"We knew it was time to leave the past behind," the company told Kotaku after pastapadre broke the news. "We have exciting and significant changes coming to our NBA game this year that will usher in the future of basketball video games. We look forward to releasing information on exactly how we'll be doing that over the next few months."

Among those changes, pastapadre reports by way of the Official Xbox Magazine's July 2010 issue, are real-time physics and increased used of the right analog stick for actions such as ball-handling and taking shots.

2K Sports, meanwhile, has already confirmed that this year's entry in its rival NBA 2K series will retain its namesake, with series producer Mike Wang having recently rejoined NBA 2K developer Visual Concepts after a one-year stint at EA on NBA Live.