EA may have ruined the good thing they had going with latest update to NBA Live Mobile

When it initially launched I called NBA Live Mobile the best thing NBA Live since 2009 and gave it a positive review on Sporting News. Many agreed considering the game had fantastic user-scores. It was averaging well over 4 stars on iOS and sat at an impressive 4.6 on Android.

That’s all changed with a recent update that was made to the game that has resulted in a wave of 1 star reviews rolling in instead. The current updated version has a horrendous average rating of 2 stars on iTunes. 

So what happened? EA changed the way rosters are handled in the game. There is no longer a standard “Balanced” lineup that can feature any player that is owned. Instead it’s been replaced by a “Two-Way” lineup, which like all the other lineup types only allow certain designated players. So now, instead of being able to roll out the lineup I had built towards below, these players will never be on the court together again:

This one change has huge ramifications, as now overnight due to the update here’s how a few of my lineups look:

To be fair those who just start with NBA Live Mobile from this point forward probably won’t find this to be an issue because all they’ll know is the unique lineups that require specific qualifications for players. It may even have been necessary in order to keep the game challenging long-term and could provide more incentive to keep playing. However for the people who have put hours upon hours and possibly dollars into the game already they’ve been severely disrupted by the change and are speaking out on it with a barrage of one-star reviews and declarations they are deleting the app. EA can’t afford to lose the positive word-of-mouth that had built but it’s happening. Here’s just a sampling:

NBA Live Mobile is still not available worldwide, but given that the update said it was accompanying the worldwide release that must be happening very soon. Until that time comes it can be downloaded by creating a CA iTunes account or manually installing the APK on Android.