This week EA Sports has decided to cancel production of the relaunch of NBA Live 13.  With hopes of revitalizing this once popular video game franchise, EA Sports had hoped recapture some of the basketball simulator market that is currently dominated by the NBA 2K series.

EA Sports obviously regrets this decision as this could have brought competition back to developers that would have brought better basketball titles to fans.  However, EA Sports states that while they expected making this game to be a long process, it turns out getting the series a new studio, using new technology and engaging with fans in an all new community to get fan input on how they hoped the NBA Live series would be developed turned into a bit more than EA Sports was ready for.

While certainly making strides and exciting fans for an upcoming basketball title, EA Sports reveals that NBA Live 13 does not currently meet the high quality standards that developers and fans expect from EA Sports.  Admitting that a great game is difficult process, EA Sports admits that NBA Live 13 is simply not ready for an October release.  Instead of releasing a game mid-season, EA Sports hopes to have the next edition of NBA Live next season.

So it looks like NBA 2K13 will continue to own the monopoly on NBA basketball simulators.  NBA Live could certainly use the help as NBA 2K has become an amazing series, and for a series that once thought it was a good idea to have a button on offense specifically dedicated to alley-oops, it will take a lot of work to make sure that the game play in NBA Live will satisfy fans.  Next year, we will find out if EA Sports can deliver the goods, this season however it looks like they will be riding the pine.

Source: All Games Beta , EA Sports