Arena Mode Beta Update - Season 4

Over the past few months, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of you engage in real-time against other players across the world in our Arena PVP beta. You’ve won millions of tournaments, you’ve sent tens of millions of Embiid and good game emojis, and you’ve won your fair share of tokens and rewards.  

Seeing the positive response, we’ve been hard at work making this a more integral part of the NBA LIVE mobile experience.  Over the course of this summer, we released several updates to the mode, including the Premium Tournament and the Battleground Tournament.  We have been excited by the response and wanted to thank the thousands of you that took the time to respond to our surveys and leave us feedback across social.

What we learned?

• Most of you enjoyed the mode considerably
• You felt skill was an important part of winning in the PVP experience
• You loved using emojis
• You asked for shot meter adjustments and matchmaking improvements

With all the positives of the mode, we know there is a lot to do in order to make the experience better.  We know many have had issues with game lag, connection problems or other issues related to the real time communication aspect of the mode.  We also know that the shot meter doesn’t feel the way you would expect and that those of you used to using manual defensive switching want that option in Arena. We know that matchmaking at times could be problematic in finding matches that were within an acceptable OVR gap. These are all critical items for us to address and have spent the last few weeks working on plans on how to do so.

Next Steps

We are set to wrap up Beta with the upcoming launch of Season 4, meaning Arena Mode will temporarily be paused as we focus on improving core aspects of the mode and making it feel even more fun, fair, and rewarding. As we have updates on our progress, we’ll be sure to communicate those with all of you.  We have some very exciting plans in store for Arena mode and can’t wait to get it back in your hands!  To show our appreciation for those of you who have been helping testing this summer, anyone who has participated in the Battlegrounds Tournament before October 11th will be granted the 109 Chauncey Billups Battleground Master before the end of Season 3. For those of you who haven’t participated in it yet, you still have time!

Thanks for playing the Arena beta, we can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been working on for Season 4! Continue to stay tuned to our social channels for more information on all aspects of the game!

Twitter: @EASPORTSNBALM

Facebook: @EASPORTSNBALIVEMOBILE

Instagram: @EANBALM