EA CEO, John Riccitiello,has explained the reasons behind the cancellation of the title formerly in development, NBA Elite 11.
Riccitiello started out by saying that, “I’m not sure I’m going to give you a good explanation". Instead he opted to provide a chronology of events that led to the decision of the game being laid to rest prior to release.
The executive explained that the Canadian-based development team came to the table with intentions of innovating the franchise. This was about a year and a half ago. The intention was to use both dual-analog controls to facilitate all actions players could do with the ball in the game. Riccitiello recalled that at the time he thought "This is about as much fun as I’ve ever had playing any sports game."
After 18 months of development on the title, the developer had readied a demo for the game about the same time the game was reaching the mastering stages of production (the time when a game almost goes gold, has a production run and gets distributed to retailers). Although the gameplay in the game was great, there was a known issue with some of the animations of the players in NBA Elite 11.
This caused what Riccitiello referred to as being "in the middle of a nail-biter". An internal review of the title found that the quality of NBA Elite 11 was not up to the company's required standards, leaving the decision of the game's future squarely at the EA boss' feet. He added that the company could have shipped a product that they were not proud of at its current stage and compete for a marginal share of the sports game market, or delay the game in order to create a better product but would have resulted in a knock-on effect. It is this situation that caused him to make the judgement call an cancel NBA Elite 11's general release.
Riccitiello concluded his recalling of the decision to axe the title by saying that:
“People admire game companies that take risks but in retrospect they only seem to admire game companies that take risks when the risks work. That’s not a risk anymore if you only take risks that work. I think of it as like skiing. If you occasionally don’t fall down, you’re not trying hard enough.”
Were you looking forward to the release of NBA Elite 11? And are you sad to know it will never see the light of day? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Source: Kotaku
Riccitiello started out by saying that, “I’m not sure I’m going to give you a good explanation". Instead he opted to provide a chronology of events that led to the decision of the game being laid to rest prior to release.
The executive explained that the Canadian-based development team came to the table with intentions of innovating the franchise. This was about a year and a half ago. The intention was to use both dual-analog controls to facilitate all actions players could do with the ball in the game. Riccitiello recalled that at the time he thought "This is about as much fun as I’ve ever had playing any sports game."
After 18 months of development on the title, the developer had readied a demo for the game about the same time the game was reaching the mastering stages of production (the time when a game almost goes gold, has a production run and gets distributed to retailers). Although the gameplay in the game was great, there was a known issue with some of the animations of the players in NBA Elite 11.
This caused what Riccitiello referred to as being "in the middle of a nail-biter". An internal review of the title found that the quality of NBA Elite 11 was not up to the company's required standards, leaving the decision of the game's future squarely at the EA boss' feet. He added that the company could have shipped a product that they were not proud of at its current stage and compete for a marginal share of the sports game market, or delay the game in order to create a better product but would have resulted in a knock-on effect. It is this situation that caused him to make the judgement call an cancel NBA Elite 11's general release.
Riccitiello concluded his recalling of the decision to axe the title by saying that:
“People admire game companies that take risks but in retrospect they only seem to admire game companies that take risks when the risks work. That’s not a risk anymore if you only take risks that work. I think of it as like skiing. If you occasionally don’t fall down, you’re not trying hard enough.”
Were you looking forward to the release of NBA Elite 11? And are you sad to know it will never see the light of day? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Source: Kotaku
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Comments
ryan 6 Dec 2010 03:17
1/3
i loved the demo. the controls came to me easily. it took talent to make shots, not a random percentage chance. didn't find anything wrong with it, nor did i come across this glitch.
ryan 6 Dec 2010 03:18
2/3
sorry but i loved the demo. the controls came to me easily. it took talent to make shots, not a random percentage chance. didn't find anything wrong with it, nor did i come across this glitch.
Kenny 20 Dec 2010 07:57
3/3
This game was canned because Michael Jordan became the centre of NBA 2k11. In fact, NBA 2K10's game play (and graphics) were/are still superior to the demo I played also of NBA Elite. This sounds like a "great" thing to do - and don't get me wrong - I believe when EA make a good game, they really can pull it off. Unfortunately, this was never going to compete with 2k11 OR Michael Jordan! As for EA not wanting to release "sub-par" games, they've done it for ALL the rugby games. The Rugby World Cup is now the third biggest sporting event in the world, surely it deserves better treatment?!