Looking past the controversy over the whole release, NBA Jam was a sufficient, more than playable remake/reboot/upgrade/update to one of gaming’s greatest sporting achievements. However, there’s not exactly a lot of support behind the release, i.e., no updated features, no patches, nothing.
So, when major trades are beginning to affect the NBA landscape, a quick roster update would be in order; EA would certainly keep NBA Elite/Live up to date. That’s not happening with NBA Jam, as EA is abandoning the product, releasing a statement that the game’s focus was, “to deliver HD graphics and online play to round out the great gameplay that defines the franchise.” The statement goes on to say, “For us to also include roster and title update possibilities, we would have sacrificed quality in those key areas and thus made the difficult decision not to include them.”
Wait… you want people to believe that the decision not to include a functional roster update was made before the game was actually released? It’s impossible to change the code for the addition of customizable controls, tag mode, or other wanted features? Or (stay with this), does EA simply not want spend the money to develop said features because they were disappointed with the sales of their once free game that cost $50?
So much for looking past the controversy.
