NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

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NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:27 pm

Report: NBA Live 20 delayed to late 2019

Electronic Arts has yet to officially announce NBA Live 20, this year’s installment in its troubled simulation basketball franchise, but on Tuesday, the publisher quietly delayed the game into the last quarter of the year.

While EA hasn’t publicly spoken about NBA Live 20, let alone marketed the game, it did appear in the schedule of upcoming releases that the publisher put out in May, alongside its earnings report for the 2019 fiscal year. In EA’s slide presentation for investors, the company slotted NBA Live 20 into the second quarter of its 2020 fiscal year — which runs from July 1 to Sept. 30 — alongside all three of the other annual EA Sports titles: Madden NFL 20, NHL 20, and FIFA 20.

EA released a new financial report on Tuesday, detailing its earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended June 30. NBA Live 20 still appears in the slide presentation accompanying that earnings statement — but it’s listed in the third fiscal quarter, which means EA is now planning to release the game between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

Reached for comment, an EA Sports representative told Polygon, “We’re planning a different approach to NBA LIVE this year, and will have more to share in the quarter ahead.”


If it's an October release, then that's not too bad. It might even be a good opportunity, striking when people are starting to find issues with NBA 2K20 and the NBA season is tipping off. However, it's not a great look, and I can't help but worry a bit about talk of a "different approach". That kind of talk makes me think that NBA Live is going to continue moving in a direction we don't want it to, but it is admittedly easy to read too much into these things.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Manni Live on Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:51 pm

If im not mistaken this was done before? I think they will just end up cancelling the game
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:03 pm

It happened with NBA Elite 11 which was ultimately cancelled, as was NBA Live 13. Conversely, NBA Live 15 was delayed for two weeks and then came out as scheduled. There was the situation with NBA Live 17/The Drive to NBA Live, where nothing was set in stone or officially announced, and they ended up skipping ahead to NBA Live 18 (which was released on time). NBA Live 19 was announced and released as scheduled as well.

So who knows. Maybe they do take another year off. I'm probably more concerned about the "different approach" that's being hinted at, honestly.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby [Q] on Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:25 pm

I dunno, part of me feels like this is just clickbait from the author. The main takeaway from the article is that EA is planning to release the game between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, so technically it's not "delayed" per se since they never stated or gave us a release date for Live 20. I could see the game coming out Early to mid October during the preseason. It gives the team an extra month to work on the game.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:14 pm

Could be good actually...

If they release the game after the 2K20 honeymoon period is over, maybe advertise during NBA season start days and perhaps sell it for 30-40 USD... I think they might catch quite a few people.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby sticky-fingers on Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:25 pm

I bet they work on next gen version.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:03 pm

[Q] wrote:I dunno, part of me feels like this is just clickbait from the author. The main takeaway from the article is that EA is planning to release the game between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, so technically it's not "delayed" per se since they never stated or gave us a release date for Live 20. I could see the game coming out Early to mid October during the preseason. It gives the team an extra month to work on the game.


Fair point. It's delayed compared to the usual release cycle and what 2K has announced, but if there's no original release date then technically it isn't delayed; it's a later release. It could be to their advantage if the "different approach" is the right one, but like I said, that makes me feel uncomfortable.

sticky-fingers wrote:I bet they work on next gen version.


I assume they are, but that would be the 2020 release, not late 2019.

Dommy73 wrote:Could be good actually...

If they release the game after the 2K20 honeymoon period is over, maybe advertise during NBA season start days and perhaps sell it for 30-40 USD... I think they might catch quite a few people.


Definitely. It's around that time the shine of a new release has worn off and people are finding fault with the game, so if they've got something good to run with, it could turn out to be a good time to strike.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:21 pm

With the next-gen that's actually interesting point. If the next-gen will work like this one I expect 2K to release both versions next year. With Live I'd honestly expect only the next-gen.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:27 pm

That'd be my expectation as well. Of course, given how much attention the prior gen version gets, 2K probably sticks with the previous generation too long.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:25 pm

There another variable in play - backwards compatibility. Seems like MS is going for it and Sony would be dumb not to, so there's also a chance there will not be two version but simply upgraded settings on new consoles.

After all stuff like ray-tracing can be turned on and off. Think about it the same way PS4 Pro titles are "enhanced". SImply running at higher settings.
Next year is gonna be truly interesting... and expensive.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:00 am

Another good point. We're likely looking at a lot of interesting developments in the coming months.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby beegees on Thu Aug 01, 2019 6:14 am

Are they going to jousting with NBA 2K Playgrounds 3 in October/November instead?
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:24 pm

It remains to be seen what's happening with the NBA 2K Playgrounds series, but an October release for NBA Live is at least a possibility given this news.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Patr1ck on Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:18 am

EA needs to release it just for reputation sake. Cancelling the game too many times has already made them look bad. They can just patch whatever is wrong with it later. Keep building. Don't give up. Pick a mode and go nuts. Make it the reason to buy the game.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby [Q] on Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:35 am

Pdub wrote:EA needs to release it just for reputation sake. Cancelling the game too many times has already made them look bad. They can just patch whatever is wrong with it later. Keep building. Don't give up. Pick a mode and go nuts. Make it the reason to buy the game.

