Skip to main content

NBA Live 15 exec producer addresses last year’s shortcomings in an open letter

open letter nba live 15s executive producer 14
Image used with permission by copyright holder

EA Sports has an uphill battle to fight in regaining the respect of its basketball fans after the hot mess that was NBA Live 14Uninteresting gameplay modes and sloppy graphics revealed the game to be a slapdash rush job, seemingly shoved out the door before it was ready for the spotlight in a quixotic attempt at producing a next-gen launch title.

Executive producer Sean O’Brien wants to make amends, and he says as much in an open letter to the fans. He’s aware of the problems that plagued 2013’s game, and he expresses an earnest desire to do better this year. In practice the letter reads very similarly to a previous open letter that O’Brien published after the release of NBA Live 14 to apologize for all of its shortcomings. This time around, the developers are taking a cue from the rising culture of open development and sharing their process with the fans earlier.

“As I’ve said previously, we know we fell short in two major areas with NBA LIVE 14. 5-on-5 gameplay didn’t have the depth and polish of an EA Sports game and our visuals just weren’t up to expectations for a next-gen title,” O’Brien wrote. “We’ve been laser-focused on making sure that this isn’t the case with NBA LIVE 15 and I’m really excited with our progress in those two areas.”

For more realistic gameplay, the EA Tiburon went to the source, interviewing coaches in order to better distill their strategic considerations into sharper AI that better mirrors the specific tactical character of particular teams. Graphically, the previous game showed glimmers of the new console technology’s capabilities in inanimate areas like fabric and lighting, but stumbled on the near side of the Uncanny Valley when it came to anything human. To that end, the team has taken head scans of nearly the entire league, to stick on top of their newly-redesigned player models.

“We have very lofty goals for NBA LIVE 15, and we knew that the most important thing we could do to improve our chances for achieving these goals was to put our heads down and work as hard as possible with minimal distractions,” O’Brien wrote. 

EA will start sharing gameplay from NBA Live 15 in July, followed by a steady drip of in-depth coverage leading up to its release for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 7.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
The studio behind Deathloop and Dishonored is developing a Blade game
Blade in the announcement trailer for his new game.

Arkane Studios, the Microsoft-owned developer behind games like Deathloop and Redfall, announced Blade at The Game Awards 2023.

Blade features the Marvel hero of the same name. In the reveal trailer, we see a nervous barber struggling with a trembling razer, a flash of Blade's fangs as he puts on his sunglasses, and the ominous message that he's "just getting started." Not much is known about the actual plot or how the gameplay will be structured in the final product.

Read more
The maker of No Man’s Sky revealed its next ambitious game: Light No Fire
Player riding a dragon in Light No Fire.

The developer behind No Man's Sky, Hello Games, has another title on the way with Light No Fire. While the game shares similarities with the developer's previous title in terms of gameplay and philosophy, its director, Sean Murray, said the project will be even more ambitious than the team's past foray> he also showed off a trailer.

Light No Fire TGA 2023 Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2023

Read more
This Asus gaming laptop is discounted from $1,430 to $900
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2023 front view showing display and keyboard deck.

If you're on the hunt for gaming laptop deals, here's one that should catch your interest -- the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for just $900 from Best Buy, following a $530 discount on its sticker price of $1,430. It's still not as affordable as the cheapest laptop deals, but you should expect to pay a premium for a dependable gaming machine like this one. You'll be getting amazing value for money with the potential savings in this offer, but you need to hurry because there's no telling when the bargain will end.

Why you should buy the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop
If you want a gaming laptop that will be able to run the best PC games at their highest settings, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a stellar option. It's powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. The gaming laptop also comes with a 512GB SSD, which will provide ample storage space for multiple AAA titles and all of the updates that you need to download for them. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 also comes with Windows 11 Home out of the box, so you can start installing games right after booting it up for the first time.

Read more