EA
announced today the hyped return of NBA Jam will be available on Xbox 360 and
PS3... as a download token packed in the $60 NBA Elite.
So:
to want NBA Jam HD is to want NBA Elite. Unless you can wait for something
special down the line -- maybe.
And
with that, commenters stopped scrubbing off oil-scummed pelicans in the Gulf
and brokering a fragile peace in the Middle East and started writing on their favorite message boards. This was the world's one true
injustice; EA, the real enemy.
That's
fair to think, sort of. EA has a few blights on its reputation. And when it comes to
upsetting the bullishly hardcore, this isn't their first rodeo.
But
before we hoist our pitchforks, let's take a breath and talk out why EA would
make this decision. Afterall, it raises a number of interesting questions about sports
licensing, possibly explaining why we can't have what we want.
Here's
what we know:
The
NBA is a skittish bunch, petrified by too many crappy games saturating the
market. And for good reason - did you play Unrivaled? To stay clear of a storm
of shitty NBA games, the league every so often pops an umbrella of league clauses. Take for example the case of Midway and EA, whose NBA Ballers and NBA Street series respectively had to
alternate releases between every other year.
Perhaps
a similar threeway exists now between the NBA, Tecmo and EA. Tecmo released NBA
Unrivaled last November, less than a year before NBA Elite and NBA Jam's upcoming October
5th release date.
Or
maybe an NBA licensing issue is even simpler.
Wouldn't
the NBA, timid of a saturated market, want to prevent a publisher like EA from
releasing multiple NBA IPs on a single given console? Think, EA could have NBA
Elite and NBA Jam on the same console in the same week. Sure, some casual
gamers only like Jam. And a few hardcore gamers still love Live (now NBA
Elite). But I suspect a majority of people - like that gamer who only buys a
game every few months, you may call him the Holidays and Birthday gamer, most call him the average gamer - just wants basketball.
Or
what about a mom buying her son a basketball game for 360? On the shelf, she
sees NBA Elite, NBA 2K11 and NBA Jam. What to buy? This is what the NBA doesn't want.
Then
there's EA's side of the story, which will sound familiar. What's the problem: Cannibalization, again.
What company worth its salt wants to compete against itself?
Releasing
a sim on PS3 and 360 and an arcade companion on Wii is EA Sport's new MO. See NHL and NHL Slapshot.
And
there's another thing: Nintendo. The Big N put NBA Jam front and center at this
year's E3. Nintendo sees NBA Jam as a reason for core gamers to dust off that white box. To make the full game playable on PS3 and 360 is not a way for EA to make
friends.
Does
all of this excuse EA's decision: no, not necessarily. It certainly lends
perspective.
But
does EA's decision need excusing in the first place: also, no. The game might
have never come to the PS3 and 360 if not for this strategy. For fans of
NBA Elite, this is a big win.
And remember, EA could have packaged this as a
retailer-exclusive pre-order incentive: "Pre-order at Gamestop and get NBA Jam
HD!"
So
just take that stick out of the kerosene and tuck away your Zippo. Perhaps EA will transition the Wii development team into developing to a fleshed-out next-gen
NBA Jam. Maybe they'll call it NBA Jam... Tournament Edition.
Yeah,
this all sounds familiar.
