Mike Wang Reunites With 2K Sports

by pastapadre
Posted February 1st, 2010 at 9:27 pm

We now know why EA Sports was eager to reveal that lead gameplay designer Mike Wang had left NBA Live after just over a year on the series. Wang is returning to the NBA 2K team. I’ve been talking about the developments throughout the evening on my Twitter and ESPN has posted up an interview with him that details why he left and adds concerns about the future of NBA Live.

“When I went over there (to EA), a lot of it was for personal reasons. I wanted to try something new, try a new challenge. But after being there and spending some time over at EA, it was clear that they do things a different way, and in a way it’s just inefficient and just not the place to be to make the best games,” …. With some of the creative decisions over at EA, it just made it difficult to stay there. They just want to make a different game than I had a vision for.

All of this is especially interesting given that the reason Wang left 2K Sports was because he felt that the NBA 2K franchise had hit a ceiling and the resources weren’t there to really push it forward. So what he is saying about EA has to be viewed with some level of skepticism given they are about the competitor but there definitely seems to be some truth in it all. Live may now be looking at a shift in its focus and NCAA Basketball is likely gone with poor sales being the reason for both.

This is certainly a huge coup for 2K Sports and a big hit to the state of basketball provided by EA Sports. NBA 2K11 and beyond now has a brighter outlook gameplay wise but they’ll need better quality control and to provide a consistent online experience whether NBA Live lasts just one more year or if it remains around as competition for longer.

AM Update: Some other outlets have provided their take on the situation including Kotaku, Game Informer, and Operation Sports.

Tags: latest news

JG

well said my man, I can't argue with you on the fact that EA's had it's head in the sand for far to long. I think Mike gave them a jump start they would have never had had he not gone to EA. But what i think is interesting is some of the things he said about Live vs 2K. Remember when he talked about control vs over animation, he was pretty straight forward in his criticism of 2k over animations taking away from player control. So i'll be interested to see if he'll take what live has and finds a middle ground with 2K realistic animations.

The fact is NBA Live 11 is dead if they don't follow what FIFA did in making a sim game. There are only two absolutes with both these games. They will both be over hyped video games and they will both have gameplay issue when they come out.
Pete

Why is it so hard for people to just say that the other company offered a better package (i.e. money, vacation, benefits)? People just refused to be honest and open.
jaynoc

5 at max…don't be that foolish and say something like that.
Anonymous

5 at max…don’t be that foolish and say something like that.