"I can go through and play every single game that the Knicks played, for example, in this playoff series, all the way down to the statistics, the way the players played that game, everything is accurate to that game. Then once the season starts this year you'll be moving along with them in lockstep," Ferwerda explained.
Friday Night Live is a more multiplayer-focused mode where the developers create events and challenges and people participate and compete together.
"We create challenges that are specific to your team. You can play along with your team this season and replay that actual game, or just big moments that happen in the league," Ferwerda said.
"Let's say I'm a Warriors fan. I go to the game and something happens in the game that's crazy. A few hours after that we actually create a challenge in our game you can go play with the exact player data in that exact moment. And these challenges are created every single day within hours," he continued. "All this stuff's updated every single day. Every time you turn on Live, something new and fresh is happening."
These modes are something that are really only possible on the Xbox One and PS4, thanks to their robust online capabilities and to the new Ignite engine that drives all of EA's upcoming next-gen games, Ferwerda said.
Moving forward
Sports games have been keeping their rosters and player stats updated for a while now, but NBA Live 14 looks like it will take that to a new level, particularly thanks to its partnership with Synergy Sports.
EA is the first company outside the NBA itself to use Synergy's data, so that may give it an edge over the well-entrenched NBA 2K series.
But O'Brien expects nothing less out of his games than the deep and dynamic statistics that they've implemented in NBA Live 14.
"When I'm on ESPN.com or when I'm watching a game during the week, I expect that my software when I play a video game is constantly relevant and updating as well along the way," he said. "We've got a couple features that really showcase that, allow us to stay connected through gen-four hardware, and really build out an experience that stays relevant, connected, social and competitive."
"It's been a rough past couple of years, and [NBA Live] hasn't actually shipped in a couple of years," O'Brien continued. "So what we tried to do a year ago was really restart the engine and get going on gen-four exclusively. It allows us to focus specifically on what that hardware and what that connectivity and what that experience is supposed to look like moving forward."
So far it's looking good. NBA Live 14 launches November 19 for Xbox One and PS4.
