Peter Moore: "It'll take a while to get back"

[Andrew]

Peter Moore spoke to IndustryGamers on the future of EA's NBA sim series:
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ea-i ... -2k-again/

"We’re focused on building a great game for next year. The team has got the time to be able to look at everything that we need to do to make sure that we bring quality back up and be competitive. So we can go over the whole story again from last year - it was unfortunate, but we’re a brand and a company and a label that is very focused on building quality and we’re not just going to walk away from it; we’ve got a very, very talented team that’s already got stuff up and running even though it won't ship this year, it'll go next year. So we’ll be back."

"It’ll take a while to get back, yeah. It’ll take us a few years maybe, but if that’s what it takes, that's what it'll be. We’re in our 20th year as a label... We’re not a short term player. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we’ll sit here 3, 4 years from now and hopefully we’ll be talking about what a great battle NBA 14 or 15 is versus their 14 or 15," he concluded.

I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling skeptical or unenthusiastic at this point, but to me that seems a reasonable statement to make. With two years to work on the game, I certainly hope that they put out a quality product next year but for them to catch or overtake NBA 2K at the same time, without any customer feedback since NBA Live 10...well, I'd call that wishful thinking. I don't think that's feasible and it's fair for them to refrain from making any such promises. If they can put out a quality product though, they're definitely on the right track.

[Patr1ck]

Hopefully they are doing away with their three year plans. A continual development without any more reboots is the way to go.

[The X]

Hopefully they are doing away with their three year plans. A continual development without any more reboots is the way to go.

Yep, that's what got most people disenchanted with the franchise. They took their customers for granted & wanted people to buy based on the game being complete in 2 years time.

[Andrew]

I don't know if it was so much them taking the fanbase for granted as it was being too quick to hit the panic button, scrapping things and trying to rebuild rather than fixing and building upon what they already had in place. It just meant they took a couple of steps backward for each one they took forward. 2K hasn't released a game that's 100% perfect (which isn't a knock on them, that's a tall order and I'd say pretty much impossible for any developer making a game more complex than Solitaire), but they've had faith in their tech and made changes and enhancements with each passing year and it's certainly paid off.

[Ryi]

I wish they get back again as I liked Live before.

[JaoSming]

I still don't like the comment, setting up for and legitimizing a 6.5/10 game since it's their first game back.

I don't even want to get caught up in it right now, I'm just hoping that they listen to their community for NBA 14 instead of sticking to a 3 year plan and then rebooting the year after.

[Andrew]

Fair call, though I don't think it was intended that way. Like I said I don't think there's any feasible way they could catch NBA 2K with their return title, so I think they're right not to make any promises along those lines.

[[Q]]

Hopefully they are doing away with their three year plans. A continual development without any more reboots is the way to go.

Yep, that's what got most people disenchanted with the franchise. They took their customers for granted & wanted people to buy based on the game being complete in 2 years time.

see that's where they went wrong. 2k12 is pretty much the 2k7 (or an even older version, i'm not sure. i haven't played any of the older ones) game with a whole bunch of changes, and EA needs to find a good base and just build off of it.

[JaoSming]

2K6 built off the Xbox version of 2K5
2K7 refined that
2K8 refined that but removed 24/7 mode
2K9 had a graphics overhaul, kept the gameplay, but removed a bunch of little things like sweat falling off players, player vs crowd/dorna animations, and only kept 1 street court
2K10 added to 2K9
2K11 added to 2K10 and refined the animation system


Live 06 was partly based on the PS2/Xbox game (animation and gameplay-wise)
Live 07 was a brand new piece of shit
Then 08/09 progression
10 was based on 09 but heavily modified.


I think I got that right

[Andrew]

Sounds about right.

[Patr1ck]

Hopefully they are doing away with their three year plans. A continual development without any more reboots is the way to go.

Yep, that's what got most people disenchanted with the franchise. They took their customers for granted & wanted people to buy based on the game being complete in 2 years time.

see that's where they went wrong. 2k12 is pretty much the 2k7 (or an even older version, i'm not sure. i haven't played any of the older ones) game with a whole bunch of changes, and EA needs to find a good base and just build off of it.

ea did do the foundation thing with 08-10, which they talked about, but rebooted again.

The thing about the foundation is that they need to have a system where they can improve parts of the game without breaking everything to the point of requiring major replacements. 2k has done very well with that on the current generation consoles.

[ThaLiveKing]

They need to implement that Frost bite engine to NBA Live LOL!!! That would murk 2k in the graphics alone LOL

[22cedric]

I think we will see a great battle when NBA Live 14 & NBA 2K14 comes out.

[Andrew]

You could be right, here's hoping. Two strong brands would be ideal, giving gamers a choice if they prefer one control method over another and/or one game does something better than the other.

[Arcane]

They need to implement that Frost bite engine to NBA Live LOL!!! That would murk 2k in the graphics alone LOL

I always felt NBA Live had better graphics in 90% of the case but yeah seeing the frostbite 2 engine or cryengine technologies would make things very interesting.

[Bulls#1]

I hope that would be included as well

[JBoom_LALALAND]

They need to implement that Frost bite engine to NBA Live LOL!!! That would murk 2k in the graphics alone LOL

I forgot that. If they can pull this thing ... now they can focus on strengthening GAMEPLAY...

[JaoSming]

They need to implement that Frost bite engine to NBA Live LOL!!! That would murk 2k in the graphics alone LOL

I forgot that. If they can pull this thing ... now they can focus on strengthening GAMEPLAY...

IMO the Madden and NCAA Football graphics engine would be better for a sports game than the Frostbite engine.

[Leftos]

What the hell? The Frostbite engine? What kind of features are we expecting from it? Big streaming environments? Advanced lighting? Post-process effects? Particle effects?

All we need is realistic player modes, fluid animations and decent lighting, graphics-wise. We don't need a sophisticated graphics engine for that. If it scales well and is optimized, that's even better. Maybe then we can all play at 60FPS at the proper settings.

Now the physics engine from something like FIFA or Backbreaker, that would be impressive.

But a graphics engine and a physics engine are two different things.

[shorty_ubk]

What the hell? The Frostbite engine? What kind of features are we expecting from it? Big streaming environments? Advanced lighting? Post-process effects? Particle effects?

All we need is realistic player modes, fluid animations and decent lighting, graphics-wise. We don't need a sophisticated graphics engine for that. If it scales well and is optimized, that's even better. Maybe then we can all play at 60FPS at the proper settings.

Now the physics engine from something like FIFA or Backbreaker, that would be impressive.

But a graphics engine and a physics engine are two different things.

I agree on this comment and THEY MUST USE IMPACT ENGINE!!! 'Cause gameplay looks so much realistic with this game engine...

[Andrew]

So long as they develop and polish it in the background before going ahead and implementing it. That's one of the ways they erred with NBA Elite 11.