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Moore curbs NBA Street

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Oct 23, 2008 3:29 pm PT

EA Sports president says arcade-style basketballer on hiatus due to Freestyle subbrand focus.

Last week, EA CEO John Riccitiello offered an evocative analogy on the cancellation of Command & Conquer first-person shooter Tiberium, saying, "When you burn the omelet, you don't serve it." Riccitiello, who after retur ning to the publisher's top position last year has been on a tear to realign the company under an emphasis on quality, further said, "EA will kill a game or two a year. Forever."

Making good on that promise, EA has delivered one more concoction unto the compost bin. Speaking to ESPN, EA Sports president Peter Moore confirmed that NBA Street has been placed on indefinite hiatus. Elaborating on EA Sports' decision to bench the franchise, Moore told ESPN that the move reflected the company's push toward creating its own intellectual properties within its Freestyle brand.

"We'll still do traditional sports, but we're going to do them a different way," he said. "Street is a good example. We built a new Freestyle brand to do different things, and we also need to build our own intellectual properties. We rely on other people's IP for everything we do and we need to develop some new things. In the old days we had things like SSX that were our own intellectual property, but since then we've kind of moved away from that."

NBA Street: Homecourt, released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2007, may have hit Riccitiello's professed minimum standard for quality in critics' eyes, but sales for the most recent installment in the franchise came up woefully short. As of August 2008, Homecourt had sold only 380,000 units across both platforms, according to The NPD Group.

53 Comments

  • Krullis_robin

    Posted Feb 8, 2009 2:27 am PT

    I hate what they have done to the NBA Street games the first two was amazing especially the second one. It really had that street basketball feeling over it. And then V.3 came wich sucked donkey penis why can't they just make a new version of NBA Street Volume 2, I know that almost every basketball fan with a 360 or PS3 would buy it. I would.

  • snake3rules

    Posted Oct 29, 2008 11:23 am PT

    yeah nba street is one of the best quality sports game they made, not to mention their freestyle games, which street would easily be considered among the best -- what this really reads like is, "we are greedy and dont want to share any profits with the nba or others who have helped to make us successful over the years-- we'll just remove the names and numbers and release it without having to pay any royalities!"

  • Chief_Kuuni

    Posted Oct 27, 2008 11:01 pm PT

    that's too bad, I loved the nba street games

  • tawagivercetti

    Posted Oct 26, 2008 5:07 pm PT

    EA will kill a game or two a year, forever. EA is a sad turd of a gaming company. Thank the lord they never got take-two. If they marketed NBA street properly like they do FIFA to the right audience it would sell more. Give me back my NBA street.

  • prioritymail

    Posted Oct 25, 2008 4:59 pm PT

    I like the NBA street series, well, the first two anyway...but it sounds to me like they may make another SSX, in which case, WOOT!

  • EPaul

    Posted Oct 25, 2008 1:41 pm PT

    The Nba street series is one of ea's best

  • P0T

    Posted Oct 25, 2008 2:21 am PT

    Street Volume 1 was a good game but Volume 2 blew it out of the water. The soundtrack in volume 2 was amazing, the gameplay was fun and I played that game like crazy. Hopefully they can rework this franchise, I think people were getting burnt out on it. I still think NBA street could be profitable for them but dont release one every year. Do some meaningful updates to it and I bet it would sell enough to make a profit. I know alot of friends that really enjoyed the Street games but felt they did not innovate after Volume 2.

  • Sydwynder

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 3:02 pm PT

    I want an NHL game thats very arcadey, like Hitz, to come to the 360 or PS3. I also really really want a CFL game. (Canadian Football League)

  • Confucius-2

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 2:11 pm PT

    Hmm I think that Peter Moore is one of the best things that could have happened to EA. The company seems to be moving more and more towards the right direction, maybe I''ll start buying their games one day.

    daveneonfarrell: sports games don't suck, but u do.

  • daveneonfarrell

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 10:59 am PT

    EA needs to scrap all sports titles. Sports game suck.

  • thaflu

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 10:06 am PT

    The first NBA Street (PS2) is my favorite game of all time. Street Vol. 2 isn't far behind. If the series does go on "indefinite hiatus," I guess I'm glad that they left us with at least 2 classics. The series has gone downhill ever since, but I was actually looking forward to the next one. I know NFL Tour couldn't have sold more than Homecourt, so why can't they put the NFL Streets on hiatus instead? This sucks.

    I hope this doesn't happen to the SSX series. Especially before they release a next-gen one.

  • painpas

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 8:12 am PT

    You can get homecourt for like $10 BRAND NEW at blockbuster. Go pick it up and enjoy!

  • 360player_eq12

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 7:45 am PT

    I like NBA street its on of the games EA does not push down are throats every year.

  • IsmirZone

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 6:41 am PT

    ES is STUPID. A brand come on please. What was wrong with EA BIG! For some reason they needed to change to Freestyle. The face breaker was bad you can can that. Changeling the brand won't change the fact you cant make a good game. Not that they never made any good games. Does this mean NO SSX?

  • jadefury27

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 6:23 am PT

    Thats a shame street homecourt was the best one since part 2. hopefully they'll still do the nfl street. madden is too time consuming and is lacking the same quality it had when it had compition from 2k, which was the better game.

  • Schwarte

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 5:21 am PT

    Totally disagree with some of the stuff said about EA not improving their franchises. Point is: They DO, as can be seen by looking at the new FIFA, when there is competition. The harsh truth is that EA Sports is dominating throughout most of the (digital) sport market and have since quite some time not been under pressure to improve drastically. Thus Moore is doing us all a favor when he's taking an approach to "more quality".

  • hunter8man

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 4:54 am PT

    Why take away NBA Street? They have all been pretty decent. Now they should take those NFL Tour games and can them.

  • planbfreak4eva

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 4:18 am PT

    it didnt sell good coz it was a first street on ps3..and it wasnt very good...number 2 was much better...thats why...ea..wheres ur logic...if u make a good nba street wid good graphics, gameplay then evryone will go buy it...the only good game u make is burnout...thats a bout it...and skate 2 will be good..the rest are just rubbish...and what happened wid ssx?we all want new ssx on ps3..how many years passed since u last made one?

  • tom224488

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 3:09 am PT

    wtf why would they put nba street on hiatus when its the best game they make? the only reason it didnt sell very well was because it was only on the shelves for like a week (at least it was here in australia). i had to buy mine on ebay coz it appeared and disappeared so quickly on the shelves.

  • LURCH87

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 12:36 am PT

    boo i want a new nba street
    freestyle brand sucks who wants 2 play facebreaker that game sucks

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