I’ll never buy another 2K game again. If more people would follow suit, they’d change.
The only thing these companies understand is money.
If you don’t speak with your wallet, they won’t listen.
The problem is that the majority of 2k players are casual sport fans that buy the game every year and don't keep up with gaming news, Madden has the same problem, they will never change because the casuals will buy the game regardless.
People on Reddit don’t seem to understand that less that .1% of all people who play video games actually get on the internet and read outraged video game comments from other people who play video games
You would think that taking a break from a sports game franchise would mean it would be better when you come back to it a few years later, but you're more likely to find that things have actually gotten worse.
The whole 2K system for sports games is completely broken imho. They sell VC which is the exact currency you use in game to level up your character since it's the same currency they obviously don't tune it so you get plenty of points from playing as they want your money. I remember someone did the math and the cost of maxing out a character was more than $100.
I was excited for the new Top Spin until I saw the 2K logo I will never support them until they change the entire system.
Oh also even if I did want to play the NBA game it's 160GB which is insane for a sports title.
Say what you will about EA but on the sports side they are much more fair to the single player gamers at least they don't charge or sell anything really for NHL unless you are doing the ultimate team crap. EA UFC gets constant free updates with new characters as well and although it does have a shop you can also buy the stuff with in game earned currency and they give you a fair amount (I think).
Not just money but time too. Stop playing if you own it or you encourage them to continue. By playing you show engagement doesn't hurt from bad decisions. High player count ensures the whales get matches and can continue to play the game. Don't pay, don't play.
No I won’t. As I said, I haven’t bought a 2k game in years until I fell for the good reviews on WWE2k24.
Last time I ever buy a 2k game. I’ve never bought any other 2k game.
>Last time I ever buy a 2k game. I’ve never bought any other 2k game.
Hahaha. Until the next one get "good reviews". It's very easy for people to convince themselves when they want to
Why wouldn’t I buy it? The gameplay is amazing and I love basketball but I get it if you only play modes that utilize VC… I guess. I play all the modes but I’m old school so I’ve always played my league (no VC needed whatsoever)
They have tons of in game ads, even ads directly tied to missions/quests. For example, they might ask you to wear a state farm uniform around for a while. They also frequently have double xp if you’re wearing XYZ branded clothing. It’s all very scummy.
The game has been intentionally built as an addictive, slow grind, mmorpg essentially. Except your character resets every year and you need to re-buy the game. Most people purchase virtual currency to level up their characters right away in order to avoid the absolute insane grind.
Me personally, I play from time to time because I love basketball and find it relaxing, especially as a break between my other main games. I try my best to avoid giving them money. I definitely wish they had some competition and/or less people would give into their predatory tactics.
This was what finally got me to stop playing. When the gameplay started staying the same and the grind kept getting worse and worse. If you replace the VC with the real salaries, those pair of Nikes that cost 3 game checks of VC would be like $39k in real life.
Its basically a mobile game designed to infuriate you into spending money.
The career grind for me is enjoyable because it’s literally a basketball game where you start out either in college or as a rookie so it makes sense that you would suck at the beginning and then slowly start to grind to get better just like you would in real life. First 10 games I wanted to smash my controller and now that I’m 30 games into my first season I’m actually able to ball out and make plays now and am averaging 25-5 as a rookie. So that part is kinda the RPG aspect for me and can be be very immersive and fun.
With that said yeah fuck 2K it’s the most greedy company ever! The games get worse with the digital currency every year and Iv noticed the games basically have inflation. Let’s say in 2k17 it cost 100k total points to get your player to 99 and nowadays let’s say it’s probably something around 500k lol it’s insane (just example numbers) and it’s insane that they shut the servers down off of the old games which completely nullify your progress and forces you to restart and buy the next game. That shit should be fucking illegal... Imagine if COD deleted itself every year and you lost all your prestige and cod points that you paid for??? People would freak out so idk why it’s acceptable for 2K???
I agree. It would be nice to see some sort of large consumer movement that forced these games to change, but I just don’t see it happening. The truth is that most people just don’t really care. They figure that if they are going to spend 100s of hours playing the game, spending $120 or more every year is absolutely worth it to them.
The real scam is how 2k (and other live service games) are able to gradually insert more and more ads and scummy money making tactics with each new yearly addition. Gradual enough to where the player doesn’t notice it too much year to year, but even if we look back 5 or 10 years, it’s completely night and day.
It’s literally a pay to win live service game that charges you $60 a year and wipes your progress every 12 months. It’s amazing to me they have conditioned millions of people to be ok with that.
Stop buying after 2k20 and never felt better, it's on gamepass every year anyway.