I agree. They were already falling behind then they missed 11, 12, 13, and 17. A fifth time this decade after starting to build some steam would be too much to overcome
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:40 am

I agree as well. Too many missed years, too many games that have shown promise but underwhelmed. Even if they're starting fresh with something awesome on next gen, not releasing anything destroys momentum, goodwill, and trust in the brand on route to the next generation.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby ThePointForward on Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:22 pm

Unless they'd continue with expanded support for Live 19 with some 2.0 patch. I think that would give a lot of good will.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:15 pm

That's an alternative, but they'd have to push through better content for Ultimate Team and find a way to add some other new bells and whistles. The goodwill would be there, but it would have a tough time competing with NBA 2K20.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Patr1ck on Sat Aug 03, 2019 4:40 am

I think the question that they really need an answer to is: What type of content would users pay extra for in terms of microtransactions that is profitable for EA while having appeal throughout the game modes that they want to push?

Legends and special characters?
Temporary arcade-like gameplay boosts?
Retro teams?
Retro rosters from a full season? I'm sure quite a few would pay for this, but it would be a costly and time consuming process.

What is something extra that you wouldn't mind paying to unlock?
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby [Q] on Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:56 am

TBH 2k has made retro teams sort of a "free" thing included in the game. I'm sort of shocked they haven't monetized it yet. EA could charge for retro teams, allowing them to offset the cost of paying the players for their likenesses if they aren't already in the game. They have had retro teams kinda in UT it wouldn't cost them much more for the role players especially if they charge like a dollar or two for each team. However, if I'm paying for it, logos, faces, jerseys, jersey numbers, jersey fonts, all of the above better be super accurate
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:29 pm

Packs with guaranteed players, as in NBA Live 18. If they developed some kind of DLC that expanded the modes, pushed through new animations, and updated the rosters in lieu of releasing NBA Live 20, I'd pay for that. Getting some historical content outside of LUT would also be decent DLC, though it shouldn't cost too much and as Q said, it might be a hard sell given the amount of historical content that's freely available in NBA 2K. Still ideas worth exploring if there's not going to be a whole new release.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby kingpnp on Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:13 am

Andrew wrote:I agree as well. Too many missed years, too many games that have shown promise but underwhelmed. Even if they're starting fresh with something awesome on next gen, not releasing anything destroys momentum, goodwill, and trust in the brand on route to the next generation.

In theory you guys are correct . its supply and demand. basic economics 101. if you have a good demand and you keep running out of supplies eventually the demand will drop assuming you dont have any supplies.

BUT in reality we know nba live is still not on par with 2k, even though people who love 2k also hates 2k because it frustrates the hell out of you when it takes over control. Which means there will always bee a cracked door open waiting on someone to bring in another option and if said other option is actually up to par.Uh Oh 2k.

If nba cancelled again and say didnt come out until next gen but they were on par with 2k in next gen or better. It wouldnt matter that they cancelled. sure we would be all up in arms but we would still by that new game on the new console if we heard by word of mouth or by demo that its on par with 2k or better. lets be honest with ourselves drew. lol. Us live fans or 2k haters(even though we play it anyway for our fix) know exactly whats wrong with 2k (in our minds). and what we think is wrong is actually a design decision that has been made by 2k. that means to them its not wrong at all, its just a choice. That means that will probably never change for the better. this means we will always be late at night trying to find another chick. we know this one aint our soul mate. lol
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:31 am

True. For all its strengths and success, 2K hasn't completely slammed the door shut because of various choices it's made, and gamers do want a viable alternative. Every setback makes it that little bit harder for NBA Live though, and goodwill/saving face does count for something.
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Patr1ck on Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:52 pm

How many times will EA make the same mistake? They upgraded Live 06 for next-gen, fans complained, they rebooted again, more complaints, more shortcomings. Elite 11 reboot cancelled and failed, reboot to Live 12/13 cancelled, launch title 14 was really bad, 15 and 16 were pretty good, and they "skip" 17 to make 18 which was really 17 because it didn't have such a big jump that we expected, but was still solid.

What did you all think of 19 compared to 18? I didn't play it. Any solid forward progression?
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Re: NBA Live 20 Delayed, Not Yet Cancelled (Polygon)

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:13 pm

The heavy focus on The One came at the expense of other modes, with Ultimate Team taking several steps backwards. The NBA side of gameplay was also neglected in favour of The Streets and LIVE Events, though the controls were a bit more fluid and responsive. Not enough of a jump forward in my opinion though, and arguably a bit of a step back. It's certainly not where or what it needs to be as of NBA Live 19.
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