The NBA Live Franchise an Analysis of Gameplay and Marketing Advances Over the Years Since Its Inception
The NBA Live Franchise An analysis of gameplay and marketing advances over the years since its inception STS 145: History of Game Design Professor Henry Lowood 3/16/2004 1 Pre-Game Warmups: Introduction Electronic Arts (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for personal computers and advanced entertainment systems. Year in and year out their games dominate the sports video games market. EA’s flagship and most popular basketball game, NBA Live, has advanced significantly in many areas of game design since its first release in 1995. This case study is an in-depth analysis of how EA Sports’ NBA Live series has advanced over the years, focusing on the ways in which it is exemplary of the evolution of video game design and marketing. Specifically, we will analyze the advances in game play (improvement of controls, realism, graphics, etc.) and the unprecedented marketing strategies that combined to make the NBA Live series such a huge success in the sports gaming industry. NBA Live was one of the few games on the basketball simulation market during its early years, leaving it with very little competition, which subsequently stagnated advances and innovation. Between its inception and about 1999, the game primarily advanced graphically as newer consoles and more powerful personal computers entered the market. Up until their 2002 release EA Sports sat comfortably on top of the market without making any groundbreaking gameplay innovations. In 2003, however, on the heels of intense competition from Sega with their NBA 2K series, EA introduced the Freestyle control, which revolutionized gameplay by allowing users to execute special moves by the moving of the right analog stick while dribbling, passing, or playing defense.
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