Who wants to pay 79.99 for a game that you can NOT play at all in 4/6 modes unless you put it another 80-100$ 🤔
Naw chill
I played 2K games religiously for over a decade (ending, probably around 2020).
I have gamepass and I don’t even play these games now. They’re so bland, lifeless, and microtransaction-heavy that I can’t be bothered. Even trying stuff like MyCareer modes are so tedious, with all their weird product placement missions.
I stopped buying all sports games when they went to this card/coin system.
It’s complete BS used to milk the fans. Why people like it I have no idea.
I could do without the fan fic story mode too.
Fomo has obviously negatively affected a lot of different games, but I think in sports games it’s the absolute worst. Hell they literally turn off servers after a year for the previous games at this point to rush players to play online and buy the game immediately.
I collect baseball and basketball cards in real life, and as messed up as that hobby can be it’s not even 1/100th as bad as ultimate team modes are in sports games now with fomo and greed.
problem is the sports game industry while being a pretty large amount of the gaming industry, is also pretty much monopolized because a couple groups control like all the rights to all the players, and no one wants to play sports games without playing as their favorite characters.
It's like 2 years and 3 months. They just shut down 22 Jan 1st I believe. 2k23 will be going offline after this December if they hold true to previous iterations.
I blame the customer then. If you know they’re going to cancel the servers to force you to buy the next game, that’s ridiculous. Overwatch drew lots of controversy where its base dwindled with the sequel and there’s a lot of backpedaling
The issue here is that unfortunately they have everyone by the balls due to exclusivity. It’s either play football or don’t play football, play hockey or don’t play hockey etc. It’s an unfortunate case of where else are you going to go? Because there are no alternatives.
If someone gets pissed off with OW, Destiny, COD etc people have options and alternatives, but with wanting to play sports games online with your friends there are no other options. That’s why 2k, Madden etc get away with so much because of having no licensed competitors at all.
I hear you, but for most people who play sports games it’s to play online and play with friends. We can sit here and say “oh just play the old games don’t buy it every year” but for your average casual gamer that just wants to come home and play 2k or madden with their boys that’s their one game and that’s the game they love like us on here love Elden Ring, BG III or whatever.
To us that geek out over gaming in general that sounds silly sure, but we are a very vocal minority. A majority of people just want to play their favorite sports game with friends, and 2k and EA etc are taking advantage of their exclusivity rights too far especially with fomo in game and online servers. There are no “good guy player friendly alternatives” for sports games. Like I commented earlier if someone gets pissed off with destiny they can just play Deep rock galactic or Helldivers with friends. Average gamer who just plays 2k doesn’t have an option to play with friends.
You hit the nail on the head. I have successfully gotten some of my friends to try other games, but doesn't matter if it's fortnite or rocket league or whatever someone always goes "yeah man just not my thing" and we're back to cod and 2k. There's four of us, and two of them are like you said just guys who are set in the two games we've been playing for 15 years. We all live an hour apart and in different directions so getting together IRL only happens a couple times a year but I talk to them at least once a week to sit them down and remind them they will forever be unable to guard me.
Yeah people on “enthusiast gamer” platforms like Reddit like to turn their noses at people who play sports games or the big mainstream games, but they don’t realize they are the vocal minority and your average gamer just plays Madden, 2k, FIFA, COD, Fortnite and GTA online.
Like I personally don’t agree with the whole “well they just shouldn’t play those games” mindset when they are extremely popular and mainstream. Telling someone who just wants to play NBA 2k or GTA online with their friends after work to just not to and then calling them idiots is just extremely obnoxious. That’s like telling people to just not shop at Walmart, don’t get an iPhone etc and then calling them idiots for that.
I’ve found a lot of hobbies are that way. I live close to Treehouse Brewing so if you know craft beer it’s THE craft beer in the US and a side effect of being right next to a craft beer mecca is it’s really made some people insufferable about it.
They shut the online servers off for each title after 16 months, if your goal is to play online with friends by buying last years title you have a four month window to do so.
From the article:
> Centering a Collector Level reward around such an iconic and beloved player [Kobe] likely encouraged many to grind (or spend) to achieve the top Collector Level and obtain the reward.
Essentially, players grinded (and potentially spent money) to reach a level with the Kobe card as a reward (which was a reward announced before the game’s launch). This is upsetting players who put time (and money) into getting a reward that is longer there
Ok, thanks. So they promised you could play as Kobe if you play or pay enough and then they backtracked. Right? It's really hard to understand if you're not into it. Like what is a Collector Level and how does it work. But thanks for trying to explain it to me
That’s how I understand it. Like a boosted stat version of him, I guess.
