NBA Live 13: Why we want a PC Version

[Andrew]

Hope may be dwindling for it to happen this year but nevertheless, I thought I'd do a write-up on why we want to see a PC release:
http://www.nba-live.com/nba-live-13-why ... c-version/

Before I move on to discussing a few odds and ends that I’m hoping to see in NBA Live 13, I’d like to take a moment to talk about something that is very important to the community: the prospect of a PC release, and why we want to see it.

As noted in my intro, I'm looking to get one more article out before E3 gets underway, covering a few things that didn't fit into the previous features.

[Spree#8]

Definitely agree with your thoughts.

Though piracy is certainly not a PC-only issue, there's more and more of it on consoles as well. It's just become a convenient excuse for developers for not granting any support for PC versions of their games or not even releasing them at all. Which serves as even more temptation to support piracy, because PC gamers feel like there's little to no quality they're paying for and it all goes around in a circle.

I'd like EA to clear up whether they're releasing it for PC or not as soon as possible, because it must have been decided by now (probably a lot earlier) and I don't think they have much of a reason to keep people guessing. And it determines if people like me have any reason at all to follow the info about the game that will begin to come out.

[RedPhazon8]

Since we can do things the other platforms can't, it allows PC users to get more out of a game... the biggest reason why I want a PC version.

[Andrew]

Though piracy is certainly not a PC-only issue, there's more and more of it on consoles as well. It's just become a convenient excuse for developers for not granting any support for PC versions of their games or not even releasing them at all. Which serves as even more temptation to support piracy, because PC gamers feel like there's little to no quality they're paying for and it all goes around in a circle.

Indeed. The main issue is the small market size and I don't think piracy realistically has too big an impact on that. Although the number of people who bought the PC version of NBA 2K12 retail pales in comparison to the total sales, it's a little higher than I thought it would be and it would be interesting to see the numbers including digital downloads as well.

Speaking of digital downloads, that would be a way to address any concerns about piracy, along with keeping the overheads of making a PC version low: make it digital download only. While I still like having a disc and collecting covers, so long as it was a port from the 360/PS3 version and we could patch it, I'm sure we could make it work.

[benji]

VGChartz is not a valid source, their numbers are pure hogwash and speculation.

[Jhiane]

No PC release = Useless for us

[Andrew]

VGChartz is not a valid source, their numbers are pure hogwash and speculation.

Fair enough. Is there a more credible source readily available to the public?

[BD1899]

Just thought I'd mention that I was searching NBA Live 13 on the E3 official website and it had PC listed as one of the consoles the game is being sold on. Does that confirm the PC version will be made? Probably not, but its good news that we haven't seen any evidence that it won't be available.

[Spree#8]

Speaking of digital downloads, that would be a way to address any concerns about piracy, along with keeping the overheads of making a PC version low: make it digital download only. While I still like having a disc and collecting covers, so long as it was a port from the 360/PS3 version and we could patch it, I'm sure we could make it work.

Yeah, that sounds like an easy enough way to at least limit piracy. I'm not really a fan of digital downloads, but if that's what it would take to get a PC version, I'd go for it. However, the port quality is obviously another problem. Surely we all remember the PS2 ports we were getting from EA before they stopped releasing Live for PC altogether (especially Live 08 was just beyond awful). And even though they kept releasing PC versions of FIFA, I've heard FIFA 12 was the first one to be the same as the 360/PS3 version. So in order to get sales, they'd also have to make their PC game worth one's while, because word spreads quickly and people are getting more and more cautious before buying any game.

[Andrew]

Just thought I'd mention that I was searching NBA Live 13 on the E3 official website and it had PC listed as one of the consoles the game is being sold on. Does that confirm the PC version will be made? Probably not, but its good news that we haven't seen any evidence that it won't be available.

It certainly gets one's hopes up, but I want to hear it from EA Sports themselves before I get too carried away.

Yeah, that sounds like an easy enough way to at least limit piracy. I'm not really a fan of digital downloads, but if that's what it would take to get a PC version, I'd go for it. However, the port quality is obviously another problem. Surely we all remember the PS2 ports we were getting from EA before they stopped releasing Live for PC altogether (especially Live 08 was just beyond awful). And even though they kept releasing PC versions of FIFA, I've heard FIFA 12 was the first one to be the same as the 360/PS3 version. So in order to get sales, they'd also have to make their PC game worth one's while, because word spreads quickly and people are getting more and more cautious before buying any game.

I'm with you. Although I do buy digital download games and certainly don't dislike the idea, I'm still a fan of having a physical copy. I like the experience of going to the store to pick up a game or getting it in the mail, as well as collecting covers. I'd probably like digital download a little more if I had a faster connection and a slightly higher data limit, as it is a game like NBA Live 13 would take hours to download and eat up a good portion of my monthly plan. It's not like I'd be getting a new game every day but still, right now it's far quicker and more convenient for me to install the game off a disc, if that option is available to me. If it was the only way to get NBA Live 13 or another game I wanted then I'd certainly do it rather than go without.

I imagine it would have to be a port of the 360/PS3 version at this point.

[rafal723]

On the Live 13's Official Website in the Game Info are wrote platforms. There is Xbox 360, as well as PS3, but no PC. There's even release date. C'mon 2K !!!

