How A Big Video Game Was Killed (Kotaku)

[Andrew]

Another article on NBA Elite 11's cancellation, with some more insight into the call to axe the game this year provided by EA boss John Riccitiello. Check it out here.

Some key quotes:

"Somewhere in the July timeframe, they were flashing from Canada that the game was going to come in hot. In a way, they'd sort of bit off two years' worth of work that they could only get done in 18 months. So it was going to come in hot. But they were still signaling to us that it was going to come in good, that they were going to get it.

"The demo went on around the same time we were mastering the game [Editor's note: Meaning the game was just about done and ready to go in boxes headed to stores]. The report was — we had known a month earlier that the gameplay was great but that they didn't synch up well against the animations, which was what…."

"We're in the middle of a nail-biter. The demo goes out. We final the game. We do an internal review. We're not happy. Interaction between the label and sales organization says the game is likely to be a 60 or something along those lines essentially for the fact that it wasn't finished. What do you do?

"So there's the table: You can ship a product you're not proud of and compete for marginal share. You can delay the game to get a better product, but that's going to have a knock-on effect. And we made what I judged to be the best call given the circumstances."

Pretty much confirms what a lot of us had come to suggest, that the game had tried to do too much in one production cycle to get everything at a satisfactory level.

[JaoSming]

yep, its interesting to read but nothing really "new"

For the record, he wouldn't confirm that EA's got a simulation style basketball game for next year, be it Live, Elite or something new. But, he said, "We're EA Sports, for Christ's sake."

Thought that was interesting that he wouldn't confirm the game for next year.....hopefully things don't fall apart.

[Andrew]

Yeah that's definitely eye-catching too, but I wouldn't make too much of it right now. Whether they decide to re-brand it again, go back to live or keep the Elite moniker, I'm guessing with the extra production time afforded to them they'll be putting out a sim-oriented game next October.

[Patr1ck]

"We're EA Sports for Christ's sake."

It will be Elite 12 exaggerated sim. That's what they make anyways. Exaggerated sims.

I got deja vu all over that article. I swear I have read those things on all the forums.

You can literally take the ball from left to right, left to right, drive to the basket, switch the ball to your left hand and do a left-handed dunk. And they showed me that gameplay and put the controller in my hand, and I said, 'This is about as much fun as I've ever had playing any sports game.

Basically what I felt when I first played it. Just like when Bigball12 sais he enjoys mostly shooting around in the gym.

[Andrew]

I don't mind the default setting being exaggerated sim; that's kind of how NBA 2K11 is and if it's just a matter of fine tuning, that's what sliders are for. I'd like to see NBA Elite implement something similar to 2K's gamestyles though with a exaggerated sim (default), ultra sim, arcade and custom settings. Or at the very least, include enough sliders to properly tweak what will hopefully be robust gameplay/AI to get the kind of results we want.

[Patr1ck]

I think a better solution to one-numbered sliders would be to have three numbers. A high, a low, and a threshold for how far beyond the high aaand low number you can go. So say the worst shooters would shoot 25 percent, while the best would shoot 60, with a threshold of 20 so players could have really good or bad days shooting. It seems the one numbered slider doesn't always provide the right balance across players of varying abilities.

[Andrew]

That's an interesting idea. Of course, bringing back the numbers at the very least would be welcome, it'd make adjustments (and sharing those adjustments) much easier.

[[Q]]

i like that idea for exaggerated sim, ultra sim, arcade, and custom settings. it reminds me of how Live used to give you those options. It then would appeal to more players: for those who like dunk fests, pick arcade. those who say Live isn't a sim, pick exaggerated sim. for us hardcore players, pick ultra sim. i like it.

damn why don't they hire us as game testers for this game? we probably put waaay more thought into this game than the actual testers put into their real lives

[Andrew]

All the more reason to keep posting ideas for the Wishlist.

[George7]

Damn,they just ruined the best series in history of basketball games!
Hopefully next year they can do sth good,and make a pc version for god's sake!!!
That was a really bad move back in 2009,which really made the situation tougher for EA.

[Andrew]

That's the question that will never really be answered: would it have been more or less damaging to actually release the game? As much scorn as they've received for cancelling the game, choosing not to release a product they're not happy with gives them a better chance of saving some face and regrouping for next year. Either way it'd be a new low for the series but the way they went is still probably the lesser of two evils.

[ThaLiveKing]

I'm more interested in where they are going to start from for Live 12. That will really determine how the game will be. They can't come with any gimmicks, they gotta come with a straight bball game

[Andrew]

I still assume they'll continue to build upon what they'd put in place for NBA Elite 11. They've already made the commitment to the change so I don't see them going back to NBA Live 10 and starting over from scratch is just going to set them back again.

[Patr1ck]

Should definitely stay on this path. There has been a good amount of complaining about elements of NBA 2K11's system, and bball games this generation in general. The developers of Elite had the right idea with the controls and the canned animations and the "under the hood" dice rolls that predetermined everything were not good for gamers. We have all noticed things like that for years but just couldn't put our finger on what exactly what was happening in the game. If they can just make it look good, and play like an nba basketball game, then they can bounce back.

[Andrew]

Agreed, though I'd still be in favour of tweaking the controls a little to more of a hybrid of the old and the new, with greater use of the face buttons. Even if they retain some shooting controls on the right stick a la 2K's Shot Stick, they should retain a shoot button in the same controller configuration as 2K does. Likewise, rebounding and blocking is better off assigned to a face button.

Also, game modes absolutely must get an upgrade this year, what bigball12 has been able to tell and show us of what was going to be in NBA Elite 11 was very disappointing. Getting the gameplay right and adding the necessary polish that wasn't going to be there in NBA Elite 11 is vital but the game modes have fallen by the wayside for a few years running now. Completely catching up to 2K's Association Mode and My Player might be a tall order, but Dynasty Mode needs to take several steps forward. Hopefully, Become Legendary/Be a Pro/whatever they end up branding it can make its debut with a bit more depth that originally planned as well.