Not all of the sports games produced at EA Tiburon have enjoyed the same success as Madden NFL. The NASCAR series Graddy first worked on was shelved in 2008. After 20 years, EA stopped producing its NCAA football series in 2013. And one of its most successful franchises has hit a swoon in recent years; critics have panned the past few editions of NBA Live, and sales reflect their assessment.
EA pushed back the release of NBA Live 17. Normally a fall release, it’s now clear the game won’t hit shelves until 2017. EA brought in a new team to revamp the series.
FOX13’s Chris Cato spoke with senior producer Mike Mahar. He declined to give a specific time frame on the game’s release, saying only it will come out “sometime in the calendar year 2017”. But he did hint that there will be some big changes and he essentially promised the animation will be better.
You can watch the interview with Mike here. He isn't able to say a lot about the game at the moment, but he does mention a focus on improving gameplay and animations, and new ways of playing game modes. He's also pretty candid about the criticism of the series, and notes the importance of gamer feedback.
No release date as yet beyond being "sometime in the calendar year 2017", though EA has already listed it as a Q1 release. Seems more news might be around the corner, though.