14 DAY TRIAL // NBA Jam may not be a Nintendo Wii exclusive, according to a listing posted by the USK, the self-regulating organization that monitors the German software industry. The official site of the company shows that NBA Jam will be released on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 as well, but gives no further details on the subject.
EA Sports probably wants to keep High Definition console owners focused on NBA Elite 11, the developer's big comeback into basketball gaming. EA Sports has just announced that both NBA Jam and NBA Elite 11 will be released on the same day, that is the 5th of October. October has quite a busy release line-up and the publisher clearly does not want to see its audiences overlap.
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of NBA Jam will probably hit store shelves later on, after NBA Elite manages to get a foothold in the market. Gamespot reports that an EA Canada software engineer posted on her LinkedIn account she was working on NBA Jam for the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The listing has since been removed, but it is clear EA will wish to get NBA Jam on all the platforms it can, given the fact that the original was a big success in the arcades of 1993.
It seems EA Sports really wants to win the hearts of gamer basketball fans back, after the low quality NBA releases of the last years. The company has replaced Live with Elite in its basketball game's name, announcing that it was in fact a reboot of the series that will provide a much better title, with updated controls and graphics. The strong competition of 2K Sports with its critically acclaimed NBA 2K series has managed to put EA Sports in a difficult position in the digital basketball market, but this year, we may see a successful return from EA's sports developer.