Last week, 2K Sports announced that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant will be on the cover of NBA 2K10. Now we know that Dwight Howard, C/PF for the Orlando Magic, will grace the cover of EA Sports’ NBA Live 10. Of course, this raises a question: how late are these cover athletes finalized? Did 2K Sports and EA Sports simply wait until the 2009 NBA conference champions were announced?
Marcus Stephenson, a producer on NBA Live 10 at EA Canada, said yesterday that the decision was made a while ago, and that the team was simply “lucky that Orlando got by Cleveland” in the Eastern Conference Finals. Who knows for sure? Either way, I’m digging the stylized cover, which is similar to the awesome artwork for Madden NFL 10.
Howard is a beast on the floor -- last night, in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Lakers, he finished with 16 points, 21 rebounds, and an NBA Finals-record nine blocks. However, his two missed free throws in the last minute of the game (in addition to coach Stan Van Gundy’s inexplicable decision not to foul the Lakers intentionally) set the stage for Derek Fisher’s ridiculously clutch three-pointer to send the game into overtime; the Lakers went on to win, 99-91, putting the Magic in a 3-1 hole in the series.
Game 5 will be held in Orlando on Sunday night. I’ll be watching to see if Howard can show why he deserves to be on the NBA Live 10 box. As for the game, it’ll be out on PS3, 360, and PSP this October. Check out the box art in the gallery below; there’s also a reveal trailer and a press release after the jump.
[Update: Stephenson was nice enough to send over the PS3 box art, so it's now available in the gallery in addition to the 360 cover! Enjoy!]
Dwight Howard Named Cover Athlete of EA SPORTS NBA LIVE 10
Three-Time NBA All-Star Currently Looking for First NBA Title
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - June 11, 2009 - Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that Orlando Magic center, Dwight Howard, will be the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10. A three-time NBA All-Star, Howard is currently looking to lead the Magic franchise to their first NBA Championship. The No. 1 pick of the 2004 NBA Draft was the 2009 NBA Defensive Player of the Year presented by Kia Motors, an All-NBA First Team selection the last two seasons, and stole the show at the 2008 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest with his superhero antics. Additionally, Howard was the starting center of the 2008 U.S. Basketball Men’s Senior National Team which won the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing. NBA LIVE 10 is currently in development under the EA SPORTS™ brand by EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C. and will be available worldwide this October.
“It’s an honor to be named as the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10,” said Howard. “This year has been a crazy ride and this is a cool way to cap it off. Of course - there is one more thing I’m on the hunt for that would complete it.”
Featuring several innovations to the core gameplay experience and online game modes, NBA LIVE 10 is bringing a renewed focus to the long-running EA SPORTS basketball franchise. The groundbreaking Dynamic DNA service, driven by Synergy Sports Technology, will make a return in NBA LIVE 10, with significant improvements that will allow players to connect their game to the NBA season like never before.
Along with Howard, regional NBA LIVE 10 cover athletes for France, Germany, Spain and Italy will be named at a later date.
The NBA LIVE franchise has graced multiple generations of consoles for over 15 years, and has sold more than 35 million units lifetime. The game will be available for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information, log onto www.nbalive10.com.
EA SPORTS™ is the leading interactive sports software brand in the world, with top-selling titles and franchises including Madden NFL football, FIFA Soccer, NHL® hockey, NBA LIVE basketball, NCAA® Football and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®.
Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
Likes
Confuse Ray, Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into my life
Meet the rest of the team
According to the developers theyre completely changing the Live landscape to compete with 2K. While 2K is slowly drifting into mediocrity this might Live's chance to catch up and pass them up.
Not to nitpick as I love Destructoid and will continue to come here pretty much primarily for gaming stuff; but it really, really irks me when I see a 3-day old story on here as New. Maybe I'm just on the internet WAY TOO MUCH, but very rarely do I read actual news on Dtoid.
@craigbezzle: I apologize that some people may have seen this news elsewhere, but let me present three points. (Note: I'm not trying to be an ass; I'm just explaining myself.)
1) The content of this post is hardly a "3-day old [sic] story." Note that the press release is dated June 11, 2009 -- that means that EA put it out yesterday.
2) I'm the only sports guy on Destructoid. Nobody else wanted to put up this news when it hit yesterday, because frankly, they don't give a damn about it. That's fine, since this stuff is technically my responsibility anyway. But almost none of us make a living writing for Destructoid; we write our posts when we can find the time. I have a day job, and yesterday, I worked from 9 to 5, got home at 7, and then tutored a college student in calculus from 8 to 9:30. I came home at 10, and then I had dinner. I also happened to find out yesterday that I will no longer have said day job after next Tuesday. In addition, very few Dtoid readers actually care about who's going to be on the cover of an annual basketball game. So excuse me if I didn't feel like putting up the story yesterday and figured that it could wait until today.
3) Isn't this story much better with the context of last night's crushing defeat for the Magic?
Way to stand up for the sports gamer Samit! Too bad that my favorite player is on the cover of the basketball game that I hate. I guess that 2k decided to reward a rapist instead
lol, the three of us Nihon? You mean the Genre that built modern video gaming has only 3 fans? Maybe if you say the three destructoid sports gamers. I look forward to meeting you and Samit at Denny's one of these days.
@Samit I used to play Live back on the Xbox 1, but after playing NBA 2k I could never go back. Live has always had a more arcade feel, where you could just do a couple cross overs, then dunk over 2 people on every play. 2K usually requires you to run plays and actually work for your points. They have won me over, so I am going to stay loyal to 2k
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
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Contest:
7:20 PM on 06.12.2009
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Ah well, at least you have all Jim Sterling.
1) The content of this post is hardly a "3-day old [sic] story." Note that the press release is dated June 11, 2009 -- that means that EA put it out yesterday.
2) I'm the only sports guy on Destructoid. Nobody else wanted to put up this news when it hit yesterday, because frankly, they don't give a damn about it. That's fine, since this stuff is technically my responsibility anyway. But almost none of us make a living writing for Destructoid; we write our posts when we can find the time. I have a day job, and yesterday, I worked from 9 to 5, got home at 7, and then tutored a college student in calculus from 8 to 9:30. I came home at 10, and then I had dinner. I also happened to find out yesterday that I will no longer have said day job after next Tuesday. In addition, very few Dtoid readers actually care about who's going to be on the cover of an annual basketball game. So excuse me if I didn't feel like putting up the story yesterday and figured that it could wait until today.
3) Isn't this story much better with the context of last night's crushing defeat for the Magic?
P.S. Sorry for venting on you.
Look at it this way, now you`ll have all the time in the world to keep up with current events now!
kidding ofcourse
now
now
now
thought id throw it in there a few more times
so the fact that she seduced him and had 5 different males' semen in her panties means she was raped?
The three of us can go meet up at Denny's or something, I guess.
@Samit I used to play Live back on the Xbox 1, but after playing NBA 2k I could never go back. Live has always had a more arcade feel, where you could just do a couple cross overs, then dunk over 2 people on every play. 2K usually requires you to run plays and actually work for your points. They have won me over, so I am going to stay loyal to 2k