NBA '09 gets new live stats feature

By Ellie Gibson Published 15 July, 2008

Dynamic DNA to update daily.

EA Sports boss Peter Moore has unveiled a brand new feature that will see the data in NBA Live '09 updated on a daily basis.

It's called Dynamic DNA, he told the audience at EA's E3 press conference. The game is "powered by real-world data", the same data used by real NBA managers to make decisions.

The idea is the game constantly evolves, and what happens in real life is reflected in the virtual NBA world. The behaviour of every player and team in the league is captured and updated each day.

There are three parts to Dynamic DNA. The first is player tendencies - the decision-making process that determines whether players go left, go right, take a shot and so on.

Percentages will appear next to words like "isolation", "post up", "off ball screen", "cuts" and "pick and roll ball", which probably mean something to someone, and you can use this information to help you choose which moves to make during games.

Player tendencies change over the course of an NBA season, and will change in the game accordingly. Then there's Player DNA, which breaks down how players score. And finally Team DNA covers how a team plays together as a unit.

It all sounds very exciting, if you like that sort of thing. I'm told. NBA Live '09 is coming to Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PS2 and PSP on 14th October.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (6) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Terrafire #1 4 years ago

    I could get used to these updates in the middle of the night!

  • zzyzx #2 4 years ago

    And in other news, NBA 2K9 is still a sure bet to remain miles ahead of the EA sports title.

    Nice gimmick, though.

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    Saw this article and thought it was about Sony's own basketball series with the same name! I think you missed the word 'Live' from that headline between NBA and '09, EG?

  • tobi #4 4 years ago

    Give me NBA 2K9 any day.
    Edited by 1 at 15/07/08 @ 09:11

  • Darren #5 4 years ago

    While the NBA 2K usually turns out to be the best basketball game, it's also the laziest in terms of updates from one year to the next, with the last three versions on the 360 being almost indistinguishable from each other.

    EA's Live series is the one that's shown the most improvement IMO from 06 to 08 (much like the FIFA series in fact) but then it needed to. While it wasn't perfect, I have to confess that I enjoyed NBA Live 08 far more than NBA 2K8 (demo) so it was the first year I never bought the 2K Sports game. If NBA Live continues to improve then 09 should be even better than 08 and it arguably looks better visually, has slicker menus than 2K Sport's awful efforts plus better presentation. That said, I dunno whether I'll be buying ANY basketball game this year as I think I've reached saturation point!!! LOL

  • grantc7 #6 4 years ago

    I hope fifa implements this at some stage.