Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 11:42 pm  |  57 responses

Links: EA Sports Delays Release Of NBA Elite 11

NBA Jam to release before the holidays

by Lang Whitaker | @langwhitaker

EA Sports president Peter Moore announced a few hours ago that EA will be indefinitely delaying the release of NBA Elite 11, which was set to drop next week. As Moore posted on his official blog:

We are creating a game that will introduce several breakthrough features that have been missing from the basketball genre. Unfortunately, NBA ELITE 11 is not yet ready and we have made a decision to delay next month’s launch. We are going to keep working until we’re certain we can deliver a breakthrough basketball experience.

Considering an NBA title has historically been one of EA’s major annual releases, this is huge news. It’s even more surprising nba-elite-11considering EA spent this past weekend hosting events all around New York City promoting the imminent release of the game, which was set to release next week, both to go up against 2K Sports’ NBA 2K11 and benefit from the shared buzz of two NBA games hitting the market. Now 2K11 will have the window to itself.

I played the Elite 11 demo last week when it became available for download, and while the game certainly felt like a demo — some people found some egregious errors — I found the new gameplay system to be promising, particularly using the right joystick to dribble. One knock I’ve always had against basketball video games is that too often the gamer has to be reactive to whatever the player on the screen is doing. With the new dribbling system, it was possible to be proactive while dribbling the ball, which is something that’s been missing for a while and kept both NBA titles from feeling as authentic as they could.

NBA Elite was scheduled to drop with NBA Jam bundled with it. Instead, Moore says, Jam will drop next week on the Wii, and then as a standalone game for the PS3 and Xbox before the holidays.

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  • JoeMaMa

    Video games are like trix.

  • Mvp23100

    I don’t understand this religious 2k following the game is not that dope live is like Nike it’s the standard and 2k defense is horrible graphics horrible also I think some people not all just want something different

  • http://slamonline.com riggs

    ^youre an idiot if you really think that and i bet you anything you have never played a 2k game.

  • http://gregoden.com roybot

    IGN has already hailed NBA 2K11 as the BEST SPORTS VIDEO GAME EVER MADE! That plus the Jordan factor and EA Sports is actually making the smartest move they ever made concerning video games. There is no way “Elite 11″ was going to stand a chance against 2k11 with 2K’s updated My Player mode, Better Presentation, An Association mode with realistic AI’s dor the rosters, and last but not least, Greatly improved gameplay, including a playcalling system that actually works this year, unlike the broken 2k10 one. “This is the sound, of throwing pennies on the ground!”

  • Stan

    You know what would be funny, if Bynum does the jesus stance on his first game. Maybe stand there for about 3 possessions then have Phil call a time out.

  • elite is better

    i personally played both the games every year and for some reason 2k always seems like a lil kids game.On the other hand nba live seems better to me evry year.But i’m pissed about them pushing back their release date.

  • The D Train

    IT’S HERE!!!

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