I believed in you
Yes I did, yes I did
But your lies ain't working now
Look who's hurting now
See I had to shut you down
(I had to shut you down)

# 14 otek @ 11/22/13 08:01 PM

Guys/Ladies, hello, knock, knock, wake up all yo', its EA for God sake "too much weak talk not enough real hip-hop"

# 15 noshun @ 11/22/13 08:10 PM

Sad.. Sean O'Brien is the new David Littman. He lied to all of us about gameplay before summer, and now they come out like its groundhog day, and guys.. excuse me "Struggle Live Apologists" are praising this..

You guys are the reason Live is in this state.. you settle and buy mediocrity, and now you are struggling to find aspects of the game to like to disguise the disbelief of the shattered pride you have. Some of you were lungs full of air, chest pumped out, holding the Live 14 flag baton, saying the other game is stale, yady yada and still are in denial seeing how bad this game is... UNBELIEVABLE..

On top of that you have Scott OG saying that he doesnt care about the low reviews from IGN initally, but then calls those guys "nerfhoops". I wonder what he thinks of Sean, being that hes apologizing for this game he oversaw? No offense to Sean O'Brien either about saying sorry, but this is just sad. now Andrew Wilson is apologizing too..

They're saying that player feedback is showing the game is hard to learn, but they have simplified controls.. so what the heck does that mean. especially for the Struggle Live Apologists screaming that Live has better control then the other game, etc..

This is damage control at its highest level

Anyone seen Dounte on the EA forums.. pray for that guy... & Sirs, Ced and a few others...

This is what happened to you guys.. guess who's EA, and who the Live fan is?

# 16 scottyp180 @ 11/22/13 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigeastbumrush


	SMH. How about refund those beta testers who paid $60 and went out and bought the game. If the game wasn't worth $60, they shouldn't have released it just to release it. They don't deserve any type of props for this statement when they sat quiet for 3 full years and made no attempt to reach out to the gaming community for feedback. Unreal.

To be fair I don't know why anyone invested $60 on a game in which the company didn't even show gameplay for before being released, the only gameplay shown was leaked out. Plus EA promised a demo for the game so anyone who was considering the purchase could have saved their money and tested out the demo. People can be mad at EA for releasing a crap product, and rightfully so, however you can't be mad at them if you wasted your own money on that crap product. For those who wasted their money I'm sorry but I hoped you learned a lesson not to invest your money into a product before knowing the quality of the product.

# 17 jmood88 @ 11/22/13 08:19 PM

Meanwhile, the developers are on twitter telling people that the game is for "sim" gamers and that the people who gave it bad reviews don't know much about basketball.

# 18 tmac747 @ 11/22/13 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukebeatsuncagain


	They are going to make improvements to animations and graphics within the next few weeks? Whoa, I didn't know that stuff was patch-able. That is pretty cool.

Goes to show that this could had been implemented in pass releases amongst all games.

# 19 TreyIM2 @ 11/22/13 08:24 PM

Smh. Double edged sword for me. On one hand, I can appreciate the acknowledgement of how bad this game isfor an NG game, the apology and the promise to vastly improve what's there in coming months but the other hand is wtf were u thinking and trying to pull with this game. EA obviously didn't care. Strong narcissism from EA brass and I really don't blame the devs. I almost believe they put more money into FIFA because they are making more global bucks than with any other of their sports games so it seems they care more about that franchise than anyone else. That's just my perception. I don't know the sales numbers.

Before I said that this game wasn't bad and I actually meant to say it wasn't horrible which I don't believe it is but it's definitely bad and unacceptable for an NG game. I also believe they need to save the supposed improvements for 15. Just patch the minors and move on. Unless they can really go ham with whst they can improve in 14 then take that and thensome into 15, again just go with minor patches then move on. Dont talk all this yang then don't produce, AGAIN, neither.

# 20 RipCityAndy @ 11/22/13 08:31 PM

Good to see. EA's just taking their medicine.

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