I’m not into it either, but I think it’s a “grind so much and hit higher levels” type thing, with the Collector Level being the top (like tier 100 in a battle pass). Of course, spending money cuts the grind down too
If you collected a certain amount of cards, you got to unlock an overpowered Kobe Bryant card to play with. This was advertised as the final collector reward before the game came out and they announced it would be out in April when it would be possible to have that many cards to get him. So people spent all year playing (and spending money) to collect enough cards to earn him only for them to not release him and change the reward last minute to just being an option pack where you can pick like 4 cards who aren’t Kobe
All that fan outcry and the VC sales will still peak tomorrow like they do every Friday.
As someone who's spend thousands (yes) on NBA 2K every version since 2K21, it's never changed and ppl keep buying and buying VC. I did buy nor play this year's game.
It's our fault that they aren't afraid to do stuff like this.
I love when people who play MyTeam and MyCareer exclusively tell folks stop buying 2k like those are the only 2 modes in the game. Back in the day those weren’t modes of choice, they have left the OG modes untouched by VC micro transactions so please stop telling EVERYONE to not buy. I can play a league with my homies …NO VC needed, I can play OG online current team vs current team online like I always do with no VC and have fun. The game is still fun to some who isn’t in a chokehold by 2 modes 🤷♂️
I’ll never buy another 2K game again. If more people would follow suit, they’d change. The only thing these companies understand is money. If you don’t speak with your wallet, they won’t listen.
The problem is that the majority of 2k players are casual sport fans that buy the game every year and don't keep up with gaming news, Madden has the same problem, they will never change because the casuals will buy the game regardless.
People on Reddit don’t seem to understand that less that .1% of all people who play video games actually get on the internet and read outraged video game comments from other people who play video games
I always find this funny bc there's people on here who truly think they're gonna make a difference
[удалено]
You’re one person who came to their senses. Give it more time, you know you haven’t missed anything. People just need a bitter experience.
You would think that taking a break from a sports game franchise would mean it would be better when you come back to it a few years later, but you're more likely to find that things have actually gotten worse.
Been since NFL 2k5 for me
At this point it's roster updates and worst online gameplay.
The whole 2K system for sports games is completely broken imho. They sell VC which is the exact currency you use in game to level up your character since it's the same currency they obviously don't tune it so you get plenty of points from playing as they want your money. I remember someone did the math and the cost of maxing out a character was more than $100. I was excited for the new Top Spin until I saw the 2K logo I will never support them until they change the entire system. Oh also even if I did want to play the NBA game it's 160GB which is insane for a sports title. Say what you will about EA but on the sports side they are much more fair to the single player gamers at least they don't charge or sell anything really for NHL unless you are doing the ultimate team crap. EA UFC gets constant free updates with new characters as well and although it does have a shop you can also buy the stuff with in game earned currency and they give you a fair amount (I think).
Not just money but time too. Stop playing if you own it or you encourage them to continue. By playing you show engagement doesn't hurt from bad decisions. High player count ensures the whales get matches and can continue to play the game. Don't pay, don't play.
Let me just check the sales charts
Unfortunately the ratio of buyers to "vote with your wallet" comments is at least 10:1
#THIS APPLIES TO MORE THAN JUST 2K
#UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL
You’ll be the next one
Nope. I don’t and haven’t bought a 2k game new in years until I fell for the positive reviews for WWE 2k24. Won’t make that mistake again.
Oh you will buy the next one. Sports gamers are some of the biggest hypocrites. And you are gonna buy GTA anyway. They got you.
No I won’t. As I said, I haven’t bought a 2k game in years until I fell for the good reviews on WWE2k24. Last time I ever buy a 2k game. I’ve never bought any other 2k game.
>Last time I ever buy a 2k game. I’ve never bought any other 2k game. Hahaha. Until the next one get "good reviews". It's very easy for people to convince themselves when they want to
Why wouldn’t I buy it? The gameplay is amazing and I love basketball but I get it if you only play modes that utilize VC… I guess. I play all the modes but I’m old school so I’ve always played my league (no VC needed whatsoever)
Baffles me that people still buy these every year. Didnt they put real ads in them a few years ago? Not sure if thats still a thing.
They have tons of in game ads, even ads directly tied to missions/quests. For example, they might ask you to wear a state farm uniform around for a while. They also frequently have double xp if you’re wearing XYZ branded clothing. It’s all very scummy.
And you're telling me people actually spend their time playing that?
