Given the turbulence of the series over the last decade there was never a chance that NBA Live 18 would sell many copies no matter how good the game would turn out to be. Skepticism from consumers was more than justified and its competitor too popular and well established. Instead the goal for EA Sports was always to regain some credibility and slowly bring more people on board through word-of-mouth and by playing with the price.

A pre-order discount making the game $40 was the first strategy but, again, given Live’s history there was no reason anyone would take a risk at that point regardless of the price. The game was still required to “release” at the $60 which was just discouraging to anyone who might have decided the game sounded good later based on reviews or WOM. That meant the price would have to be dropped quickly and that did in fact happen.

First it was bringing it back down to the $40 which occurred within weeks. But the price would quickly drop again and down to unprecedented levels – $15 in November and $10 in December.

Now NBA Live 18 is available on Xbox One for just $7.50. The game will be entering the EA Access Vault for subscribers in the coming months, and maybe this is an indication that will be happening sooner than later (like Live 15’s addition in February 2015 rather than Live 16’s in April 2016). Still though, for $7.50 there’s almost no reason to wait for that to come if one has interest in the game or certainly for those who have chosen to pass on subscribing to EA Access.

NBA Live 18 offers a very good career mode which got strong support in the awards voting, enjoyable gameplay, and absence of pressure/necessity to spend more money on an in-game currency. Its Franchise Mode however is a mess and post-release support has left something to be desired. Check out the review from back in September here.