14 DAY TRIAL // EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, has just talked about the recent cancellation of the NBA Elite 11 basketball simulator project, saying that while it was a tough break for fans of the sport that were awaiting the brand new franchise, it was a decision that had to be made.
For those unaware, EA wanted to reinvigorate its basketball series, and was set to replace the NBA Live franchise with a brand new one, called NBA Elite 11.
That, as you no doubt figured it out, hasn't happened, as EA took the big decision to cancel the game, even if it was almost complete, so as not release a glitchy title that would upset fans and cause them to lose money.
The cancellation, according to some analysts, still resulted in a huge amount of money being lost, close to the sum of $60 million.
According to Riccitiello, however, his company was stuck between a rock and a hard place, so the cancellation was the lesser of two evils.
There were just a few choices available: either launch a half-finished title against 2K Sports' NBA 2K11 or delay the game and launch it after the NBA basketball season started.
"So there's the table: You can ship a product you're not proud of and compete for marginal share. You can delay the game to get a better product, but that's going to have a knock-on effect. And we made what I judged to be the best call given the circumstances."
That decision shows the ability of EA to own up its mistakes and think of the end consumer, not just its profit margin.
"To be honest with you, I don't want to sound self-satisfied, but I'm pretty proud of our ability to make that decision. Because, I don't think the consumer was served badly by buying 2K. It's a good game. And I think we're better served. We were originally going to put Jam in our package. By separating it out people got to see what a good game that is. "
EA was set to release NBA Elite 11 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a code for a downloadable copy of NBA Jam.
After the cancellation, EA worked hard and implemented lots of new features, in order to release NBA Jam as a standalone title.
EA will continue to take risks with its franchises, Riccitiello said, but they must also work so that gamers can be satisfied with the result.
"People admire game companies that take risks but in retrospect they only seem to admire game companies that take risks when the risks work. That's not a risk anymore if you only take risks that work. I think of it as like skiing. If you occasionally don't fall down, you're not trying hard enough."
EA's basketball franchise is now in the hands of the EA Tiburon team, which is also working on other franchises like the Madden NFL one.