NBA Live 365 MIA

If you’ve been watching any of the NBA games so far this year you surely haven’t been able to miss the onslaught of advertising for NBA Live 09’s 365 feature. Certainly the feature is already proven beneficial for improving Live, but what most everyone was waiting for was the daily updates. After all the slogan is “Made Fresh Daily”.

To EA’s credit they’ve done manual updates including details such as player accessories leading up to the start of the season. Though I felt that they should have started 365 right away after the first night of games, it wasn’t a big deal to wait two days and have the very first update be significant and affect every team in the league. So the promise was made that the first update would be out this morning. Yet is no where to be found with no explanation having been given. It sure would’ve been nice to get whatever is causing this delay out of the way two days ago…

Needless to say this isn’t the ideal start for a feature that EA is hoping to be perceived as a value add-on. I’ll have a full look at how well 365 turned out for this year as well as the 2K Insider which hasn’t lived up to its own PR hype. That is when both of them actually get serious and start providing what they’ve promised.

Update: I’ve just now received the following statement from EA

“Hello Everyone,
Like we told you guys yesterday, NBA LIVE 365 would go live today. Well, I’m officially letting all of you know that NBA LIVE 365 has now been turned on, and is scheduled to go live between really late Friday, and early Saturday morning. You should see all roster lineups accurately reflected in-game based on what’s currently happening in the real NBA season. You’re probably wondering about DNA and Tendencies right? Well, those will be ready for you to download soon, but we’re waiting for teams to play a few games so that you see some differences in their DNA and tendencies.

This is an exciting and brand new feature for not only us, but sports games period so there’s bound to be some kinks that need to be worked out. I wanted to thank you on behalf of the entire NBA LIVE 09 development team for being so excited, eager and patient about the implementation of this feature. Because this is happening as the season goes along, it’s something that we wanted worked out and fully tested before we turned on the switch to you guys. Two things to note; there are some inconsistencies in the lineups that you may see, but they will be addressed as we move forward. Also, in order to keep the daily updates going, if there is a player at any point in time during the season that is not in our game but has played a game in the real NBA, you’ll see him reflected in-game as a generic player. Don’t worry, he’ll be implemented in-game accurately that same week, and the generic player will be out of your game.

Thanks again for the patience everyone! These are truly exciting times for all of us as the future of basketball is now!

Thanks,
The NBA LIVE 09 Dev Team”

NBA Live 09 Highlight Contest Clips and Poll

Thanks again for everyone who submitted entries for the NBA Live 09 highlight contest. It was very difficult to narrow the field down to five, but I feel pretty good about the handful that are being put up for vote. Continue on to watch the clips and vote on your favorite one!

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NCAA Basketball 09 Demo Coming Next Week

I have been informed that the demo for NCAA Basketball 09 will be out for both the PS3 and 360 next Thursday, November 6th. That means it’ll be available nearly two weeks ahead of the release date for the game (Tuesday 11/18). This should present a good chance to experience the much touted tempo feature as well as offer an opportunity for those abandoned by College Hoops to try the game out without any risk.

The demo will consist of two match-ups: Kentucky vs Tennessee and 1979 Michigan State vs 1982 North Carolina. Hopefully it doesn’t consist of multiple, frustratingly short quarters which makes it impossible to get a feel for the game.

Madden 09 Roster Update #10 Details

Entering week nine of the regular season and EA is preparing to push out the tenth roster update for Madden 09 tomorrow. The consistency they’ve provided with these updates has been a great development. While a game such as NBA Live has the 365 feature updating automatically and on a daily basis, for Madden most people would be content with the weekly updates that are now being provided. From here it is just a matter of them improving on what the updates cover as far as who should change and by how many ratings points.

Continue on to view all of the transactions, ratings changes, injuries, and contract extensions.

Update: The roster has hit a technical snag and won’t be out until early next week.

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NBA Live 365 To Start Tomorrow

Everyone is excited to experience the immediate impact that comes with NBA Live 09’s 365 feature. I know I have been looking forward to profiling how it is changing the game on a daily basis. With the season now underway we await the first update however I have been informed that it won’t be coming until tomorrow. They decided to wait until every team played their first game. From then on the updates will arrive daily.

The last NBA teams will play their first game on Thursday (10/30). To accurately reflect what happened for every team’s first game in NBA LIVE 09, we’re going to turn on NBA LIVE 365 on Friday morning (10/31) for everyone that input a code on the insert inside the NBA LIVE 09 packaging. Once every team plays their first game, you will see your daily changes as promised.

The Live 09 team has done an admirable job in updating the basics so far, and they’ll need to continue to do so in terms of many of the ratings categories, player appearances, and accessories. 365 will only affect a few ratings, player and team DNA, and streaks.

Along with a look at the first 365 update the highlight contest will be up this weekend.

NHL 09 Patch Details

NHL 09 producer David Littman has posted a new blog detailing the upcoming patch for the game which is expected to go live for the 360 and PS3 within the next week or two. Continue on to view the full details of what to expect from the patch.

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Leading Madden 2010 Cover Athlete Candidates

For the sake of discussion lets imagine that EA Sports doesn’t go through with the idea of auctioning up the cover of Madden 2010. If they keep with tradition of choosing a player coming off a successful season we are now mid-way through the year and can narrow down the group right now that would be the most likely to be chosen.

Continue on for my top five 2010 current cover candidates and vote in the poll for who you think it should be if the selection were to be made today.

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MLB Front Office Manager Screenshots

2K Sports has released the first 10 screenshots showing off the recently announced MLB Front Office Manager. You can check them out in the gallery. The game, which features A’s GM Billy Beane, does not yet have an official release date but it is expected to come out in late January.

More NCAA Basketball 09 Impressions

We’ve gotten good NCAA Basketball 09 impressions from around the community. Now Jon Robinson of ESPN has posted up his thoughts on the game along with plenty of details.

That means that this is the first game to not only feature the majority of Division 1 coaches, but these guys actually help you throughout your on-court rivalries and tournaments in terms of managing tempo, fatigued players, and shot selection by appearing in a pop-up window throughout the game with words of encouragement or instruction.

You can read the article in full here. While I’ve been down on the game due to the lack of modes and names not being displayed online, it’s hard not to be encouraged by all the positive reports on gameplay and how well the tempo feature appears to have been implemented.

Madden 2010 Cover Athlete May Be Determined Via Auction

Earlier today Peter Moore stated to Bloomberg that the cover of next year’s Madden may go to the highest bidder. The proceeds would then be donated to the United Way Foundation. The decision on whether this will happen has not yet been made but the possibility is being discussed.

There’s no question that many players would pay for the opportunity to be on the cover. Up until now the athlete has been determined by previous season performance, or in the case of Brett Favre the entirety of his career. After that discussions would proceed if the player was interested. The money paid to the athlete has always been relatively minimal, somewhere between $100,000-200,000. While LaDainian Tomlinson has turned down the cover because he wanted to be compensated more, most players jump at the chance without much regard to pay and consider it an honor.

I think this is a pretty cool idea especially with the money going to charity. It would be fun to find out who was bidding and who came out on top. No one is going to make a choice one way or the other on buying Madden based solely on the cover athlete, and EA can still go to some of the top players for marketing the game.

Do you think it would be a good idea to auction off the cover with the proceeds going to United Way? If so who would you hope would make a push to be the highest bidder?