NBA Elite 11 Officially Cancelled

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/217 ... -licences/

In its quarterly earnings report, Electronic Arts recorded a loss of $134 million due to a slower release schedule over the last quarter. Looking ahead, the company has canceled NBA Elite and will reduce company costs by restructuring licenses.

UPDATE: During the company's earnings call, Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown confirmed that NBA Elite has been canceled. The franchise will press on, however, with development shifting from EA Canada to EA Tiburon.

ORIGINAL TEXT: EA has revealed its financial report for the quarter running from July 1-September 30, 2010. In the report, the company revealed net revenue of $884 million, down over $250 million from the same time period in 2009, leading to losses of $134 million for the quarter. On the plus side for EA, this quarter should be a profitable one, as the company touted a strong start for Medal of Honor, selling two million copies last month.

Beyond publishing new games, EA is undergoing a few changes to create a brighter bottom line. EA announced plans to "restructure key licensing and developer agreements" in an effort to reduce costs. Fortunately for EA employees and partners, the restructuring will not directly involve layoffs, as EA Vice President of Corporate Communications told GamePro there will be "no impact on EA partners [..] the restructuring announced today is 95% related to license agreements and not headcount. This is not a major restructuring of talent."

And there you have it. Not really a surprise at this point; getting sales was going to be an uphill battle to say the least with a later release and such a positive response to NBA 2K11. Winning back a share of the market next year is going to be an uphill battle as well but at least they'll have had two development cycles to create and polish the game. Here's hoping they can put that time to good use.

It's "normal", they knew that 2k is sincerelly much better game that Nba live, anyway the rivalry is good always

Sorry for my english

well, they are doing what people wanted now (Jam this year, 2 year cycle on Elite)....too bad it happened the way it did.

so obviously bigball's copy is a collector's item now. problem is, I don't think he'll be able to get updates for Jam (the modes they intended to sell seperately)

Not surprised, at all.

NBA 2k11 BABY!!!!! THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN!!!!!!

At least they aren't rebooting the series and will get nearly a full development cycle to complete a game that was just missing some gameplay, collision, and authenticity polishing.

Done with EA now officially lost my respect and customer 2k forever now

Done with EA now officially lost my respect and customer 2k forever now

To be fair, I think a lot of people would be saying the same thing if they hadn't pulled the plug and released a game that was by and large poorly received. Whichever way they went, it wasn't going to go down well.

And of course, that's going to be the challenge for NBA Elite 12/NBA Live 12/whatever they end up calling it. The fanbase has dwindled, in many cases moved on to 2K and the loyalty to the brand is greatly diminished because too many people feel burned by shortcomings of the product, the lack of a PC version and so on. Some people aren't going to be won back which is understandable. But I'd like to see two quality products on the market as competition is a good thing, so I'm still hoping that EA can rebound next year.

Done with EA now officially lost my respect and customer 2k forever now

To be fair, I think a lot of people would be saying the same thing if they hadn't pulled the plug and released a game that was by and large poorly received. Whichever way they went, it wasn't going to go down well.

And of course, that's going to be the challenge for NBA Elite 12/NBA Live 12/whatever they end up calling it. The fanbase has dwindled, in many cases moved on to 2K and the loyalty to the brand is greatly diminished because too many people feel burned by shortcomings of the product, the lack of a PC version and so on. Some people aren't going to be won back which is understandable. But I'd like to see two quality products on the market as competition is a good thing, so I'm still hoping that EA can rebound next year.

i also hope they rebound, Competition is always good for game companies. Gotta keep a quality bar otherwise they can just release anything. I also hope Live gets released on PC so NBA 2k makes the PC version better then consoles (i mean cmon they didn't even give us proper shadows...). Game is still amazing and so worth the price of 30 dollars i got it for

I hope they give the honours to the fifa makers and make nba 2k11 look like pes 11compared to fifa 11

As stated, they gave it to EA Tiburon.

i also hope they rebound, Competition is always good for game companies. Gotta keep a quality bar otherwise they can just release anything. I also hope Live gets released on PC so NBA 2k makes the PC version better then consoles (i mean cmon they didn't even give us proper shadows...). Game is still amazing and so worth the price of 30 dollars i got it for

I'd certainly be in favour of a return to the PC, as I'm sure most of us would. It should go a little way in re-establishing good faith with the fanbase.

As stated, they gave it to EA Tiburon.

couldnt be bothered reading

Wow. Kind of surprised, but also kind of not. They tried to make a WHOLE NEW GAME way too quick and that was a bad idea. I hope Tiburon can really give the EA Sports NBA Franchise new life.
Will it still be called NBA Elite? And will Kevin Durant still be on the next cover? If anybody knows, reply to this post.

Just to destroy hopes of a PC version, Tiburon makes 4 games for EA Sports. Madden, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods, and MMA. None of those are on PC (Tiger Woods Online doesnt count).

We shouldn't hold our breathe for a NBA Elite/Live PC release from them, it's worth petitioning (now) about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if EA Canada was still working on an Online version of NBA Live/Elite to go hand and hand with FIFA Online, Tiger Online, and Madden Facebook.

Will it still be called NBA Elite? And will Kevin Durant still be on the next cover? If anybody knows, reply to this post.

Nothing has been said about that as yet but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say they'll likely stick with the NBA Elite name and look to give Durant the '12 cover.

Based on what Geoff said at OS, they will be keeping Elite as the name and build on the game from where EAC left off.

i dont think its good idea to start were ea canada left off, it doesnt sound right OR just start from the real physics system ONLY

Yeah it would probably be smarter to rebuild the engine so they can cancel the game next year when its incomplete.

I hope that the new Elite team builds on the direction that the now previous team started and gives me the gamer their own unique way of making plays on screen.

Agreed, scrapping everything to start over is going back to square one. Build upon what they were going for in NBA Elite 11 with more polish and a few changes based on community feedback. Take some extra time with the game modes on top of that and they've got a far better chance of making an enjoyable game than if they rebuild from scratch and have to make sacrifices due to time constraints.

soory for my english!!!!!!!!!
really bad news, but i buy 2k11 and i can say i love it at the first 6 minutes!!!!!!!!!1
but i keep my live 10 only for online gaming.
there is a text at ea:

-For NBA LIVE 10 players, we will continue to offer free content and services throughout the 2010-11 season. We will start with a new roster update so you get all the players for the new season, free of charge. We will also provide free Dynamic DNA updates, daily, for the entire season. That’s a full season of basketball with new rosters and updates, free.

sorry ea you fu...ed the game up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

EA could've gone the simple way, Live 2004 and 2005 were enjoyable to me compared to the last ones released on the PC.

At least they aren't rebooting the series and will get nearly a full development cycle to complete a game that was just missing some gameplay, collision, and authenticity polishing.

That's what I'd like to point out too. As I've said in some other thread in this section, they could have continued "Live" this year and just rebrand with "Elite" when it's all done. What happened to the game is just a great example of bad time management.