EA Cancels NBA Live... Again

File this one under the "Yeah, we probably all knew this was going to happen, but still..." category. EA has cancelled NBA Live 13, its little-seen proposed reentry into the NBA video game market after sitting out the last couple of seasons. Yes, EA has cancelled another basketball game.

In case you've forgotten, back in 2010 EA was thinking about revitalizing its critically dumped on NBA Live series with an all-new developer. The game, NBA Elite 11, never made it onto store shelves. Well, actually, it did make it onto a few shelves, but only because EA literally cancelled the game after it had already begun to ship to stores. The reason? Overwhelming quality issues, the likes of which have been well documented on YouTube via the lucky few who managed to snag a copy.

NBA Live 13 was to be the publisher's triumphant return to the NBA market, to challenge the recently unopposed NBA 2K series. However, when the game failed to emerge in any kind of playable fashion following an apparently spotty E3 demo, murmurs began of an inevitable cancellation. Some had a hard time believing EA's apparent inability to make a halfway playable basketball game would really cause them to cancel yet another basketball game. And yet, here we are.

I really don't even know what to say to this. It boggles the mind that essentially two years of development went into redoing a game that had already been redone, and the result was still so bad, it couldn't be released. And yet, again, here we are.

EA's post at official NBA Live 13 site signals an intention to try again next year. So look for our eventual coverage of NBA Live 14's cancellation around this time next year. I mean, they've gotta go for the three-peat, right?

Bah not again XD

So instead of the Madden curse getting the cover player hurt of something, the NBA Live curse is for the game to never come out.

This is getting kind of ridiculous. I'm starting to feel bad for the developers... like is the game actually that bad that it warrants two cancellations? Crazy.

I REMEMBER. GETTING NBA LIVE 2005 on the gamecube. That is all

oh...

Brutal.

Even if they retool and polish, 14 will inevitably come to the reaction of "C'mon, this took 3 years?"

Its pretty sad they can't release a good product. I want LIVE to be good so that 2k can't just coast by on relatively minor updates to their game every year like Madden does.

EA can't put out a solid sports game where they have competition.

I love this ongoing story.

At least there not shipping a busted game but it makes me want to see how big of mess this game is for them to cancel it again.

2k has been crsuhing it lately, EA did not stand a chance. Competition is killing ea

You would think if you gave a major developer millions of dollars and three years to work, they could make a competent game

Who can blame them there is not competing with NBA Ballers Beat.

Let's just not have any more basketball games that aren't NBA Jam.

One more and they're on fire!

The real fools are the people that pre-ordered this.

@BrianP said:

One more and they're on fire!

LOL you win this comment thread :D

The beats must not have been baller enough.

If it doesn't come with $60 worth of free basketball, then I'm not interested.

Good lord EA... I think they just gotta call it and hang up their jersey now... We all saw this coming and it's just painful now. They can't compete with such a solid foundation that 2K has built.

EA just needs to give up with this. Let 2K be the only game in town for the NBA, and EA can continue to push out Madden every year. Less headaches involved!

How hard is it to make a fucking basketball game?

It's okay. NBA 2K13 is out on Tuesday.

2K is amazing so its not really a problem

I worked at EA as a PS3 Online tester, specifically on the NBA Live 2007 team when THAT got cancelled as well - mostly due to the poor reception of the 360 version released months before and the hilarious prevalence of bugs. Good lord they just need to stop at this point. It's over. 2K wins.

EA should stop messing around and give it to EA Canada to finish. I'm sure the boys in Burnaby could pump out a quality basketball game in 6 months, no problem.

@namco51 said:

EA should stop messing around and give it to EA Canada to finish. I'm sure the boys in Burnaby could pump out a quality basketball game in 6 months, no problem.

They couldn't in 2007 when I worked there. That one got canned too - made in Burnaby studio

@namco51 said:

EA should stop messing around and give it to EA Canada to finish. I'm sure the boys in Burnaby could pump out a quality basketball game in 6 months, no problem.

They made NBA Elite 11 before it got canceled and the series was rebranded back to Live and given to Tiburon so... yeaaaaaaaaaah.

@DukeT:

I bet they are taking their talents to South Beach...

I've got so many jokes going through my head i'm just going to list out the ideas.

• they also wanted to offer a free basketball but ran into production issues
• the balls came out with holes in them so they were going to send everyone who bought it a physical "patch" to put over the holes
• someone just realized that offering a physical basketball as DLC isn't a thing they could actually do

There is an interesting comment on that link to the EA post about NBA Live 13:

As a former engineer on the Live series, I'm sorry for the dev team, I'm sure you guys worked tirelessly on this.

Management - Stop trying to be 2K and stop destroying and rebuilding the engine. Live 10 was a good game (80 metacritic) and it doesn't make sense that the game has been broken for 3 years since.

Also, I just had a thought: EA Sports games generally do not have a lot of competition. I can't think of a single recent sports game not done by them (besides NBA Baller Beats and Pro Evolution Soccer). Are they really that scared of 2K? There's certainly room for more than one basketball game on the market.

Been fucking with 2k since the Dreamcast R.I.P Live 1995-2010

NBA LIVE 13 existing in the first place is the shocker for me...

Remember guys...this is the same EA that pushes Madden out every year...

What's so hard about basketball?

Give up EA. Honestly what they make probably won't be as good as the 2K games. This whole situation is unbelievable.

meh!

Fucking hilarious.

It's good move as much as it sucks. Why put out a medicore game if you know it won't compete with 2k series, take some time and make it better.

Although i really hope they do come out with something as good, so it fuels the competition and the end product becomes making the basketball games all the more better. As cool as Madden is, football was at a golden era when nfl 2k and madden were at it.

Look at the fifa series, i think it has progressed well because the fifa team realize they can easily be taken down by the Pro evolution soccer team if they coast.

Hopefully EA gets their things together to make a good product next year

File this one under the "Yeah, we probably all knew this was going to happen, but still..." category.

Whatever Navarro. Maybe you industry types have inside info, but I don't think anyone saw this coming.

Everybody involved in this project should be fucking embarrassed. EA's NHL, Madden and Fifa games came out this year with record sales and yet they can't even ship a basketball product.

Instead of trying to rush the game out why don't they just step back and let the devs make the game without being rushed.

Well, at least there is still NBA Jam. I wouldn't mind another sequel for that game.

@Doctorchimp: I wouldn't be surprised if it's a more technical game to make.

Anyways, now everyone can go out and buy 2k 13.... which has always been the superior product anyways. At this point maybe EA should just let 2k have it and put the team on other games to make those better. Madden still needs a lot of work.

They should cancel Madden instead.

Bravo to EA for trying to have some quality control at least, I can't help but think there is a lot more to the story though, it seems really crazy to cancel a game that has already been shipped.

I can't believe a game was so bad that EA cancelled it twice. I mean it takes a pretty momentous screw up to make something so bad that even EA won't release it. I'm sure the developers worked their asses off for the past 3 years, but if you look at the number of quality games built in half that time it just boggles my mind that they couldn't at least have something playable done by now. I don't expect them to have all of the features found in 2k but they should have been able to put out a solid game of hoops just without all the extras. I know that would be a hard sell to 2k fans but it would be a foundation with which they could start building on for the next generation. At this point I think their best option would be to make 2013 a launch game for whatever next gen systems come out next year. 2k will have to start from the basics with a new engine at that point which would put both games on a level playing field. Trying to compete with current gen 2k just doesn't seem viable anymore.