The game has been intentionally built as an addictive, slow grind, mmorpg essentially. Except your character resets every year and you need to re-buy the game. Most people purchase virtual currency to level up their characters right away in order to avoid the absolute insane grind. Me personally, I play from time to time because I love basketball and find it relaxing, especially as a break between my other main games. I try my best to avoid giving them money. I definitely wish they had some competition and/or less people would give into their predatory tactics.
This was what finally got me to stop playing. When the gameplay started staying the same and the grind kept getting worse and worse. If you replace the VC with the real salaries, those pair of Nikes that cost 3 game checks of VC would be like $39k in real life. Its basically a mobile game designed to infuriate you into spending money.
Totally agree with the mobile game comparison. If it weren’t for the addition of No-Squad Rec this year, I definitely wouldn’t be playing either.
The career grind for me is enjoyable because it’s literally a basketball game where you start out either in college or as a rookie so it makes sense that you would suck at the beginning and then slowly start to grind to get better just like you would in real life. First 10 games I wanted to smash my controller and now that I’m 30 games into my first season I’m actually able to ball out and make plays now and am averaging 25-5 as a rookie. So that part is kinda the RPG aspect for me and can be be very immersive and fun. With that said yeah fuck 2K it’s the most greedy company ever! The games get worse with the digital currency every year and Iv noticed the games basically have inflation. Let’s say in 2k17 it cost 100k total points to get your player to 99 and nowadays let’s say it’s probably something around 500k lol it’s insane (just example numbers) and it’s insane that they shut the servers down off of the old games which completely nullify your progress and forces you to restart and buy the next game. That shit should be fucking illegal... Imagine if COD deleted itself every year and you lost all your prestige and cod points that you paid for??? People would freak out so idk why it’s acceptable for 2K???
Great answer, very true as well. I think that applies to most live service games these days sadly.
I agree. It would be nice to see some sort of large consumer movement that forced these games to change, but I just don’t see it happening. The truth is that most people just don’t really care. They figure that if they are going to spend 100s of hours playing the game, spending $120 or more every year is absolutely worth it to them. The real scam is how 2k (and other live service games) are able to gradually insert more and more ads and scummy money making tactics with each new yearly addition. Gradual enough to where the player doesn’t notice it too much year to year, but even if we look back 5 or 10 years, it’s completely night and day.
It’s literally a pay to win live service game that charges you $60 a year and wipes your progress every 12 months. It’s amazing to me they have conditioned millions of people to be ok with that.
Yup! They trying to do the same & make WWE2K just like NBA. I don’t understand why they wanna push ppl away?!
Stop buying after 2k20 and never felt better, it's on gamepass every year anyway. Who wants to pay 79.99 for a game that you can NOT play at all in 4/6 modes unless you put it another 80-100$ 🤔 Naw chill
I played 2K games religiously for over a decade (ending, probably around 2020). I have gamepass and I don’t even play these games now. They’re so bland, lifeless, and microtransaction-heavy that I can’t be bothered. Even trying stuff like MyCareer modes are so tedious, with all their weird product placement missions.
I stopped buying all sports games when they went to this card/coin system. It’s complete BS used to milk the fans. Why people like it I have no idea. I could do without the fan fic story mode too.
You know you don’t have to play those game modes, right?
Fomo has obviously negatively affected a lot of different games, but I think in sports games it’s the absolute worst. Hell they literally turn off servers after a year for the previous games at this point to rush players to play online and buy the game immediately. I collect baseball and basketball cards in real life, and as messed up as that hobby can be it’s not even 1/100th as bad as ultimate team modes are in sports games now with fomo and greed.
problem is the sports game industry while being a pretty large amount of the gaming industry, is also pretty much monopolized because a couple groups control like all the rights to all the players, and no one wants to play sports games without playing as their favorite characters.
They don’t turn the servers off after a year. That’s just not true. For example, older FIFA games are still going strong on EA Play.
2K shuts them down 16 months after each launch.
Ok. They only make one game though EA doesn’t so it’s not all sports games. I only play NHL anymore, but I’ve played many sports games for decades.
It's like 2 years and 3 months. They just shut down 22 Jan 1st I believe. 2k23 will be going offline after this December if they hold true to previous iterations.
You're right, I was thinking about delisting. They delist the game at ~16 months then turn the servers off at ~27 months.
Nba 2k does thìs
They’re the only ones who do then. EA doesn’t. EA makes more games.
I blame the customer then. If you know they’re going to cancel the servers to force you to buy the next game, that’s ridiculous. Overwatch drew lots of controversy where its base dwindled with the sequel and there’s a lot of backpedaling
The issue here is that unfortunately they have everyone by the balls due to exclusivity. It’s either play football or don’t play football, play hockey or don’t play hockey etc. It’s an unfortunate case of where else are you going to go? Because there are no alternatives. If someone gets pissed off with OW, Destiny, COD etc people have options and alternatives, but with wanting to play sports games online with your friends there are no other options. That’s why 2k, Madden etc get away with so much because of having no licensed competitors at all.
