Make no mistake, the rivalry between the 2K Sports team (also known as Visual Concepts) that are the developers of the NBA 2K franchise and the EA Sports Vancouver team responsible for the development of the NBA Live franchise is growing in intensity, with the 2K Sports team currently ahead and the NBA Live team trying hard to catch them.

One of the reasons for the success of the NBA 2K franchise over the years was lead game play designer Mike Wang, who surprisingly left Visual Concepts to jump ship to the EA Sports Vancouver team to become the lead game play designer for NBA Live. This alone isn’t surprising, as many high profile developers move among companies throughout their career.

What is really surprising, however, is that after only one release of NBA Live and spending about 18 months with the EA Sports Vancouver team, Wang is headed back to Visual Concepts to again be lead game play designer for the NBA 2K franchise. While it is hard to know the specifics of the decision, according to sources, EA isn’t happy with the sales of NBA Live and is looking to make major changes to the franchise; this will take it in a different direction creatively, and that really isn’t a direction that Wang is looking to go.

While NBA Live 11 didn’t beat NBA 2K, what it did do was make a massive leap in the quality of the product, which many are attributing to Wang’s influence over the game. This is good news for the NBA 2K; as the return of Wang is not only being welcomed by the development team, but it is expected to bring some new conceptual ideas to the NBA 2K franchise. With the return of Wang to the Visual Concepts fold, we expect the next offering from the studio will have Wang’s fingerprints all over it, and continue the success that the franchise has enjoyed.