NBA Jam's Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, originally meant to be a free digital download included with the now-delayed NBA Elite 11, will be a retail disc release, an EA Sports representative told Kotaku.
In an email this morning clearing up two weeks of speculation on the arcade slamfest's form factor, Jen Riley of EA Sports Vancouver said that EA Sports president Peter Moore's original blog post on Elite's delay mentioned that Jam's 360 and PS3 versions would be a retail release.
Moore's statement on Jam's uncoupling from Elite said, "[W]e're going to ship NBA JAM as a standalone product on the Xbox360 and PS3 in time for the holidays. Watch for more news soon on the exact timing of that release."
As that didn't differentiate explicitly between digital download and box release, this site and several others treated it as an open question.
Yesterday, the rental service Gamefly listed NBA Jam for a November launch, pointing to a disc release. "The fact that retailers are showing the box is because we are shipping Jam in a box on [Xbox 360 and PS3]," Riley told Kotaku today. "We just haven't announced a firm date."
With this confirmation and earlier statements from NBA Jam's creative director, saying the project team is trying to pack as much of the Wii version's content onto the PS3/360 release, signs point to at least a $50 and likely a $60 price point for this release.
The Wii version, released Oct. 5, included a "Remix Tour" mode that was to have become available as paid downloadable content for the PS3/360 NBA Jam download version. As the Wii version cost $50 and lacked online multiplayer and high definition presentation, one could imagine that NBA Jam with those two features and all of the original game content could command $60.