The NBA Live franchise has taken a royal beating in the past couple years, as EA sports has had to announce it will not release an NBA Live games for the past three years. According to GamesIndustry International, the franchise’s executive producer Sean O’Brien and general manager Daryl Holt have learned a lot from the experience and are ready to move forward.
According to O’Brien, the developing team now looks at the game more like the Cleveland Cavilers as opposed to the Miami Heat. (Ironically NBA 2K14 will have the Heat’s LeBron James on the cover and NBA Live 14 may feature the Cavs’ Kyrie Irving.)
"You can look down the road in a couple years and say, 'I could see them as a team that's going to be in contention,'" said O’Brien.
O’Brien is very aware of the series’ recent struggles and apparently so is everyone else.
"Even as a developer now, when I say I'm working on NBA Live, people kind of snicker at that. Because there are some people that say, 'Oh, that's the game that EA can't make.' We're here to change that," he said.
O’Brien stopped working with NBA Live after 2010. He went on to do mobile gaming. However, after seeing the large struggle from the outside of the franchise, he knew he had to come back.
"It was very hard to take," O’Brien said. "The hardest thing was there are a lot of people that were good people who knew what to do. You have to understand that at the time, there was different leadership. I think there was a bit of a lack of understanding on how to make a basketball game at a senior level within our brand. And that changed when [EA Sports head] Andrew [Wilson] came in. That changed when Daryl came in. When I was asked about coming back, that for me was a big thing. Is there a commitment and is there an understanding of what it takes to make a great basketball game?"
Holt understands the franchise has no choice but to fight to get back its reputation.
“One of the things people ask is, how's it not going to happen again? Well number one, we can't let it happen again," he said.
NBA Live 14 will only be featured on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There is currently no confirmed release date or pricing for the game.
To read the full interview visit gameindustry.biz.
