Mike Wang discusses his time at EA and his work on NBA Live

[Dee4Three]

Found this interesting. That topic starts 29 minutes into the video. I appreciate his honesty, he basically tells you exactly why he left EA.

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[StyxTx]

Good thing he left. With the way 2k is going, money-grabbing, poor game play getting worse each year, I'm sure EA is glad he's gone too.

[sticky-fingers]

Nice share

It seems that he didnt saw the red flag with VC fully integrated in 2K

[Dee4Three]

Good thing he left. With the way 2k is going, money-grabbing, poor game play getting worse each year, I'm sure EA is glad he's gone too.

I agree with your comments about 2K. I don't know if it was noticed, but I havn't been active hardly at all on here or on OS.... The last two 2k's have just really bummed me out, and Live doesn't have the content/customization to keep me interested.

In regards to if they are happy Mike left, I don't know if I would agree with that necessarily, 2K while declining, is still a powerhouse in sports gaming. Which is the biggest reason they are allowed to get away with so much.

Personally, I am crossing my fingers that Live 20 comes to PC (Like Madden did for this year), and that 2K20 shows a massive improvement with the current motion system.

I've been playing a lot of 2K17, 2K9, 2K8, etc lately. I would love to be passionate about a new basketball game like I was when 2K17 was released.

[[Q]]

Good for him and his family, as it looks like he left a sinking ship. He probably wouldn't have made it through the disaster that was Elite 11.

I get what he was saying how EA made him appreciate his old job a bit more. Seems to really enjoy what he's doing now

[Patr1ck]

A little shade thrown at the March Madness/NCAA devs who went over to Elite after 10. I'm glad he left back to 2K. That franchise has been on a whole other level.

[Andrew]

Bumping this because I came across the topic searching for another one, and realised that I didn't respond to it six months ago. Definitely interesting comments, and some I should've taken into account when I touched on the situation in my recent Friday Five article about basketball gaming "What Ifs". He's a noteworthy part of the whole "What If" surrounding NBA Elite 11 and the ill-advised changed in direction. I don't blame him for leaving.

I met Mike at the NBA Live 09 community event as it happens, and he was a cool guy. I was also impressed that the first thing he asked me was what was wrong with the game. He didn't want to know what I liked right away, but any problems that I'd immediately noticed. I'd suggest that's what makes him so good at his job. I believe he and other developers are doing their best and doing a good job in so many ways, but ironically it's now the way Visual Concepts is doing business and interfering with the design process by pushing microtransactions so hard that is problematic. The design process may still be a better atmosphere than at EA (and that's something we've heard from a couple of people who've gone between the two companies), but 2K's got some big problems these days, at least from our standpoint as gamers and consumers.

It's interesting that he talks about the people working on NBA Live being good folks. That's always been my impression when I've met them; Live's shortcomings are not for a lack of effort, passion, and knowledge on the part of the developers. It's also interesting that he mentions feeling sorry for them after the NBA Elite 11 debacle. However, with that in mind, it does make the in-game potshots NBA 2K takes at NBA Live even worse. It seems like the quarrel is with the company, but that stuff makes it rather personal with their fellow developers, designers, and programmers; the actual people working in the same field, who may well end up being their colleagues if they take jobs at Visual Concepts some day. I understand the animosity, but it's kind of petty. I think it appeals to the most toxic portion of the basketball gaming demographic, too.

He also contradicts himself on the not wanting to bury the competition sentiments, as well as the idea of their not being a rivalry, pretty much within the space of a single sentence. That being said, I guess his mindset has changed a bit after his experiences at EA, and obviously different people at VC have different feelings on the matter as well.

Anyway, it's definitely an interesting interview for the perspective on his time at EA Sports, and the stories about his career. I don't like some of the things 2K has done in recent years, but I'll never say that guys like Beluba aren't trying their best, and have done a lot for the quality of the game and success of the brand. I haven't liked his misdirection in a couple of gameplay blogs in recent years, but he's a good guy.