Reading between the lines of an open letter by NBA Live's new executive producer, one understands that whatever comes next in that franchise is really no continuation of last year's effort, which, like its 2010 predecessor, was aborted a few weeks before its assumed date of release.

Inside a publisher or a studio, there are few surprises when a video game bombs in its reviews. Before it goes from gold master to warehouse to retailer, the focus groups are empaneled, the "mock reviewers" are contracted, and their verdicts are in. Everyone knows roughly where the game will land in the…

On Sept. 27, EA Sports scrapped NBA Live 13, the second straight cancellation in the series' troubled history. Quarterly earnings calls are coming soon and many will be listening intently for anything Electronic Arts has to say about an expensive license, coming to the end of a console generation, that hasn't produced…

It's at least a five-day drive from Burnaby, British Columbia to Maitland, Fla.—if you're using Google Maps, that is. I have no idea what route you'll get from Apple Maps, last week's most conspicuous failure in the world of consumer software.

EA Sports today canceled its troubled NBA Live 13 project. It is the second time in three years that sports video gaming's dominant publisher has pulled the plug on its NBA simulation at the last minute.

NBA Live 13 is effectively delayed indefinitely. While EA Sports may say the game isn't, technically, delayed because it was never given a release date, the publisher today acknowledged many had expected it to release Oct. 2 alongside competitor NBA 2K13, and said it's giving the NBA Live development team more time…

After more than two months of nearly total radio silence from EA Sports and the NBA Live team, skeptical sports gamers figured the series' return was either in trouble, delayed, or even secretly canceled. This video spotted by Operation Sports, which shows 11 minutes of the game from boot-up to the first quarter…

THQ found the time to re-rate fighters for UFC Undisputed 3 a third time but still hasn't delivered a patch for the game, now six months after its release, despite THQ's promises it would continue to support the title even after the news it sold the license to EA Sports.

Let's be candid. As a licensed sports video game, when your series hasn't been on shelves in three years—a gap not seen since the days games were played on cartridges—you really face just one expectation and it's a pretty low bar: Just come out. Launch. Release on time. Somehow, over the past week, NBA Live has left…

A listing in the monthly Xbox Live Rewards roundup hints that NBA Live 13 will see a digital release when it arrives, supposedly in October.

Yesterday, Electronic Arts mentioned just three console and/or PC releases coming up between October and the end of the year, and NBA Live 13 was not on the list. Given the series' troubled history, an E3 reveal widely judged to be a flop, and near silence from EA Sports since then, sports gamers took this as a sign…

My exclusive first look at NBA Live 13 was illustrated by a screen that was a deliberately chosen tease. EA Sports wanted to show a little leg on Friday before giving you the full monty at E3. The publisher just released a batch of five screens showing off the player modeling in the game, but pay attention to the…