NBA Live 20 Delayed

Electronic Arts have yet to announce the official release of NBA Live 20, the 2019 edition in its disturbing simulation basketball franchise. However, on Tuesday, the developer quietly delayed the release of the video game, which will only be released in the final quarter of the year.

Even though EA hasn’t discussed anything about NBA Live 20 to the public, let alone market the new game, it did a showcase in the schedule of upcoming video game releases from the developer during May, alongside the company’s earnings report for the fiscal year of 2019. In the initial slide presentation from EA to its investors, the developer decided to slot in NBA Live 20 to be released during the second quarter of the year, running from 1 July to 30 September, alongside other annual titles from EA Sports, including FIFA 20, NHL 20, and Madden NFL 20.

A new financial report was released by EA on Tuesday that details the first-quarter earnings for 2020, ending on 30 June. You will notice that NBA Live 20 still makes an appearance on the report alongside the earning statement. However, it is now scheduled to be released during the final quarter of the year, which means players will only see the game between 1 October and 31 December 2019. A representative from EA Sports informed reporters that the new NBA Live instalment would feature a completely different approach than the previous games which is causing a slight delay in the release of the game.

Typical Release Date

Basketball video games are usually released during September each year, a couple of weeks before the NBA regular season gets underway. 2K Sports, EA Sports’ rival, has started releasing their NBA 2K titles earlier than usual where they are now releasing their video games during the first week of September instead of the third week as standard. 2K Sports released NBA 2K on 6 September which is the same date when NBA Live 19 was released last year.

However, this time around, all we received from EA Sports is radio silence. When you visit the NBA Live Twitter page, you will be disappointed to see that the postings still relate to the content on NBA Live 19 as opposed to information about the new NBA Live 20 video game. All you will find on the internet surrounding NBA Live 20 is roster moves which is something that never actually occurs for sports games that are released every year.

It somewhat concerns for a franchise this big to drop the ball on a video game genre like NBA Live. EA Sports attempted to reboot the entire series with the release of NBA Elite 11 during 2010, but it was eventually cancelled before it was released. It also took the developer a very long time to revive the franchise, so it’s rather strange that a delay was given on the new release.