There have been a lot of fans patiently waiting for news regarding EA Sports next NBA Live installment. While rumors hit the internet about the cover star, there were no teases, hints, or clues about the NBA Live 20 release date. Meanwhile, other EA games including Madden, FIFA, and NHL each had plenty of fanfare. On Tuesday, July 30, EA confirmed there will be an NBA Live 20 game, but that it won’t arrive until later this year.
EA confirms delayed NBA Live 20 release date
In an earnings report slide revealed this past May, Electronic Arts listed NBA Live 20 among its upcoming games for 2019’s second quarter. Other titles appearing on that slide included Madden 20, NHL 20, and FIFA 20. The new Madden game arrived for pre-order customers today while the official release date is on Friday, August 2. NHL and FIFA are both on track to arrive in September of 2019.
That leaves NBA Live 20. Electronic Arts gave its latest earnings report on Tuesday, July 30. They showed a new slide with today’s presentation which has NBA Live 20 moved into the third quarter. That would indicate the new NBA Live 20 release date will fall sometime between October 1 and December 31. It’s possibly a month later than they released Live 19, which arrived on September 7, 2018.
A Polygon report indicates that they contacted EA. A representative told them, “We’re planning a different approach to NBA LIVE this year, and will have more to share in the quarter ahead.”
Current game’s roster update, Live 20 cover star rumors
This seems to line up with NBA Live 19’s roster update that occurred within the past several weeks. In a surprising move, EA provided a Live 19 update which moved free agents and traded players to their new rosters. That included Anthony Davis to the Lakers, Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers, and Russell Westbrook to the Rockets. The gaming community was working on these moves ahead of the actual update just for fun.
The delay also seems to give 2K’s upcoming title NBA 2K20 a major jump on the competition. They’ve been pushing forward with Anthony Davis as their cover star and recently unveiled a new Zion Williamson video promoting his rookie debut in the game. Previous NBA Live 20 rumors indicated Zion was unable to sign a lucrative deal to be the cover athlete for EA’s game.
There is speculation that Dallas Mavericks sophomore sensation Luka Doncic will be new the game’s cover star. He’s a popular star, but doesn’t have the sheer hype of Zion, so 2K20 is getting a nice head start. Based on the EA game being pushed back, it should be interesting to see if they will be able to bring the competitive heat to NBA 2K’s product.
The NBA season starts in October, so hopefully NBA Live 20 will be arriving to consoles around, or soon after, the first game’s opening tip.