NBA Elite 11 canceled, series handed off to EA Tiburon

by Andrew Yoon on Nov 2nd 2010 5:44PM

EA Sports has decided to give NBA Elite 11 the longest delay possible, updating the game's release date to never. EA's John Schappert confirmed during a recent investor's call that "we have elected to cancel NBA Elite 11."

Elite had attempted to completely rework EA's basketball pedigree, abandoning the gameplay and namesake of EA's long-running NBA Live franchise. The gamble appears to have backfired, and development of the next EA Sports basketball title is being moved from EA Canada to the studio famous for Madden. "Future development of that franchise will be handled at EA Tiburon in Orlando," Schappert confirmed.

Tags: canceled, cancellation, ea, ea-sports, ea-tiburon, earnings, financial, fy-2011, microsoft, NBA-Elite-11, playstation, ps3, q2, xbox

Reader Comments (60)

EA totally backed out after the success of 2K11

@Nolan North

Serves them right for "licensing" Madden after it bombed against 2K5. If only Madden would get a makeover...

@Nolan North guess 2k11 won that battle. wooooooooooooooooo

Tiburon hasn't been doing to well these past few years either. They keep laying people off and only really focus on Tiger Woods and Madden/NCAA. I don't expect them to put much effort or resources into this IP. Too bad.

@Poor Tom

They should have left Madden alone. Madden 10 (with Polamalu and Fitzy on the cover) was the best Madden ever. Period. This new Madden was to slow and just outright sucked. NCAA 11 was and is the best football game on the market. Probably because it always seems to run on the previous years Madden engine ... I guess next year we can expect NCAA 12 to have that terrible autoflow game calling and slower gameplay.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Best Madden ever was 05 and even THAT game was behind NFL2k5. This gen, Madden is total and utter fail. It's complete garbage and I can't wait until they lose exclusive rights because that franchise needs canned as well.

@Smoothy

I guess we agree to disagree. I always thought the 2K series football games were awful and broken. Vertical seam passing was to easy and running the ball was nearly impossible.

@Poor Tom you really don't know what you are talking about... EA Tiburon has been hiring for a while now, staffing up a whole team for EA Sports MMA and another unannounced title. The only major layoffs in recent years were due to a large contingent of QA people being moved from FL to Louisiana. MMA was fairly well received for a new title, much better than the previous new title outing, Superman (which was a huge problem before the studio got its hands on it, and before it was forced to start over with Renderman)

Soooo... NBA Jam is still coming out some time this decade for the 360 and PS3, right?

November 17th-ish, hopefully?

Thats what you get for having Canadians make a hoops game. Eh?

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Canadians making game about a sport that a Canadian invented? That's just crazy!

@Pulov Yuran there aren't black people in Canada.... /s

@Pulov Yuran

Did you try the demo for elite 11? EA Canada should stick to making NHL games because their foray into hoops would have went down as the worst sports game of all time. So bad that EA canceled the yearly iteration ... So they shouldn't be allowed to make a hoops game. In all honesty EA shouldn't be allowed to make a hoops game. Their basketball are worse than their now extinct MVP Baseball series.

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi that's a myth. there are plenty of black people in Toronto

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Far more offensive than you saying what you said is that you call it "hoops" - who says that?!

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

i've played the EA NHL games for the last 4 years or so, and then getting rid being locked into an animation and using the similar control scheme as hockey for basketball worked great, i played the Elite demo, and it was really fun, i always loved the 2K b-ball series but they always seem to be the same, i guess if it's not broken don't fix it but for me i got bored of it. Live ALWAYS sucked, horrible animation and to easy to make 3 pointers if you play the game a lot, so i thought Elite was an awesome upgrade to the series. Regardless i wouldn't have bought it because I'm not THAT into basketball but that's just crazy that they would completely cancel a sports game, and its not like them saying NHL 2K11 was canceled this year, because they announced that like a year ago, but to cancel it when its already past it's due date, i can't see how it wasn't ready for printing.

completely broken comment in the beginning there, don't know what happened, but i think you get where i am going with it.

This all sounds a little too familiar, but they can't fool me. I'll just be expecting it around 2024 given certain previous game release time tables.

That is pretty crazy considering the game was done and copies had been printed. I guess if anybody got their hands on one, it'll be worth quite a bit.

@Sleeping Lesson It's the new Stadium Events!

@Sleeping Lesson
I wonder how much money they just flushed down the toilet with this. Not just the wasted copies they made, but all the money spent on development, not to mention the cost of the NBA license.
I wonder, if you don't actually produce a game for sale, do you still have to pay for the NBA license? I assume you do, but maybe the NBA will cut EA a break (though considering the league's financial situation, I doubt it).

