NBA Live 14 Is Only Coming Out for the Xbox One, PS4

Sean O’Brien, executive producer on NBA Live 14, has published a blog post stating that NBA Live 14 will be exclusive to next-generation consoles – no Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are planned. “The vision is a simple one: To create a great basketball game exclusively for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4,” O’Brien wrote.

“The great news for me is that EA SPORTS is 100% committed to rebuilding NBA LIVE,” O’Brien also said. “There is an enormous financial commitment to the development of the product on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, including the size of the team and resources required to give us every opportunity to make a great basketball game that can compete with such a solid franchise like NBA 2K.”

Solid is an understatement – the NBA 2K series has enjoyed its time without competition. NBA 2K13, the latest entry, shipped 4.5 million copies this year and established a record for the franchise.

“My first priority was to focus on core gameplay. We needed to capture the essence of half-court basketball, providing 1-on-1 isolation both in the perimeter and the post, the 2-on-2 chess match that is the pick and roll, while still offering the gamer the opportunity to push the basketball in transition and have the control required to get the ball into the lane to either take the ball to the rim or find an open teammate if the defense collapses,” O’Brien wrote.

“I’m also really proud of our partnership with Synergy Sports Technologies.” Perhaps the most interesting part of O’Brien’s post, this partnership provides EA with data the NBA uses for scouting teams and players. “I want to remove subjectivity from how we rate players and have that data provided by Synergy Sports to completely drive how the game plays. I’m really excited about being able to update our game within an hour of something happening in the NBA. We’re going to be making an enormous investment into this connected experience. ”

NBA Live 14 is due later this year on the Xbox One and PS4.