EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen says the next iteration in the NBA Live franchise will hit next generation consoles later this year. Jorgensen's announcement comes following delays which has caused titles in the series to be MIA since 2009.
The NBA Live franchise has been dormant for the past few years. NBA Live 10 was the last game in the franchise. Despite generally solid reviews for Live 2010, the series failed to gain enough traction to keep it on its yearly release schedule. The series spent two years being revamped in the form of the NBA Elite franchise. EA Sport's ill-fated attempt to jumpstart the NBA franchise lead to two separate cancellations of Elite titles.
EA Sports planned to bring back the game last year with NBA Live 13 but cancelled the title in late 2012. Reports blamed the games poor gameplay mechanics as the issue behind the cancellation.
The news of NBA Live 14 was first uncovered by Polygon. The site reports that Jorgensen confirmed a next generation release for the title while speaking at the Stifel 2013 Technology Conference. Information on the title is currently sparse. Early rumors point to the game featuring a version of Ultimate Team Mode. GoodGameBro reported earlier this month that the next version of NBA Live would include the online fantasy team mode.
Ultimate Team Mode has appeared in other EA Sports titles such as Madden NFL, FIFA, and the NHL franchises. The mode lets players build a fantasy team that competes against other players teams online to win in-game currency. In-game currency won can be exchanged for trading cards that give players teams extra bonuses.
Jorgensen's announcement comes on the heels of the recent Xbox One reveal event. During the event Microsoft executives heralded NBA LIve 14 as one of the many titles to depute with the console later this year. The title will use EA Sport's recently announced Ignite game engine.
EA says the engine was specifically made for next-gen consoles. It was built for sports titles and will be used across all EA Sport's upcoming games. According to EA, Ignite allows game environments and non-player characters to adapt to gamers actions in more realistic ways. EA says the engine will be able to do things such as allow sideline crowds to organically react to what happens on the field.
Rumors of a comeback for the series began cropping up earlier this month. EA Sports began reopening social media accounts for the franchise after a nearly seven month hiatus.
Players looking for an NBA game to play over the last few years only had the NBA 2K Franchise to choose from. The 2K series was often considered the more realistic NBA title on the market. NBA 2K13 launched late last year for PC and current generation consoles.