NBA 2K is once again going about its annual release date and launching a game that, while technically new, is the same as everything else that has been released before it. Sure, there might be a bit of excitement about the game because Michael Jordan is returning. But other than that, is there really something else that should make you look forward to a new 2K - or all other sports games year after year?
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In this article, we'll explore why NBA 2K and other sports games release the way they've been, and what kind of changes they might want to make to ensure that they don't become stale.
Not A Lot Of Room To Maneuver
In truth, real life sports really don't change a lot every year. The NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all have a new season annually but the only major things that change are rosters. That's it. There aren't any new rules that shift the game itself to a different level, or anything else that completely differentiates the current season from its predecessor.
Sports video games are the same. According to Game Informer, even the makers of these games know it: EA, 2K Games, and others who have annualized launches for their titles. The lack of actual innovations in real life make it difficult for sports video game titles to innovate and bring about drastic changes with every new game.
This is already evident by how the latest releases have never been reviewed well. Case in point, NBA 2K22 for PS5 has a terrible 3.6 user score on Metacritic, with its critic score sitting at a mediocre 76. It's not something you'd expect from a big-budget title that's been basically the only game to beat in the basketball sim market for the last two years.
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Other sports games based on the NHL, FIFA, and MLB also couldn't even hit 80, suggesting something MUST change - and even the advent of next-gen consoles is no longer enough. People are getting tired of paying full price for every new game releasing year after year, just to get seasonal roster updates and visual upgrades.
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Taking Cues
Perhaps the developers of NBA 2K and other sports-based titles need to take cues from an entirely different genre of games. Case in point, take something like the last two Assassin's Creed titles from Ubisoft (Valhalla, most importantly) and a live service game like Fortnite.
Odyssey was the first game in the long-running Ubisoft franchise that got multiple content releases several months to a year after the game came out. But it wasn't until Valhalla that Ubi decided to go the full route of supporting a game for years on end-almost two years after its initial launch by now, to be exact. Valhalla released back in 2020, but it was still getting seasonal updates in the form of big expansions. Its latest expansion, Dawn Of Ragnarok, came out almost two years after the base game was launched.
The fact that Ubisoft has managed to keep Valhalla updated with new content regularly is proof that a game like NBA 2K could do it too. And one can argue that sports in real life, with its roster changes year after year, could translate into video games that constantly get updated with new content at regular intervals.
Maybe Live Service?
Here's something that we think would be perfect for a sports video game: the live service model. And for an example, we're going to take a game like Fortnite.
fortnite trailer screencap
Now, we're not at all suggesting that sports games go free-to-play. Not even close. What could work in replacement of annual sports titles is the fact that regular content could be pushed with every new season, which could correspond with the start of every new season in the real life league. Roster changes, player rating changes, and even visual updates in teams' arenas and courts could come out in regular new content releases.
Live service games work by facilitating some sort of loot grind, according to Keen Gamer. Developers would release loot in the form of skins, weapons, and emotes for players' characters. At times, they'd even institute time limits to force players to do it more urgently.
This kind of system could work with a sports game in the form of apparel-based loot; something that NBA 2K's online mode, called The City, has already been doing during the past few years. It could be new sneakers, new shirts, shorts, jerseys, and accessories - anything. The loot could also be other things like new tattoos, and player emotes as well.
Live service games also rely a lot on microtransactions to make their money. Since sports games have almost always been vilified for their egregious microtransactions (we're looking at you, EA), a live service model is where this monetization system WILL work without players so much as batting an eye.
As for the rosters, these will once again come with major content updates that come out with every new start to the real-life sports season.
Moving Forward
The only issues with sports video games going live service is the fact that graphics will always need to be updated as well. With every new console generation, players will expect the games to look better than before. That's something that you simply can't do if you're keeping a live service title alive.
But perhaps developers will finally find compromises with their sports titles' business models moving forward, because annualized launches are definitely NOT cutting it anymore.
nba 2k
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This article is posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
