For the first time in, well, ever, 2K Sports’ presence in the basketball simulation market went unchallenged this year.  EA tried to reboot their NBA Live franchise with the new moniker, NBA Elite, but failed to produce an actual game, leaving the excellent NBA 2K11 to stand on its own.  Today, EA gave the reason for the cancellation, confirming what everyone who played the demo already knew; "It was just going to be a bad game."

Those were the words of Andrew Wilson, the head of EA Sports’ worldwide development, speaking to IGN.  Apparently the system that would have used the left stick to control player movement and the right stick to control dribbling and shooting wasn’t ready for release, and needed far more time to perfect. "At the very core, we have to build a great game first and foremost,” said Wilson.

The demo that showed up on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network was, to put it nicely, unimpressive.  It looked even more so when compared to NBA 2K11, which garnered excellent reviews.  I was somewhat hopeful for EA’s offering this year, but we’ll have to wait until at least next year to see what they’ve got.  After this year’s cancellation, though, I’m not terribly hopeful.