The NBA Live franchise has been making strong strides over the last couple of years as the team at EA Sports continued to try and play catch up to 2K Sports’ NBA 2K franchise. However, just when the company was on the verge of perhaps overtaking the basketball king, EA decides to change the name of the game and the entire way that it’s played.

In a press release sent out this morning, EA revealed that NBA Live will now be known as NBA Elite (not exactly new, news) and that the game will feature full real-time physics and an entirely new control scheme.

“We plan to profoundly evolve the interactive basketball experience in a way that the category has not seen for a decade,” says Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. “In NBA ELITE 11, we’ll introduce a gameplay experience that gives fans the control on the court that they have been begging for in a basketball game for years.”

While most people would consider this nothing more than PR hyperbole, it almost feels as though you can take it for fact when it’s coming from a guy like Peter Moore. His track record should speak for itself and considering how he’s helped turn around the EA Sports franchises across the board, I’m very excited to see what NBA Elite 11 has to offer.

“NBA ELITE 11 will give gamers the same skill set that a pro basketball player has at his disposal,” said David Littman, Creative Director, NBA ELITE 11. “This is the first basketball simulation videogame where you are controlling every movement, dribble move, shot, dunk, lay-up, steal and block in real time with one-to-one control. You’re no longer going to push a button and watch the computer generate a long animation sequence. It is like being on a basketball court with an amazing set of skills. This is going to change what people have come to expect from a basketball simulation videogame.”

You should expect the game to release in October and I’m sure they’ll show something off in two weeks at E3, so this could be incredibly exciting to check out. I can’t wait to see the first trailer for these new changes.