EA Puts NBA Street on Hiatus, Rumors Suggest Midway's NBA Ballers Is Dead

Electronic Arts has confirmed that its urban basketball series NBA Street is now on hold, with rumors suggesting that Midway's NBA Ballers franchise has been halted.

NBA Ballers: Chosen One, Left. Right, NBA Street Homecourt.

"We'll still do traditional sports, but we're going to do them a different way," EA Sports president Peter Moore explained to ESPN. "In the old days we had things like SSX that were our own intellectual property, but since then we've kind of moved away from that. We need a mixture of experiences that are not only for the hardcore."

"If Wii Sports has taught us anything, it's that people will sit there and play big head tennis all day long," he explained. "We need to have something for that sports fan who might not necessarily be a sports gamer, but who wants that 15-minute experience without having to struggle on how to use the controller."

As for Midway, the company recently announced that it had cancelled unspecified "non-core licenses" and "future versions of related game properties," with ESPN suggesting that NBA Ballers was among those cut.

NBA Street Homecourt, the series' fourth entry, was developed by EA Canada and arrived on PS3 and Xbox 360 in February of 2007. Meanwhile, Midway released its third bling-driven NBA Ballers game, subtitled Chosen One, on PS3 and 360 this past April.