EA Taking 'Different Approach' to NBA LIVE 20; Launching After Oct. 1

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Today's financial report from Electronic Arts has disclosed that NBA LIVE 20 will be moving from its original and traditional Q2 FY20 release window to Q3, meaning it will be released after October 1. For comparison's sake, NBA 2K20 will be released on September 6, 2019 and NBA LIVE 19 launched September 7, 2018. The move may be one to get the title out of NBA 2K20's launch tsunami, allowing LIVE 20 to get some attention of its own.

Polygon reached out to EA and received the following statement: “We’re planning a different approach to NBA LIVE this year, and will have more to share in the quarter ahead.”


Courtesy Polygon:

Electronic Arts has yet to officially announce NBA Live 20, this year’s installment in its troubled simulation basketball franchise, but on Tuesday, the publisher quietly delayed the game into the last quarter of the year.

EA released a new financial report on Tuesday, detailing its earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended June 30. NBA Live 20 still appears in the slide presentation accompanying that earnings statement — but it’s listed in the third fiscal quarter, which means EA is now planning to release the game between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

Reached for comment, an EA Sports representative told Polygon, “We’re planning a different approach to NBA LIVE this year, and will have more to share in the quarter ahead.”

EA has just screwed up this franchise. Live was a monster on the scene in Live 95. They had great games all the way through the PS1 era. I thought they really messed up Live when they moved to PS2. They built a new engine that had horrible physics and was not based on their past success. 2K ate into their market and surpassed the, although I thought Love 10 was a great comeback (even though it was PG heavy). I preferred it to 2K10 and 2K11 and then they killed the game and have been fighting uphill ever since. 5% market share doesn’t cut it.

Their recent games just haven’t improved that much over Live 10. Took two years and didn’t seem like a huge upgrade. They might as well go full arcade. Not sure why EA even bothers anymore.

Not a good future.

This is the 5th time in 10 years that an NBA Live release has been either delayed or cancelled. The previous times NBA Live was delayed it ended up being cancelled. https://t.co/tD2Aez77pi

— bryan wiedey (@pastapadre) July 31, 2019

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Originally Posted by Rudy

Not a good future.

This is the 5th time in 10 years that an NBA Live release has been either delayed or cancelled. The previous times NBA Live was delayed it ended up being cancelled. https://t.co/tD2Aez77pi

— bryan wiedey (@pastapadre) July 31, 2019

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I'm in the camp that this game isn't delayed... it's cancelled. Honestly game play was making strides but EA Tiburon either cannot or will not do what needs to be done regarding franchise mode depth and as such they cannot compete with 2k. In my short time trial with 2k19 I was blown away with the depth and immersion of all the modes. That said I have always preferred EA's NCAA and NBA gameplay. However, gameplay will only get you so far today. People want depth of modes and an abundance of customization.

Live always did a poor job of distributing shots between players. Offences were too similar and too PG heavy. As a result games felt too similar. It would be fun initially and then it wore off after awhile. The lack of slider options didn’t help. I may check out the finished product of Live 19 but 2K just nails so many things. Once 2K improves on their r-stick dribble controls and was less animation driven I fell for the game and left Live behind.

At least EA provides a roster update for their last effort.