We've talked a lot around here about the impending battle between EA's NBA Elite 11 and NBA 2K11. You've heard about the extras that the publishers are offering to entice gamers to pick their product over the other; with Elite shipping with NBA Jam, and 2K11 including a playable Michael Jordan. With both games set to release next week, your decision time was coming closer and closer. However, EA has announced today that Elite 11 will not make its projected October 5th release date, as it has been delayed until an undetermined time.Apparently, the feedback the publisher received from the game's demo caused them to rethink whether Elite was ready to ship. In a statement on the game's official site, EA Sports' president explained:

"We are creating a game that will introduce several breakthrough features that have been missing from the basketball genre. Unfortunately, NBA Elite 11 is not yet ready and we have made a decision to delay next month’s launch. We are going to keep working until we’re certain we can deliver a breakthrough basketball experience. [U]ltimately we feel this is the right thing to do. We’ve been making steady progress on basketball for the past few years and it’s going to take extra time to make the game."

This may be the point where you ask yourself, "But what about NBA Jam?". Well, EA has addressed that question, and chances are, you won't like the answer. The game will still make its projected October 5th release for the Wii, and while the 360 and PS3 versions will not be out on the 5th, they are both promised before the holiday season. This means that rather than being a bundle with Elite 11, NBA Jam will be sold as its own game. There's no word on how much it will cost, or what, if anything, will be the replacement for Jam as an incentive to buy Elite.

While EA didn't list a new release date for NBA Elite 11, at least one website has a release date March of 2011, meaning the NBA season will be well underway by the time the game comes out. It's entirely possible that the March date is simply a placeholder until EA makes it more official, but we'll have to wait and see.

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