" being moved from EA Canada to the studio famous for Madden."

So you're moving it from the studio that makes in my opinion an awesome FIFA game to a studio that has released the same NFL game gameplay wise for years? They're so damn incompetent its unreal :/

@briax87

madden 11 is actually really great. it flows really well. looks pretty nice too. incompetent is hardly the word i would use to describe them.

Wow. Sux for EA. The demo was pretty good. I actually liked the controls.

Hopefully, EA will have better luck w/ Elite 12.

Wow, didn't see that coming. I knew things couldn't be great if they were going to delay until next year, but I never thought the game would be moved to another studio.

Whoomp, there it ain't

So that guy that has a ps3 copy has the rarest game on the system and most likely the rarest game EA has ever put out

EA will probably take this time to find a way to c'block 2K again. NFL2K was getting better and was showing potential, before EA went and got exclusive rights to NFL.

@SayWhut
I highly doubt that seeing how 2K got a Jordan license, who hasn't been in a basketball game since 2003.

Really this is shocking? I thought it was agreed upon by most that NBA JAM was made a stand alone product because of this very reason yeah i know they originally said delay but we knew better.

@kyte420 ... Who said it was shocking?

@RadiantViper well maybe not in those exact words.

He's standin' like Jesus in the middle of the court!

I told somebody it was canceled last week as a joke...I guess it was less of a joke than I thought.

@Ospov

Or... Maybe you have powers and everything you say comes true!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I hope KD can have another great year worthy enough to put his picture on it next year.

@Revving Injuns I doubt Durant would want anything to do with Elite 12...if there's even going to be one.

funny...me and a few other people were thinking they were going to pull a different strategy.....and release it around Playoffs.....just like they do with NCAA March Madness...

EA blows all together. Madden is outdated, ugly, and hasnt really changed in years, Tiger Woods was improved slightly, but game play, navigation and graphics are lacking, and NHL, well. It's bad.

@Goaliegeek
NHL 09, 10, and 11 have all been really good games. I play NHL 11 more than I do any game in my library right now. What don't you like about the franchise?

I just know Giant Bomb is going to have a field day with this.

Fail of the Year!

wow, that totally sucks for EA Canada, i haven't been a fan of the live series since the ps1 days, but jeez, I expect the studio will lose a lot of talent over this. :(

So EA decided to take their talent to South Beach for the next Elite. Sounds about right

LOL gotta love the Jordan logo in the background. OUCH

@chicho13420
that's a screen from 2k11, Shhh, don't tell joystiq

EA deserves everything they are getting after pulling that NFL shot a few years back. NFL 2k could have been as great as the NBA games over time bit EA was scared and did a bitch move and put up money.

@Drdre74

The status quo for a long time has been ...

Madden > NFL 2K
NBA 2K > Live
MLB 2K > MVP Baseball
NHL 11 > NHL 2K

I would say that "MLB The Show" has surpassed MLB 2K as the best baseball simulation though both are good games. Madden has pretty much been better than NFL 2K since it's inception by Visual Concepts in what I think was the Dreamcast era. I personally thought that NFL Gameday was the best NFL game when it was still being made prior to the EA / NFL exclusivity agreement.

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NBA Elite 11

NBA Elite 11 canceled, series handed off to EA Tiburon

Reader Comments (60)

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:46PM Nolan North said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 1:00AM BlazeKing said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 9:53AM echerringtonYAHOOCOM said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:47PM Poor Tom said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:51PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:58PM smoothy said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:52PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 10:29PM Kunikos said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:47PM ytilanigiroon said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:49PM ytilanigiroon said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:48PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:10PM Pulov Yuran said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:26PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:57PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 10:30PM Kunikos said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 4:54AM AlphakirA said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 5:01PM mikemyerz666 said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 5:02PM mikemyerz666 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:48PM Bumper said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:50PM Sleeping Lesson said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:01PM Ample Salty said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 10:23PM Brendan H said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:52PM briax87 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 9:57PM Sly C said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:54PM MLC said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:55PM Toop said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:56PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 5:58PM dcy123 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:03PM SayWhut said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 8:52PM KillaChaos said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:06PM kyte420 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:11PM RadiantViper said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:13PM kyte420 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:07PM slickie said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:13PM Ospov said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 7:28PM Zacxx201 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:16PM Enigma7ic said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:22PM Revving Injuns said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 2:42PM MAINEiac4434 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:29PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:52PM Goaliegeek said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 10:35AM ytilanigiroon said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 6:54PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 7:35PM SilverPR said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 8:41PM antv said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 8:49PM arpc1997 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 9:05PM chicho13420 said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2010 6:00PM antv said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 10:47PM Drdre74 said

Posted: Nov 2nd 2010 11:05PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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