If you’re not a hardcore sports gamer or games journalist, you probably have not been following the tortured saga on NBA Live ’13. But it’s a pretty instructive look at what happens when things go very, very wrong at a major studio, namely EA Sports.
First, a little background. Two years ago, EA attempted to reboot the NBA Live franchise as NBA Elite. We only ever saw a demo: The game was so glitchy that it made more sense for EA to kill the entire game and go back to the drawing board.
That game was to be NBA Live ’13. But apparently, EA has decided it makes more sense to kill the game, which was literally on the edge of release, than put it out. What went wrong?
To give you an idea of how messy this is, this is a game that has been worked on, for two straight years, by EA’s Tiburon studio, the lead in the EA Sports brand. These are the people who make the Maddens and the Tiger Woods golf games. Essentially, EA has basically announced one of their core studios is unable to make a basketball game.
Making things worse was the fact that this was a pretty unambitious title, in terms of modes and sales. It was turned from a boxed release to a $20 download with pick-up-and-play, franchise, and online multiplayer modes. While nobody in EA is talking, it’s pretty clear Tiburon simply bit off more than it could chew.
To be fair this is not entirely in EA’s hands: The product launch is dictated by the NBA, and the game likely was not ready. In fact, odds are pretty good that NBA Live ’14, a game the studio insists is coming, will be NBA Live ’13 with some paint. It also shows that, despite their best efforts, making a franchise is no easy feat.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/569/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/251937-aaheader-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/ouya-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/Screenshot-from-2013-05-10-063906-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/Screenshot-from-2013-05-09-142122-150x150.png)
Hey, I heard that Blizzard released something that was kind of a big deal last Tuesday. Any word on that?
I’ve never had a WoW account, so I’m still working on finding some friends to weigh in on the expansion. Expect something Wednesday.
EA Tiburon is fucking incompetent. Madden and NCAA are both broken and full of glitches. Ben Haumiller is an embarrassment to video gaming.
Eh, I’ve found them to be no better or worse than anybody else in the industry, really.
Have you played NCAA 13?
I have, for another site. It’s not great, but considering some of the games I’ve seen that got a release (Skyrim, for example), they’re pretty middling in the QA department.
NCAA has been suffering from the same problem for years. It’s built on an engine that is sorely out-of-date and since EA has the exclusive contract, they have no incentive to improve it. Backbreaker proved that a physics-based football game can work, but has EA done anything like that? Nope. Same old animation-based engine where a 150-pound o-lineman can shove around his 350-pound d-line counterpart without breaking a sweat. Plus, EA pays people like Game Informer and IGN to give them good reviews, so the average consumer doesn’t understand that it’s a shit game.
There is so much broken about the game beyond the engine, though. Don’t even get me started on visuals. Arizona’s had their current set of uniforms since before the 2010 season. It took until this year for EA to finally release an update to fix them. In addition to that, the crowd inside our stadium has been wrong for years. However, if you pause the game and go into instant replay (though this will take someone who’s familiar with the area of campus around the stadium) you’ll notice that the buildings around the campus in the background are pretty accurately rendered. That’s right: they can’t get our uniforms or crowd right, but hey, they can get the background behind the stadium that never actually shows up outside of what I just mentioned right.
Tiburon is just so incredibly incompetent that it is mind-boggling. Ben Haumiller is surrounded by yes-men and there is no desire to create a good game. Every year, it’s basically just a roster update to the previous year’s game with minor tweaks.
The 2k equivalent was beating out Live in terms of sales and acclaim for a while before this.
True, but when has that ever stopped EA before?
Well remember, they are the worst company in America…
[www.uproxx.com]
EA should leave Sports Games to 2K!
Madden was good the 1st week