Their latest title, NBA2k18, is a naked and brazen grab for short-term financial gain without consideration of the potential long-term downsides.Īlthough NBA 2K and 2K Sports are in no danger of failing – and frankly, we should not want to see that happen – we may be seeing the fallout of such a myopic “brazen grab for short-term financial gain”. Their approach is, if anything, downright contemptuous of players and hostile towards newer players. Visual Concepts, 2K, and Take Two have done little in this latest release to demonstrate that they understand the importance of player retention.
#Reddit nba live 18 free
We got one free this year, but that’s how it begins, and it usually ends with paying a premium in the next release. Garage Hoops also requires having a ball in our inventory. 2K did back off that idea a bit, but we’re seeing it creep back in, such as paying to rent private courts in NBA 2K21 Next Gen. This is something I like to bring up whenever someone suggests that paying for haircuts makes the mode more “realistic”, because the cost was unrealistically disproportionate. That’s the year we had to pay for haircuts, some of which were very expensive.
NBA 2K18 was indeed a turning point for the series, especially when it came to their approach to recurrent revenue mechanics. Arguably, we are already arriving at this model right now with NBA2K18, which I suspect has made more money from VC sales than it has from unit sales. It’s quite possible that future versions of NBA2K will be subscription-based, or alternatively, have financial models that draw most of their money from “recurrent customer spending”. This all ties in with what NickBloodAU said about the overall direction, and focus on recurrent spending. Of course, it also means that the mode must always be online, even if you just stick to NBA gameplay. There are aspects of this approach that are fun for basketball gamers too, and it represents an evolution of the M圜AREER experience. For a long time now, many studios including those behind NBA2K are pushing away from the single-player game model where a one-time purchase is all the player needs to fully enjoy a game.Īt this point, a lot of people have seen The Neighborhood and now The City for what they are: a means of padding user engagement by adding a hub world that must be navigated to access content and modes, encouraging users to spend VC (and to buy it when they don’t have enough for what they want), and displaying advertising. The neighbourhood feature, the placement of parks inside the game world – these design decisions are an intentional move towards a model that EA and Take Two are recognizing is far more lucrative. It’s important to realize that this game is moving towards the MMO model right now. As you’ll see, the insights of that Reddit post were almost prophetic. Today, I’m revisiting that Reddit post, and picking out some relevant quotes that identify problems that were troubling in NBA 2K18, and have remained so in its successors. It spoke about design philosophies – matters beyond tech and specific game features – that were responsible for problems in the games, and painted a worrying picture for the future. Their post touched on matters that many reviewers, and even content creators and community leaders, tend to ignore. The criticisms this former EVE Online developer made were astute, and they were on the money about it only being the beginning. This was someone who worked in video game development, and saw first-hand how certain approaches affected both gamer enjoyment, and a game’s success. After all, this wasn’t just a random gamer speaking out in frustration, or even a prominent content creator or pundit. That post was titled “ The ‘MMO-ification’ of NBA2K and the perils of ignoring player retention: Thoughts from a former MMO developer“, and it was very well-received. There’s a Reddit post that I’ve mentioned and linked to in quite a few articles since it was made in the official NBA 2K subreddit back in 2018. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on a Reddit post that tried to warn us about some looming issues with the direction of the NBA 2K series. We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games.