First, EA Sports announced a Wii-exclusive "NBA Jam" relaunch. Then, an Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of the game appeared on a software engineer's LinkedIn profile, only to be taken down and later sort of corroborated by Germany's software rating organization and even the ESRB. Nintendo maintained at E3 that "NBA Jam" was still a Wii exclusive, and as far as the game being available on its own at retail that claim is still ostensibly true. If you buy "NBA Elite 11" for the 360 or PS3, however, "NBA Jam" will be available exclusively for the Wii and you.
"There's a one-time use code that will be in every copy of 'Elite', so you just go online and redeem it," EA Sports VP of marketing Jordan Edelstein told ESPN. "We're not selling 'Jam' on PSN or Xbox Live. If you still want the full product, the full experience is on the Wii, but if you pick up 'Elite', you're still getting a good taste of it, especially with the inclusion of online play."
"Elite," formerly known as EA Sports' "NBA Live" series, should only be able to benefit from the offering, though buyers should be aware that the Remix Tour boss battles against legends like Magic Johnson are only going to be part of the Wii version (as of right now). Still, it would have been nice if the Remix Tour had initially been tagged as a Wii-exclusive instead of the whole game. I don't know, though; maybe stirring up speculation by announcing something as an exclusive and then slowly letting non-exclusivity leak out leading up a final release date is some sort of new brilliant marketing plan in and of itself.
Are you glad to finally know that it will be possible to play the new "NBA Jam" on your 360 and PS3? Do you wish it was going to be sold on its own in stores? Share your reactions in the comment section below.