EA has today announced that its upcoming NBA Live 08 is to feature eight international FIBA teams for the first time.
The inclusion comes as part of a multi-year licensing agreement between EA and FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, which will see the FIBA World Championship event represented within a videogame for the very first time.
Included in the line up are 2006 World Championship winners Spain and runners up Greece, along with the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Argentina and China.
No UK, team, obviously, as we suck.
Anyway, the eight included teams are to be made available in Play Now mode, as well as the newly featured FIBA World Championship mode, which gives players the option to compete in an eight-team single elimination tournament.
“We’re very excited to count FIBA as a close partner,” said Jordan Edelstein, director of product marketing, EA Sports. “Adding the FIBA World Championship license to the NBA LIVE franchise, allows us at EA Sports to add a new layer of authenticity to the franchise, giving fans all over the world a deeper virtual basketball experience.”
For fans of worldwide basketball, this is a welcome inclusion, although we’d rather see the FIBA teams appearing in their own game.
And we think it’s about time to be honest – especially as the Americans aren’t the best any more…
Anyway, to check out some FIBA screens, click the link at the top of this very page.
