If you ask any American gamer what EA’s flagship sports franchise is, you will surely get a response something like this: “Uh, Madden?” While technically correct, the worldwide football fever is the pictured above. FIFA has been an EA staple almost as long as Madden, but in the past few years has really stepped up its game. The past few offerings, FIFA 10 and FIFA: World Cup 2010 were almost as good as you can expect a soccer/football game to be. Then FIFA 2011 came our way and set the bar even higher.
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First, the demo sucked. Then EA Sports pushed NBA Elite 11 back to Spring 2011 and made NBA Jam a standalone product for Xbox 360 and PS3. Now, the game has been officially cancelled. EA’s CFO Eric Brown made the announcement during an investor call yesterday, according to Kotaku. COO John Schappert added that all future development of the series will be handled by EA Tiburon in Orlando, the studio responsible for the Madden series.
I can’t say I really blame EA here for the cancellation. The game wasn’t even remotely good. But it took up until a few days before release (after the discs had been pressed) to delay the game, and now it’s been canned completely. You would think someone at EA Games, particularly Peter Moore, would have taken a look sooner and thought maybe about bringing in some new blood, which is what they’re now doing. This could and should have been noticed a long time ago.
No word yet on whether the series will resume for tip off of next year’s NBA season or how the added work load will impact future Madden development down at EA Tiburon. EA brass did say that Tiburon would be picking up where EA Canada left off, so hopefully that means a solid framework to build upon. Only time will tell if EA can rise once again to greatness on the hardwood. With NBA 2K11 being called potentially one of the greatest sports games of all time, it’s going to be a huge uphill battle.
In case you saw the news yesterday that NBA Jam will cost $50 as a disc-based game on November 17th for Xbox 360 and PS3, got upset and threw your cat down the stairs, you need to get those emotions in check. Sure, it was scheduled to be a free product before NBA Elite 11 got the shaft, and we even speculated on the launch price of the game at that time (and were dramatically lower than the actual price, although we speculated it would remain a downloadable title with no additional content). But since then, EA Sports has gone back to the drawing board to make NBA Jam for the HD consoles a full fledged animal.
Originally, the game was set to have quickplay and online play, but now we’re getting Remix mode, which is pretty bad ass (we’ve played it on Wii and highly enjoyed it). And for the same price as the Wii title, you’re getting all that and more with solid online play, something the Wii lacks. All in all, it’s not a bad price for what NBA Jam delivers.
Now, I know some of you out there like to complain about anything and everything, so no matter what I say, you’re going to cry “but it should have been freeeeeeee.” Did any of you who are making that complaint really want NBA Elite 11 anyway? Or were you just buying that game to get NBA Jam? I would wager the majority of you are in the latter category, so now you’re technically saving $10 by not having to buy a game you didn’t want just to get a pack-in game. See, we’re here to help.
With word coming down from EA last night that NBA Elite 11 has been delayed until 2011, NBA Jam has transitioned from a free pack-in to a standalone product coming this Holiday season. Don’t think for one second that EA Sports is going to let this puppy out of their hands for free anymore. Just how much is it going to cost? We’ve reached out to EA for comment, but did not receive a comment by press time.
EA has not announced yet whether NBA Jam will be available as a retail product or a downloadable title, but my bets are on downloadable since that’s how it was set to go already. The big question is just how much will EA charge you for the pleasure of rampaging the court in NBA Jam on your Xbox 360 or PS3? My guess is right around the $15 mark (or 1200 Banana Bucks on the Xbox 360). Numerous titles this year have proven that you can very successful at the $15 price point (i.e. Limbo and Deathspank) and EA loves their money.
Time will tell just how much EA will profit from NBA Elite 11‘s delay. Sure, they’re losing money this quarter by not having the game ready for market when the NBA season begins, but they’re going to rake in some extra cash from selling NBA Jam instead of dropping it off as a free product. Will you be buying it?
Football is right around the corner and Madden fever has gripped the country. After playing a ton of Madden on the consoles, we were able to get a review code for Madden NFL 11 for the Apple devices. Our biggest concern was how are we going to play football, let alone a franchise as deep as Madden, on a touch screen. The people over at EA figured it out and have delivered a very good mobile football game.
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Hankerin’ for NBA Jam on your Xbox 360 or PS3? I hope you’re ready to pony up and buy a copy of NBA Elite 11, because that’s the only way you’ll get the HD-wearing, online-play-sporting version of the game. Announced in the wee hours of the morning, a one-time use code for the game will ship with every copy of NBA Elite 11 for Xbox 360 and PS3, similar to the EA Online Pass, Battlefield Bad Company 2 VIP, and Cerberus Network codes of recent EA games.
Don’t get your hopes up too high though, since it’s not the complete Wii version upscaled for your HD screen. The new Remix Tour Mode won’t be included, so if you had plans on boss battling against Magic Johnson and other classic basketball heroes, stick with the Wii edition. The only modes available in this downloadable version will be Play Now, Classic Campaign, and four player Online (which has yet to be announced for the Wii). To be honest, those are the main modes I want anyway.
This is definitely a smart move by EA. People were going to pay $50 for the Wii version, so why not spring an extra $10, buy your full NBA title, and get an HD version of NBA Jam complete with online play? I have a feeling sales of NBA Elite 11 will certainly benefit from this move. Now I’m going to have to debate if I want to get NBA Elite 11 or not…
[via ESPN]
If there was one game outside of Mortal Kombat that dominated the Sega Genesis era in my house, it was NBA Jam. The half court massive dunks, the announcer calling out “He’s on Fire!” or “Boom-shaka-laka!”, and the fast paced play made it a sure winner. Gamers have been calling for a remake of the game for years, and with Midway going under, EA picked up the franchise and is taking it to the hole. Right now, it’s only announced for Wii (although the ESRB has rated the game for Xbox 360 and PS3). We got a chance to play at E3 this year and Justin and I had to be pried away from the controllers.
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After Microsoft’s fairly sweet Press Conference, I jetted back to pick up my wristband for Sony then hiked my way down to EA’s Press Conference about 10 blocks away. A solid showing, but you’ll hear more on our thoughts later (we’re going to roll one big epic Press Conference wrap-up article). For now, check out the sites from my chair at EA’s Press Conference.
I’m uploading all my photos to Flickr to speed up the process, so head over to the E3 2010 EA Press Conference album to view everything.
I’m an avid golfer, both in real life and in the video game realm. However, I decided to skip Tiger Woods ’10 with the game having very little new compared to ’09, which I own for the Wii. With the 2011 version making big strides, it was time to jump back on the course. The team at EA turned up the realism and added plenty of content to make this a must buy for golf fans.
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