No more NBA Live?

[Full Surface]

On the NBA front, rumors are spreading throughout the industry that the league is now looking to sell genre-specific exclusives once current deals expire, meaning they want one company to publish sims (NBA Live, NBA 2K5), one to publish street-style games (NBA Street V3, NBA Ballers), and one to publish portables. Sources tell IGN Sports that there is already some major money on the table for each deal, and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. The NBA has rejected initial bids for the all-encompassing exclusive, taking the competition from the courts to the negotiating table.

Since EA produces mostly arcade NBA-style games, does this mean the NBA Live series will vanish? No more patching for PC basketball..

[GloveGuy]

Potentially. We'll just see where the licenses(if they're passed out) go to.

[Indy]

NOOOOO

that would suuuuck!

[Sonic98]

Looks like chickens are coming home to roost. EA's own underhanded deals are coming back on them. It's a shame too.

[Riot]

Eas deals were legit. There were 5 companies trying to get the licenses, EA can't help it that they have more money.

[Full Surface]

EA was bit back in the ass because Take Two managed to get the MLB license. It's a shame because EA's MVP baseball series was actually their best simulation game.

[Yessie]

MVP was awesme except for the left handed batter glitch. but i guess no more baseball for EA and i hope they dont choose NFL street and basketball over Madden and LIVE

[Full Surface]

EA already has the NFL license locked.

[Wormy10]

What happened to the MVP series?

[Full Surface]

If anyone wants to know the breakdown between the EA and Take Two war, here it is:

Take Two gets license for:

MLB

EA gets licenses for:

ESPN
AFL
NFL

Since EA has the ESPN license, that means that Take Two (who owns Sega and Visual Concepts) can't use ESPN graphics on their sports games or titles.

[Andrew]

Hopefully this isn't the end of the NBA Live series. I've played the Street series and I do enjoy it, but I personally prefer sports sims these days. I'd rather see that line come to an end than NBA Live.

[Steve [The Spiderman]]

I doubt that this would happen, the NBA would lose money...

[Alvin]

if the NBA does that, they're stupid... no competition = no pressure = poor quality games.

[Metsis]

Well...

Here we have absolutely something that will not produce any money for the companies that are willing to put up big bucks for it...

I remember back in the nineties a company called Sonera went to an auction in germany that was held for rights to build the third generation mobile communications network in germany and it was viewed as a great source of income. They payed just ridiculous amounts of money (billions of euros) for the rights... The fact is that they still haven't seen many euros back from that deal and it just got them into a great big hole financially that they couldn't bounce back from. They merged with a Swedish company Telia to form the new Telia/Sonera corporation.

Basically they bought air for millions of euros and haven't seen any positive turnover from that transaction yet. They basically bankrupt themselves by buying absolutely nothing... Oh yeah, they got the rights to build a 3g network to germany. Which in itself is quite a costing task...

These exclusive deals with the major sports industries is a lot like that. You basically put up more money than your competition in an effort to thin out the competition. There is no guarrantee that they'll see any of that money back anytime soon and does Take Two afford to buy out EA! EA certainly has the cash, but a smaller company in a bidding war will lose almost everytime...

We are witnessing either the rise or fall of these companies... Someones going down in flames... And I don't want it to be EA as they are the only ones that make the games for the PC too...

As a quote from Highlander: "There can be only one..."

[SkipToMy_Lou]

EA gets licenses for:

ESPN
AFL
NFL

Is that Australian Football League AFL ?

[Username123]

i think american football league

[Yessie]

its ARENA football league

its like NFL Blitz or NFL street but indoors. 7 on 7 50 yard field

[SkipToMy_Lou]

Oh I thought so, didnt think they would be discussing Aussie Rules footy.

[Wormy10]

I wish they would actually make an Arena Football game
That would be kinda awesome, as long as it had graphics like Madden and not NFL Street

[jayp]

We are witnessing either the rise or fall of these companies... Someones going down in flames... And I don't want it to be EA as they are the only ones that make the games for the PC too...

i read this in a gamespot article:

According to a statement, 2K Games--and a sub-brand, 2K Sports--will develop games for consoles, handhelds, and PCs

i guess NBA Live will not be the only basketball game for the PC..