The National Basketball Association, the association which holds the rights to the top basketball competition in the United States, has announced that it has entered into new multi-year licensing deals with video game publisher Electronic Arts and Take Two Interactive.
The publishers will be able to use players and teams from the NBA in their video games and they will get promotion for them on the official media outlets of the NBA, both on television and online.
This means that for the coming years Electronic Arts will continue work on its NBA Elite series and on its
NBA Jam spin-off while Take Two will deliver NBA 2K games from its 2K Sports division.
The NBA has not said how much the licensing deals were valued at or when the two video games companies will be able to renegotiate them.
Sal LaRocca, who is the executive vice president of NBA Global Merchandising, has stated when the new deal was announced, “We have had successful and longstanding relationships with both 2K Sports and EA Sports. Extending our agreements with the top sports video game developers continues to maximize our presence in this category, while ensuring our fans the best selection of NBA video games.”
Take Two has recently said that NBA 2K11 has managed to sell more than 5 million units world wide, which shows the importance of the NBA simulation for the world of gaming.
The game benefited from the fact that Electronic Arts has decided not to launch NBA Elite 11 last year, saying that the video game did not have the quality to get to market.
EA Sports has said that it is refocusing its efforts on NBA Elite 12 and that the game will be a reinvention of the entire franchise, aiming to make the game as close to real life events as possible while making players feel like they are the ones deciding the fate of every match.
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