Later this year, Electronic Arts plans to launch its first major NBA title since the infamous cancellation of
NBA Elite in 2010. This new game, however, won't use the "
Elite" branding, but will instead return to EA's classic
NBA Live label.
EA confirmed to Gamasutra that the new game, titled,
NBA Live 13, will ship this Fall, though the studio did not confirm why it has chosen to ditch the
NBA Elite name.
Of course, EA's only other title to bear that label suffered from some severe hiccups during its development.
NBA Elite 11, previously expected to launch in October 2010, experienced a
last minute delay and was eventually
cancelled altogether, even though the game was almost due to launch (and, in fact, was so far along that retail copies were actually manufactured).
In the wake of this unusual move, EA CEO John Riccitiello
explained that the game never saw the light of day because the publisher wasn't willing to "ship a product [it wasn't] proud of and compete for marginal share."
Not only did
NBA Elite suffer from severe technical issues -- as evidenced by its poorly-received demo -- it also would have had to compete with 2K's popular
NBA 2K11. With these issues in mind, EA decided it wasn't willing to harm its brand with a sub-par entry in its long running series of basketball games.
Following the demise of
NBA Elite, EA stepped away from making new mainline NBA titles (excluding arcade spin-offs like
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition), allowing publisher 2K Games to dominate the market with its continually successful
NBA 2K series.
This year EA hopes to change that with its return to the mainstream basketball game market. Few details are available about
NBA Live 13, but EA plans to reveal more about the game soon.
