Is NBA Live 09′s big feature OTP related?

by pastapadre
Posted June 18th, 2008 at 11:20 am

Over the last few days there has been a great deal of speculation over the “ground-breaking” new feature in NBA Live 09 that will “change the way sports games are made”. The reveal of what this feature is won’t come until next month at E3, quite possibly during EA’s press conference which is scheduled for July 14th.

Initially we had the denial of a Superstar mode but that was soon followed by the media previews stating that Be A Pro (Superstar with a different name) is actually in. The media previews have not gone into any detail on the mode which is curious considering how much they focused on it in their NHL 09 previews. Combined with that I haven’t been able to get an answer as to the role that Be A Pro plays which in itself could be a sign that it somehow factors into the future announcement.

Then consider that Gamespot’s preview possibly infers that it ties into Online Team Play and you can start to put together a theory.

While OTP has undergone exciting changes, we won’t be able to discuss it for a few more weeks (but trust us, it will be worth the wait).

First, I appreciate Gamespot acknowledging that OTP was in 08 and is not a new feature as other media reports have been stating. The mention though of waiting a few weeks for information definitely could be more than a coincidence as there wasn’t a specific reference made to the unknown feature in question.

The predictions around NHL 09′s huge online feature went strongly towards an MMO type online experience with Be A Pro. One has to wonder if that could be what EA is looking at here, which could present a natural progression of Online Team Play.

EA has now placed themselves in a position where this feature needs to deliver otherwise they risk alienating fans with the hype they built leading up to announcing it. At this point being skeptical as to the magnitude of the announcement is understandable as ultimately it’ll be judged on what it turns out to be next month.

Tags:

Will Thompson

maybe it is some sort of otp supported leagues, but that would be impossible to get that many people together.
http://www.pastapadre.com pastapadre

Yeah, it would be hard to imagine them putting resources into something that very few would utilize. Its tough enough as it is with regular leagues just getting two people to arrange and meet-up, it would be impossible to do that with up to 10 people especially considering the number of games to complete a league season and playoffs.
pat

i am really excited to see what it is
HairyJoe

I’ve been saying since FIFA08 came out with it’s Be A Pro mode that a natural progression would be to turn this into an online mode. You make a player, choose his position, and then thru online play in 5v5 he improves. The Captain Your Country mode in Euro 2008 is kinda that without the online portion.
http://www.pastapadre.com pastapadre

Plus they’re adding in a lot of cool stuff tied into create-a-player, which would be necessary if that turned out to be what this feature is.
http://thebreakaway.net bcrt2000

“Yeah, it would be hard to imagine them putting resources into something that very few would utilize. Its tough enough as it is with regular leagues just getting two people to arrange and meet-up, it would be impossible to do that with up to 10 people especially considering the number of games to complete a league season and playoffs.”
pasta– the solution to that is have extras/subs; allow 10-20 people per team to sign up, and then out of those people you will at least get 2 or 3 who will be available for the game.
http://thebreakaway.net bcrt2000

also if they had a system like burnout where it actually notified you when you were in the game what other people on your friends list/in your leagues were doing, it would probably give you a better sense of community and want to get you more competetive
cp3

I’ve been saying since FIFA08 came out with it’s Be A Pro mode that a natural progression would be to turn this into an online mode. You make a player, choose his position, and then thru online play in 5v5 he improves. The Captain Your Country mode in Euro 2008 is kinda that without the online portion.

That would be pretty sweet if they did it with the online portion. That would be like UBO 2007 and now Cal Ripkins real baseball. Those games are a lot of fun and to be honest there are tons of flaws to the game but I still play them because they area ton of fun.
Kheez

Do all these new “ground-breaking” features mean anything if the gameplay is still as bad as last year’s?

EA, fix the actual game first before you start a whole new revolution of how sports games are played.
StEaLtH ShOt

I guess were just really going to have to wait it’s not that far away.
reo

A feature that very few will use? Do you realize how large text based MMOs are around the world? Check out goallineblitz.com or cyberdunk.com. People play these types of games endlessly.
http://www.pastapadre.com pastapadre

I mean in a league type, restricted sense. Very few would actually complete their obligations to it. Now if it was more open ended, in the MMO realm, that would be pretty popular I’d imagine.
lawl

I really hate when you say something like MMO type Be A Pro mode… cause it gets me happy

only to be let down later