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Did The NBA Live Shot Clock Run Out?

By Ted Schwerzler

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With the way NBA Live 15 has been received, EA Sports needs to do some serious soul searching in hopes of reviving their basketball franchise.

EA Sports brought the NBA Live franchise back to the surface with last years unveiling in the form of NBA Live 14. With the game being a colossal debacle and hitting the bargain bin in retail stores within weeks, a new step forward needed to be made with NBA Live 15. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, so where does EA Sports go from here?

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This year, EA Sports launched NBA Live 15 at the same $60 price point. They spent the previous calendar year talking about how they would take steps forward to advance the series and that the would work to make sure the same mistakes weren’t made. Obviously this wasn’t lip service, but a wait and see approach was going to be taken by consumers.

With that in mind, EA Sports had to know they would sell less copies than NBA Live 14 the year before. After a bad launch, fewer preorders would take place, and few gamers would be buying the title out of the gate.

EA Sports compounded the problem by allowing on EA Access members a chance to play the demo (and even then only for six hours), while not allowing outlets to review the game until after it was officially launched.

Fast forward to where we are now, and EA Sports finds themselves in quite a predicament with NBA Live 15. Sales of the game have been abysmal, and with it already discounted just a month after launch, look for the price drops to continue. Next year, the results can’t be expected to be any better.

Even with another full development life cycle, EA Sports will find themselves in the same situation. NBA Live 16 will be a game that no one will touch until they are given a reason to do so, this is where EA Sports has a significant opportunity.

Sure, a retail price around $30 may be appealing, but with the NBA license, EA has to launch a full retail game, meaning that the price must sit at $60. They could launch a game that costs nothing however.

Ultimate Team is a cash cow for EA Sports, but it doesn’t matter if no one has the title. Launching NBA Live 16 as a free to play game would allow the company to push it out as a digital only game. You could choose to buy access to different portions of the game (play now, franchise, etc.), with Ultimate Team being the main mode.

Microtransactions aren’t welcomed by those who pay for a full retail game, but they are expected by Ultimate Team fans and those who support the free to play style.

Is it a far fetched venture from what EA Sports has typically done? Of course it is. It may however be the only way in which the NBA Live franchise finds its way back into the starting line up, and the failure to look at all options may leave the franchise forever in the stands.

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