NBA LIVE

So I have decided today to write about one of my favorite game series, NBA Live. I know that sports games aren't the choice of everyone but I played a lot of basketball growing up and I love to watch the game. In my opinion, the NBA Live series is one of the best sports gaming franchises to date. I don't get to play the console games as much as I would like to but I still play the mobile version most days. I hope that you like my history and introduction to the game.

NBA Live is a basketball video game series published by EA Sports. There have been releases from the series annually from 1994 to 2009 and then again from 2013 to the present day. NBA Live is the successor to EA's previous basketball games, NBA Playoffs and the NBA Showdown series. The main competition for the Live series is NBA 2K which was originally published by Sega and now by 2K Sports.

The original release of the NBA Playoffs series, the predecessor of the NBA Live series, was first released in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and was Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs. This game was one of the very first games that were licensed by the NBA and contained real NBA teams and player likenesses. Another unique feature of this first version was that details such as animations and player likenesses were much more detailed than previous basketball games. In early 1990, the game was adapted for the Sega Mega Drive console.

Between the years of 1991 and 1993, there were four more versions of the game that were released with each offering new features. Bulls versus Lakers and the NBA Playoffs was released next in 1991. Bulls versus Lakers introduced co-operative play and instant replay in the team game. Team USA Basketball, an Olympic basketball spinoff to commemorate the 1992 Olympics, was released in 1992 and had international player licenses. Later in 1992, Bulls versus Blazers and the NBA Playoffs was released and became the official EA Sports basketball game including the custom team feature. Finally, in 1993, NBA Showdown was released and introduced multiple custom teams, third-party in-game advertisements and included all NBA teams.

In 1994, EA released their annual basketball game with the simple title of NBA Live 95. This renaming has continued since 1994 and includes the upcoming year as part of the name for each title with the only difference being that between the years of 2000 to 2005, all four digits of the year were used.
NBA Live 95 was for fourth generation video gaming systems Sega Genesis and SNES as well as for the MS-DOS operating system. NBA Live 96 was different in the fact that it also included a version for the PlayStation and a handheld game version, for the Game Boy. NBA Live 2001 was released for sixth generation consoles and continued until NBA Live 2009 on the PlayStation 2. NBA Live 06 included Xbox 360 and then NBA Live 14 was released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game was pulled from production for the PC after the NBA Live 08 season but was adapted for mobile devices and released on July 6, 2016, with NBA Live Mobile.

The NBA Live series has constantly added new features each year to the game. NBA Live 96 offered the Create-A-Player feature and it has been a mainstay ever since. NBA Live 99 offered Practice Mode and Multi-season play. NBA Live Legend All-Stars Teams were introduced in NBA Live 2000 and included Michael Jordan through 2004 when he was removed due to licensing in later versions. Finally, on September 15, 2017, NBA Live 18 was released and featured players of the WNBA.

Primary Releases
1994 - NBA Live 95
1995 - NBA Live 96
1996 - NBA Live 97
1997 - NBA Live 98
1998 - NBA Live 99
1999 - NBA Live 2000
2000 - NBA Live 2001
2001- NBA Live 2002
2002 - NBA Live 2003
2003 - NBA Live 2004
2004 - NBA Live 2005
2005 - NBA Live 06
2006 - NBA Live 07
2007 - NBA Live 08
2008 - NBA Live 09
2009 - NBA Live 10
2010 - NBA Elite 11
2013 - NBA Live 14
2014 - NBA Live 15
2015 - NBA Live 16
2016 - NBA Live Mobile
2017 - NBA Live 18

Photo credits: EA Sports

References:
https://www.giantbomb.com/nba-live/3025-494/games/
https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/eas-next-basketball-sim-is-nba-live-13/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Live_(video_game_series)
https://www.easports.com/nba-live/wnba