Monday Tip-Off: A Ticking Clock on NBA Live 19

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on how there’s now a ticking clock on support for NBA Live 19, and what it means for the future of the series.

When the NBA Live 18 servers were shut down last year, I speculated that it may not be too long before online support for NBA Live 19 ends as well. Although support won’t end in 2025 as I guessed that it might, it’s been confirmed that NBA Live 19’s servers will be shut down on January 30th, 2026. The game has already been removed from digital stores, but physical copies do exist if you want to get your hands on it. Obviously, the offline modes will still be available when online support ends, so as long as you own the game, it will be playable.

Of course, the end of online support is bad news for Ultimate Team; a mode that I’ve been enjoying as of late. Much like my NBA Live 18 kick last year, I’ve unfortunately allowed myself to get hooked on an experience that will soon be unavailable! I’d liken it to getting into a great television show after it’s already a few seasons in, but on the brink of cancellation or otherwise getting ready to wrap up. I’m enjoying myself and I’m grateful that I gave it a proper chance, but I’m also getting on the ride late, so the impending end of the journey feels unfairly abrupt. Beyond that, the ticking clock on NBA Live 19 underscores the current state of the series, as well as its bleak future.

I don’t want to dive too deeply into my current thoughts on NBA Live 19, and how I’ve come to re-evaluate a game that I’ve been extremely critical of. I’m planning on covering that in a detailed “revisited” retrospective for Wayback Wednesday, so my commentary here is going to be fairly superficial. With that being said, I have a much higher opinion of the game than I did when I profiled it for our 25th Anniversary of NBA Live celebrations. I still have my gripes: I prefer the shooting in NBA Live 18, and Ed Cohen and Jay Williams were a massive downgrade on commentary! Still, the many similarities to NBA Live 18 have allowed me to warm up to NBA Live 19.

To that end, my enjoyment of The Streets in NBA Live 18 encouraged me to finish a playthrough of The Streets World Tour in its successor. Even though I maintain that both games focused too much on The Streets – and in doing so, neglected some much-needed depth and authenticity in the NBA experiences – the results were impressive. Adding more iconic venues, including the legendary Rucker Park, made it one of the best pro-am/streetball modes I’ve played in a sim game, right up there with 24/7 in NBA 2K6 and NBA 2K7. I’ve achieved closure and completion with it, as I’ve beaten all of the tournaments and achieved their bonus objectives to obtain all the rewards.

My NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team kick involves far more unfinished business though, and I don’t expect to achieve anywhere close to 100% completion by the time online support ends. That’s OK; as I’ve said before, completion is what we make it, and as long as we’ve had fun with a basketball video game, that’s what’s important. All the same, it’s going to be painful to lose the primary method of playing with Legends in NBA Live 19. I haven’t exactly matched my 90s squad from NBA Live 18 Ultimate Team in terms of top tier versions of Legends, but I’ve got an enjoyable assortment of greats. In fact, I’ve had a blast playing with some of the Legends from before my time.

Granted, the Ultimate Team producers whiffed on several of the Legends’ key ratings and tendencies. Too many of them have low shooting ratings in areas of the floor they were actually threats from, and Wilt Chamberlain is oddly reluctant to dunk. There’s just enough accuracy there to be fun though, and produce highlights along with wins. I’m also impressed with the quality of many of the Legends’ faces, some of which put NBA 2K26’s likenesses to shame. I realise I still have a few months to complete more Challenges and make some fond memories with NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team, but the clock is really ticking now. I’ll be sorry to lose the ability to hoop with those Legends.

In all fairness, this was hardly an unexpected decision. EA Sports has been unusually gracious with online support for the eighth generation NBA Live titles, but it’s come to an end for each release eventually. NBA Live 18 and 19 have enjoyed the longest online support at around seven years; far longer than any NBA 2K title. Mind you, the dormancy of the NBA Live series and contrasting success of NBA 2K are key reasons for that difference! Even so, it was a surprising (but very welcome) gesture by EA to keep online support for eighth gen NBA Live titles going for as long as they did, for the small but extremely loyal contingent of basketball gamers who were into them.

As such, I don’t begrudge EA for pulling the plug on NBA Live 19 at this point. It’s still a little sad, though. It probably doesn’t help that we may have placed too much stock in the expiration dates listed on The One’s LIVE Events. As of writing, those events are set to expire in just over 500 days. That would be April 2027, well after the scheduled shutdown date of January 30th, 2026. Although I never considered those dates to be an ironclad guarantee of online support, when they were further into the future, they were easy to treat as indefinite. They were still a ticking clock, but they nevertheless suggested we might get close to a decade of support for NBA Live 19.

More to the point, I think the idea might’ve been in the back of our minds – certainly mine, I’ll admit – that EA were maintaining online support for NBA Live 19 until they were ready to return with a new release. Again, there were no concrete promises of this, so it wouldn’t be fair to blame EA for us jumping to any conclusions. Still, with the original pledge to return strong after skipping NBA Live 20, it was all too easy to imagine them picking a faraway date to effectively provide indefinite ongoing support until they were ready to make a big comeback. It was a possibility at the very least; a vague but promising sign that EA weren’t ready to wash their hands of NBA Live.