[Jhiane]

no pc? we'll sorry to them I will stick with 2k

[anastasis16]

On the Live 13's Official Website in the Game Info are wrote platforms. There is Xbox 360, as well as PS3, but no PC. There's even release date. C'mon 2K !!!

didn't u mean "C'mon EA!!!"? and if there's any I don't think I would spend my money on it.. it's so sad knowing the fact that they had enough time (2 years) to come back strong for the franchise and yet we found negative previews swirling around the internet all the EA Council hype apparently has come to nothing

[Andrew]

It does appear as though we have confirmation. A shame, but not entirely unexpected.

[Jhiane]

sorry EA, 2K13 will own this year may i know what is the main reason why they can't have a pc petition?

[Andrew]

That doesn't really make sense but if you're asking what I think you're asking, they don't make a PC version anymore as it's a smaller audience compared to the console market.

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

There's no doubt that the PC audience is much smaller than the Console audience.
But EA would still gain 100-200 thousand sales per year extra for the PC version. That's a bonus still. If it wasn't, then why are 2K Sports developing it for PC year after year? That means they do have some sort of profit, right?

Look at Major League Baseball 2K12, how on earth is that on PC?! That game is bound to have far lesser sales, far smaller audience than NBA Live 13 or NBA 2K13 on the PC. Some of us people here where I am from, (the UK) have hardly heard what baseball is, they wouldn't even buy it for the Consoles, let alone think about buying it for the PC. It's only really popular in North America.

Quite simply my assumption is that Peter Moore the EA Sports President does not want PC version of their sports games because otherwise large proportions of their Console fans will buy the PC version hence reducing the sales of the Console version since the PC version costs at least half the price of the console version.

It isn't a coincidence that ever since Moore became President of EA Sports in 2007 we only had NBA Live 08 and most of the other sports games cancelled after 2008.

I still think it's a miracle how some of us PC Gamers managed to persuade EA to bring FIFA full next-gen console port on PC.. It took hundreds of people every day on the official FIFA PC section of their forums to demand, "We want Next-Gen for FIFA PC."

The same thing will need to be done for NBA Live and maybe then there would be a glimmer of hope for it to come to PC at least one day.

[Andrew]

I actually got to take part in a conference call with Peter Moore not too long after it was announced that NBA Live 09 would be console only and asked him about a return to the PC platform in future years. He indicated that it was a possibility and said that he understood the appeal of and interest in PC gaming, having come from Microsoft. I don't know that he's actually anti-PC gaming per se, but no doubt he and other higher ups have looked at the bottom line over the years and unfortunately that hasn't gone well for PC releases.

In the meantime, we can continue to demonstrate our support and enthusiasm for the game, along with our desire to see it return to the PC platform. If NBA Live 13 is successful, hopefully we can get NBA Live 14 on the PC. Unfortunately the decision is made much higher than the development team, who would probably like to give PC users a game so as many people as possible can be playing it, but the folks crunching the numbers and making the call won't give it the green light.

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

I think the main problem with the PC sales being suffered was the fact that in recent years even when we had NBA Live 08, Madden NFL 08, NHL 08, etc they were actually PS2 ports.
Speaking on behalf of PC Gamers, we know all too well that the PS2 version was going to be more inferior to the PS3 and Xbox 360 version. Therefore all it would do is anger the PC community that it isn't an exact next-gen console port. Sales will automatically suffer.

That happened with 08. I remember Peter Moore once said that 2008 was the last year for the PS2 versions of sports games to come. So maybe that gives us some clues why we didn't get a PC version of NBA, Tiger Woods, etc on PC since then. Because they didn't want to put more effort into porting the PS3 version to PC.

The other major reason for the PC sales to suffer was LAN! LAN basically gave pirates the opportunity to play the game with other people for free.
That's why LAN has been scrapped in most PC games now. If they give us a full next-gen PS3/Xbox 360 version and scrap out LAN then the sales will drastically increase!

This was the case with FIFA 11 PC http://www.vgchartz.com/game/43326/fifa-soccer-11/Global/ with LAN 119,406 sales worldwide!
FIFA 12 PC http://www.vgchartz.com/game/50888/fifa-soccer-12/Global without LAN 358,558 sales worldwide!
Plus FIFA 11 was a next-gen FIFA 10 port, while FIFA 12 was the exact same port as FIFA 12 PS3/Xbox 360 versions. Automatically piracy decreased and the sales increased as people needed to buy original FIFA 12 with a valid serial number to play online.

I think Peter Moore should learn from the FIFA 12 PC sale stats then he will be more encouraged to give us a PC version of NBA Live and other EA Sports titles in the future and not just give us FIFA on PC.

[Andrew]

I think Andrew Wilson is the one calling the shots at the moment but in any case there's merit in what you're saying. We can only hope that these factors will be given consideration moving forward.

[aidsanity]

Wikipedia confirmed in that NBA Live 13 has a PC version. Which is good. For mods out here in NLSC. But I am not feeling quite happy just yet, I've read review that E3 has been disappointed by the game's presentation. I was just about thinking to pre-order.

[Andrew]

Wikipedia has not confirmed a PC version. There will be no PC version of NBA Live 13. This has been confirmed by the official website and my inquiries with EA Sports directly.

[Leftos]

Wikipedia doesn't confirm ANYTHING. Anyone can edit any article in Wikipedia. I might just put that Live 13 is coming to SNES.

[benji]

You can literally go back in some other thread and see where I edited it out of the Live 13 entry on Wikipedia in response to someone claiming it was confirmation. I'm the one who added the actual release date to the page at this point.

They then edited all the PC FUD back in.

I just did it again, and stripped the bad references, watch it come back.

[Leftos]

Why do you bother? Really.