In a statement posted on the NBA Live blog, EA have confirmed that Mike Wang is no longer working on the NBA Live franchise. This announcement followed an earlier report posted on ESPN where Mike described in more detail his reasons for leaving EA.
Wang joined the NBA Live team last year in a highly publicised departure from 2k Sports and was front and center of the marketing campaign for NBA Live 10. His departure represents a significant loss to the EA NBA Live development team and might indicate a shift away from the simulation style of gameplay to something else.
Here is the announcement in full :
"Mike Wang has left EA Canada and the NBA LIVE development team and will be heading back to the United States. I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank Mike for his contributions during the 18 months that he was working on NBA LIVE. His vision and leadership within gameplay on NBA LIVE 10 was part of the reason why that game was critically reviewed as having taken a tremendous leap in quality and at least as good as any other basketball game on the market.
Our goals for NBA LIVE 11 are simple. We want to be one of the best sports games on the market … on par with franchises like NHL, FIFA and Madden. In the coming months, we will show you just how we will do that."
The statement was signed by Sean O'Brien, the Lead Producer on the NBA Live series and can be found in full here. |
