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Why Robin Makes Batman Better The hit basketball series NBA 2K is returning this October, of course. Sports games usually come back, and this time NBA 2K13 will have competition from a returning EA-made NBA Live.
When I run my mouth about international soccer, I sound like a complete and total imbecile. When a Brit does the same thing about basketball, it is 100 per cent comedy gold.
One of the few broadcast features in Madden NFL 12 that I didn’t punch away with a quick button press was the official league bumper video at the end. You know, when the smooth narrator puffs up and says “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL” and lays down the law of the league’s expressed written consent.
By the end of October 2010, everyone knew NBA Elite 11 was doomed. Though officially “delayed” that September, one week before the game was due to release, no one really expected it ever to ship, even internally. The ambitious makeover of the NBA Live franchise simply had too many problems to be published. That last Friday of the month, word spread from EA Sports’ operations in California and Canada to Florida. NBA Elite would be canceled outright.
Sports video games must licence everything. League symbols, player likenesses, individual events, even certain stadiums. Then they must provide a soundtrack every year and, yep, those songs must be licensed, too. It is a neverending headache unique to the sports genre.
News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • Madden‘s play-in round of voting lasts until next Wednesday. Right now, last year’s finalist Michael Vick is losing to teammate LeSean McCoy; two guys (Brandon Lloyd, Brandon Marshall) who won’t be on their teams when the game releases next year, look to advance, and Las Vegas has Victor Cruz (?!) as the fourth favourite to win it all.
At the time I asked about its readiness, EA Sports’ next NBA game didn’t even have a name. Peter Moore, then the label’s boss, avoided my question and told me was doing so. “It’s in the shape you would expect it to be for a title that’s a year and four months away,” Moore said at E3 last June. “There’s a non-answer for you!”
From the Beeb’s official Twitter: “shoutout to @Ronnie2K – everyone follow him. good people. thanks for the good time. the eye will heal. ha.”
At first blush it doesn’t seem to stand out: NBA 2K11 cracked the top 20 of most played titles on the Xbox 360 for the week of Jan. 16. But when you peel it back, that’s actually quite astonishing, to see an old version of a sports video game resurface more than 15 months after its release.
