Future Of NBA Live

College basketball is otw and so is nba live..secretly been in development for years!

https://youtu.be/_qa4f6hHY3k?si=LPJqWA1hnABVrZ6X

I hope this message finds you well. I’d like to share some feedback and suggestions regarding the current state of basketball video games, particularly in comparison between NBA Live 19 and the current offerings from NBA 2K.

As someone who has spent considerable time in the basketball gaming community—known online as Trapway666 and currently ranked #1 on the Xbox NBA Live 19 leaderboards—I believe there is significant unmet demand for a high-quality, innovative basketball game. Unfortunately, NBA 2K has failed to meet this demand in recent years. The experience is increasingly hindered by pay-to-win monetization, unbalanced matchmaking, and underwhelming gameplay mechanics across defense, dribbling, and shooting. The result is a game that feels more like a financial trap than a rewarding sports simulation.

By contrast, NBA Live 19 stands out for its responsive movement, intuitive dribble system, and fun, rewarding gameplay. However, it suffers from its own issues, most notably a lack of ongoing developer support and a declining online community. A major problem lies in matchmaking, where players routinely quit before games start due to disparities in character progression, leaving matches dominated by bots roughly 80% of the time.

Moreover, NBA Live 19 contains underutilized assets and content—animations and cosmetics that were never made available, a leaderboard system that rewards exploitative teammate grade methods rather than skill, and neglected community features. These oversights have unfortunately prevented the game from reaching its full potential.

Over time, members of the NBA Live community like myself have discovered methods to access content that was not originally intended to be available in the game. For example, we found a way to retrieve original NBA Live 18 traits on Nba Live 19 directly from the game disc and learned how to duplicate saved data across multiple Xbox accounts.

In response to the removal of certain unlockable items and animations —some of which were inexplicably taken out of the store or discontinued before many players had a chance to access them thanks to a disengaged dev team—the community took matters into its own hands. By sharing duplicated builds and unlockables with one another, players are now able to preserve and enjoy content that had otherwise become inaccessible thanks to poor front office leadership.

This level of coordination among players highlights a passionate and committed community that stepped in to support itself in the absence of ongoing developer engagement. The lack of long-term support from the front office ultimately led to players forming their own network of resource sharing, simply to keep the experience fun and rewarding for everyone still invested in the game. We have hosted many discord leagues from 5's to 3's to 1on1's.

Despite this, NBA Live 19 still holds the better blueprints for a greater basketball experience than what 2K is providing the gamers. I strongly urge the development team to consider building on its foundation. The core gameplay mechanics and animations from Live 19 should be retained and enhanced. Touch up the passing system and pass catch system. Punish players for quitting too often in short amounts of time. There's so much that can be done and talked about to not want to market this experience while 2K is hitting rock bottom, now would be the time to bounce back!!! Give the players a TON of  Additional courts, especially outdoor settings, along with deeper creation tools and customization options, would add tremendous value. A better clothing system that makes all items available, as well as access to previously locked animations, would greatly benefit the player experience. The current leaderboard system needs to be reworked to better reflect individual performance rather than encouraging exploitative tactics. Introducing seasonal content or structured competitive seasons would improve engagement and longevity. Most importantly, the game should focus on supporting player-created characters, as most online players prefer them over official NBA athletes, making an NBA license unnecessary for success. Let's hope EA can partner with some of the superfan gamers of the game for their next basketball project. I would love to be apart of it Just let me know EA let me know, you got my email......

I understand NBALIVE19 too well, perhaps more than 99.9 percent of players that ever played this game.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this feedback. There is a strong and passionate community eager to support a developer who listens and innovates.

Sincerely,
Trapway666
#1 on Xbox NBA Live 19 Leaderboards (3v3 Mode)

A day 1 player that never stopped playing the game and has played every month since release

You can always add me on xbox "Trapway666"

2K continues to take from EA. 2K is suffering and it’s proven every year since the release of Nba Live 19 I realized how advanced the gameplay is and it’s still being worked out till this day. I noticed that ever since Nba Live was discontinued 2K has been releasing the same game because it’s own greed has caused it to cower from its only competitor that makes it greater every year to the point where it is blinded by it’s own pride and glamour. Everything that glitters is not gold.Everyone has their time to shine and I think it’s time to usher in the new dynasty. In my opinion I believe 2K should take the back seat to Nba Live and let them be great again because it is already inevitable but they are trying to suppress EA through licensing contracts and bad business. Don’t get me wrong I’ve always enjoyed 2K but even more so when I had two games to play and draw new ways to expand and build on what we are working on and enjoying together. Which is an art we don’t get to appreciate anymore, and it is truly missed. Further more with the release of college football one can only hope for another college basketball game that helped to create the better NBA game following right after and vise versa. Being able to patch up things missed in the previous releases for the next game was key instead of waiting annually to get everything right. Before we had two chances to improve on gameplay and features to ensure when the next title released it wouldn’t be a bust. Keeping the community more active and creative to create the best product. Nba live 06-10 next gen along with march madness was a time to be alive and be a fan/gamer. We had twice the time in a year to create the best games. And with NBA live 10 and march madness 10 I believe that’s where the sabotage began because EA MADE A STATEMENT THAT STANDS TILL THIS DAY. A MASTERPIECE THAT 2K CONTINUES TO EMULATE BUT NOT TRULY RECREATE TILL PRESENT DAY… MIKE WANG SHOULD HAVE STAYED AT EA AS WELL AS 2K AND CONTINUED TO PUSH THE BAR TO CREATE WHAT WE ALL LOVE TILL THIS DAY. Those games are quietly being erased from history because of the selfishness and greed of nba 2K and fans are truly unhappy. NBA LIVE CURRENT GEN WOULD BE A GREAT GAME IF THEY NEVER REVERTED BACK TO THE SKINNY NET BECAUSE IT TOOK AWAY FROM THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BEAUTY OF THE GRAPHICS THE GAME POSSESSED LIKE I SAID NBA LIVE 10 WAS THE CLOSEST TO PERFECTION IF WE MIXED THAT WITH NBA LIVE 19 WE WOULD HAVE ALL THE GAMES WE MISSED FROM 20-24 

INCLUDING NBA LIVE 09 for PERFECTING ALL STAR WEEKEND. NBA LIVE 06 IS FUN TO PLAY ESPECIALLY AGAINST THE CPU AND ONLINE VERSES….MAKE NBA LIVE LEGENDARY AGAIN!!

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