Last week, in explaining why the beleaguered NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas wasn't a part of voting for NBA Jam's roster, EA Sports indicated it could later add him to the game with a WiiWare update. They've backtracked on that statement.
Sporting News' First Cuts, which first reported the explanation for Arenas' absence from the voting, has now been told by EA that it can't commit to WiiWare updates for the title. Sounds like someone spoke too soon. The comment was notable because so few sports games, if any, receive post-release support over WiiWare the way they do with updates over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
Not to rip EA Sports too hard, but it's object lesson No. 1 of why honesty is the best policy. Gilbert Arenas is suspended for the rest of the season and was recently sentenced on firearms charges for a stunt that embarrassed the league and its players. But his inactive status was only partially cited by EA Sports' original statement, and then largely as a technicality, as the reason for leaving him out of the voting. But any fan would have understood that the guy is completely radioactive, and no one selling a mass-market product would want anything to do with him right now.
EA Responds to Gilbert Arenas NBA Jam Question [Sporting News]