NBA teams using NBA Live 09...

[Andrew]

...as a scouting tool.

Story @ Kotaku.com

Electronic Arts must have been pleased as hell to read, in the Los Angeles Times, that front-office types are using NBA Live 09 to help in making some of their decisions.

The NBA says about half of the league's 30 teams employ the video game in making personnel evaluations.

The game's "Dynamic DNA", the new stats engine behind this kind of analysis, is good enough to be taken seriously even when team officials are evaluating straight-up rookies barely a dozen games into the season. Dynamic DNA not only simulates the surges and slumps players hit during a long 82-game season, it updates that model with real-world statistics and outcomes fed into EA's servers daily.

Original LA Times article can be found here.

[Patr1ck]

Hehe, I knew that would happen. Why pay Synergy Sports loads of money when you can get it all year for $60? The overlay that shows all the percentages once a player performs an action is an incredible scouting tool.

[Andrew]

Synergy would probably still offer data that the game doesn't yet utilise though. I wonder how Synergy feels about it, though I'm guessing the deal with EA would be fairly lucrative anyway.

[kingjames23]

just wait, when nba live 2010 comes out, ea will promote it using the fact that real nba teams use this game as a scouting tool. that's how "in the game" it really is.

[Andrew]

It might be mentioned but it won't be the big new feature of 2010 so it probably won't be promoted as heavily as it was this year.