This new ticking clock on NBA Live 19 – one much closer to midnight than before – doesn’t inspire the same hope and optimism for the future of the series. Once again, those expiration dates for the LIVE Events were never a promise set in stone. It’s safe to say that they were just a grateful courtesy to a niche yet enthusiastic audience, and not intended to be a countdown or any kind of teaser. If we thought otherwise and got our hopes up, then that was on us. It was impossible not to dream and wonder, though. Even if we knew the odds were slim, there was a possibility for good news. The end of online support for NBA Live 19 without word of a new game shuts that down cold.

To that point, you can’t help but feel that this heralds a definitive end to NBA Live, aside from the mobile version. Sure, you can play any previous game, as long as you can get your hands on a copy. The shutdown of NBA Live 19’s servers won’t stop you from playing NBA Live in some form, including the offline portions of NBA Live 19 itself. It’s obviously the final release in the series to date though, and the last one that was being kept “alive” via extended online support. Yes, it was wishful thinking, but as long as NBA Live 19 was being supported, we could envision the series returning. Now, the door that was somehow never fully closed has finally been slammed shut.

Or so it would seem, anyway. I’m sure it’s a satisfying and triumphant moment for some observers, namely those who always pushed back on the idea that NBA Live should return. I don’t mean simply being sceptical of the possibility or the success of a comeback, but actively denying the need for an alternative to NBA 2K. I’ve heard those snarky voices whenever I’ve written about wanting to see a new NBA Live, or when Dee and I have discussed our shared interest in that on the NLSC Podcast. And yet, for all the people who scoff and gleefully dance on NBA Live’s grave, so many others are openly expressing their desire for it – or any game – to challenge NBA 2K.

The basketball gaming space would undeniably be better with more options, even if NBA 2K remains the most popular brand and the best overall release. Fortunately, we do have other developers trying to make inroads with arcade titles, but I’d love to have at least one other solid 5v5 sim game on the market. NBA Live was our best bet there, but with the series remaining absent this long into a new generation, my optimism has waned with each passing year. I didn’t take the far-off expiration dates of those LIVE Events as any kind of guarantee – of a new game or a shutdown date – but like others I’m sure, as long as it was being supported, the brand being alive inspired some hope.

That hope has more or less evaporated at this point, with NBA Live 19’s impending server shutdown feeling like the final nail in the coffin. Putting the big picture aside for a moment, I’m regretful of losing an experience I’m enjoying just as I was finally getting into it. True, like getting our hopes up for something that was never promised, that’s on me. I could’ve been playing NBA Live 19 for years before now, instead of writing it off as a disappointment that was further ruined by its final patch. As I said, I do stand by some of those criticisms – and I’ll get into that when I cover the game with a fresh retrospective – but I can’t pretend that I couldn’t have revisited it much sooner.

However, I’m glad that I gave NBA Live 19 a second chance while its online modes and content were still available. Not only has it given me a proper look at the full game with fresh eyes, but it’s turned out to be a lot of fun! As in NBA Live 18, The Streets has proven to be a captivating alternative to the NBA career experience, with none of the toxicity and other nonsense of NBA 2K’s Park. The accessibility of the Legends in Ultimate Team has allowed me to indulge my nostalgia and love of NBA history. There are flaws – shooting in particular is rough – but similar to NBA Live 18, I’ve been able to acclimate. It took years, but I’ve found enjoyment in NBA Live 19!

It’s bittersweet, of course. Returning to my earlier analogy, it’s very much like getting into a TV show that’s nearing the end, or being a latecomer to any popular work or fad that’s just about run its course. It can still be a joyful experience, and more satisfying than never getting on the ride at all, but the brevity of the journey – at least from your perspective – leaves you wanting more. I won’t say that I’ll never play NBA Live 19 after online support ends. I can mess around with the rosters to set up some enjoyable exhibitions, or even check out The League to compare it to MyCAREER. Without Ultimate Team and its Legends though, a major incentive to dust it off will be gone.

Indeed, I haven’t really touched NBA Live 18 since the servers were shut down and my squad of 90s Legends disappeared into the ether. It speaks to how games have become so disposable when the availability of appealing content is so tenuous. The uncompleted objectives in NBA Live 18’s Pro-Am Tour do provide an incentive to revisit the game even without Ultimate Team, though the difficulty in achieving them with my build dampens my enthusiasm. Furthermore, since I’ve already completed all the objectives in NBA Live 19’s World Tour, it’s missing such an incentive. And so, I’m not sure just how motivated I’ll be to revisit NBA Live 19 without Ultimate Team.

I suppose I’ll find out in due time, but for now, this kick has given me a much better appreciation for the game, and that has been immensely satisfying. It’s unfortunate that there’s now a rather loudly ticking clock on the fun that I can have with NBA Live 19, and that it also feels like the official end of the NBA Live series; at least outside of the mobile game, anyway. On the bright side, I haven’t overlooked the warning about the end of online support as I did with NBA Live 18, so I have ample opportunity to wrap up my business with Ultimate Team as best I can, and be ready to bid the intact game farewell come January. Better to have loved and lost, as they say.

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