NBA Jam is officially coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But there's a catch. A pretty damn big one.
The only way to get NBA Jam playing on your 360 or PS3 is to buy a copy of NBA Elite 11 when it launches at the beginning of October. NBA Jam will be included as supplemental material to NBA Elite as a way to get gamers to test out all the new fixes and additions to the once titled "Live" series. Marketing ploys, don't you love them?
Also, the version of NBA Jam for the 360/PS3 won't even be the complete game. Instead, it will be more like a taste says EA’s Jordan Edelstein. “We’re still holding back the Remix Tour for the Wii consumer, and that’s about 20 hours of gameplay,” said Edelstein while talking with ESPN.
“But for the PS3 and 360, we want people to try ‘Elite’. We feel like NBA Elite 11 is a great product and we want people to give it a chance and see all the changes we’re making. So as a way to say thanks to these people, we are going to let them experience ‘Jam’. It’s not the full product, but it’s a good portion of it," added Edelstein.
And don't expect NBA Jam to hit the Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network as a standalone game anytime soon. Edelstein continued, saying, “We’re not selling ‘Jam’ on PSN or Xbox Live. If you still want the full product, the full experience is on the Wii, but if you pick up ‘Elite’, you’re still getting a good taste of it, especially with the inclusion of online play."
While having online multiplayer for NBA Jam over Xbox Live or the PSN is nice, we're still not sure about being forced to buy EA Sports' basketball sim title to experience their zany arcade one. Especially when the competition, NBA 2K11, is looking so hot this year. And we all know you can't play both. Lines have to be drawn, allegiances formed. None of this "flippy-floppy" mentality nonsense. What does EA take us for, suckers?
