And then were two players back in the game.
Traditionally at A Stern Warning we've always brought you a preview of the battle for supremacy between the NBA 2K Sports franchise and the EA Sports NBA Live / NBA Elite offerings. Then we had a hiatius for a few years, as there simply was no battle, as EA fell out of the game.
This year, the promise is that NBA Live is making a reappearance in the NBA video games market, with the planned release of NBA Live 14. Of course, the saying "once bitten, twice shy" comes to mind here — the team at EA has disappointed us one to many times.
The last NBA Live series game that actually hit our shelves on full retail release was NBA Live '10 — all the way back in late 2009. SInce then we've had a series of stops and starts as they attempted to rebrand the franchise as Elite 11 the following year (in an ill-fated move), before not even entering the market in the '12 series, and then cancelling the planned release of NBA Live '13, after deciding that the game was not up to scratch.
This time around, NBA Live is relying on rising star Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers as their cover boy. Let's just hope for his sake that the fabled NBA Live cover curse does not beset him!
Here's a quick teaser trailer of what EA has to offer.
As you can see, the graphics and animations are quite smooth. NBA Live has gone for a streetball / And One style one-on-one battle in the trailer — a very different approach to the traditional simulation style market they have always targeted in the past.
On the other side of the divide, the now dominant 2K Sports franchise has LeBron James as their cover boy, following on from the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. They certainly are at the top of their game.
Check out these trailers to see what we have in store for NBA 2K14:
Both games will be released on the new generation consoles being the Sony Playstation 4 and the XBox One. It currently looks like neither will be available on the Wii U, nor is there talk of a handheld release. However 2K14 will be available on PC, XBox 360 and the PS3 (thanks to commenter heavenlyfathersblessings for pointing this out!).
As for how both of the titles will shape up against each other, we wait with baited breath. Both companies are developing these games for entirely new consoles, and as such, there is a great deal of risk for both. And of course, we still have the very real chance that the NBA Live drop will not happen at all.
We will watch for future details and compare the features of both games as they become available.
Like us (below) on Facebook to keep up with all of the updates as they come!