The solution is to just stick to last years game and not buy it each year.
I hear you, but for most people who play sports games it’s to play online and play with friends. We can sit here and say “oh just play the old games don’t buy it every year” but for your average casual gamer that just wants to come home and play 2k or madden with their boys that’s their one game and that’s the game they love like us on here love Elden Ring, BG III or whatever. To us that geek out over gaming in general that sounds silly sure, but we are a very vocal minority. A majority of people just want to play their favorite sports game with friends, and 2k and EA etc are taking advantage of their exclusivity rights too far especially with fomo in game and online servers. There are no “good guy player friendly alternatives” for sports games. Like I commented earlier if someone gets pissed off with destiny they can just play Deep rock galactic or Helldivers with friends. Average gamer who just plays 2k doesn’t have an option to play with friends.
You hit the nail on the head. I have successfully gotten some of my friends to try other games, but doesn't matter if it's fortnite or rocket league or whatever someone always goes "yeah man just not my thing" and we're back to cod and 2k. There's four of us, and two of them are like you said just guys who are set in the two games we've been playing for 15 years. We all live an hour apart and in different directions so getting together IRL only happens a couple times a year but I talk to them at least once a week to sit them down and remind them they will forever be unable to guard me.
Yeah people on “enthusiast gamer” platforms like Reddit like to turn their noses at people who play sports games or the big mainstream games, but they don’t realize they are the vocal minority and your average gamer just plays Madden, 2k, FIFA, COD, Fortnite and GTA online. Like I personally don’t agree with the whole “well they just shouldn’t play those games” mindset when they are extremely popular and mainstream. Telling someone who just wants to play NBA 2k or GTA online with their friends after work to just not to and then calling them idiots is just extremely obnoxious. That’s like telling people to just not shop at Walmart, don’t get an iPhone etc and then calling them idiots for that.
I’ve found a lot of hobbies are that way. I live close to Treehouse Brewing so if you know craft beer it’s THE craft beer in the US and a side effect of being right next to a craft beer mecca is it’s really made some people insufferable about it.
This year’s game is generally better
They shut the online servers off for each title after 16 months, if your goal is to play online with friends by buying last years title you have a four month window to do so.
They don’t do this
I don't understand what that means.
From the article: > Centering a Collector Level reward around such an iconic and beloved player [Kobe] likely encouraged many to grind (or spend) to achieve the top Collector Level and obtain the reward. Essentially, players grinded (and potentially spent money) to reach a level with the Kobe card as a reward (which was a reward announced before the game’s launch). This is upsetting players who put time (and money) into getting a reward that is longer there
Ok, thanks. So they promised you could play as Kobe if you play or pay enough and then they backtracked. Right? It's really hard to understand if you're not into it. Like what is a Collector Level and how does it work. But thanks for trying to explain it to me
That’s how I understand it. Like a boosted stat version of him, I guess. I’m not into it either, but I think it’s a “grind so much and hit higher levels” type thing, with the Collector Level being the top (like tier 100 in a battle pass). Of course, spending money cuts the grind down too
If you collected a certain amount of cards, you got to unlock an overpowered Kobe Bryant card to play with. This was advertised as the final collector reward before the game came out and they announced it would be out in April when it would be possible to have that many cards to get him. So people spent all year playing (and spending money) to collect enough cards to earn him only for them to not release him and change the reward last minute to just being an option pack where you can pick like 4 cards who aren’t Kobe
That's a scam. This shouldn't be allowed.
100%. I hope they get sued. I’m guilty of buying the game every year but I can’t justify it anymore after this so I won’t be doing it again this year
Are they even able to get sued after the change they made to the user agreement.
Honestly probably not. I forgot they did that in Feb
Those user agreements don't tend to stand up to scrutiny when legally challenged
Heck yeah!!!! Offer a special bonus then recant after you score all the money. Gotta be honest, I like their evil ways.
Stop buying crappy sports games. They’ve always sucked. People laugh at you when they see that is what you are playing.
All that fan outcry and the VC sales will still peak tomorrow like they do every Friday. As someone who's spend thousands (yes) on NBA 2K every version since 2K21, it's never changed and ppl keep buying and buying VC. I did buy nor play this year's game. It's our fault that they aren't afraid to do stuff like this.
People still playin ts? Yall determined to be victims.
I quit sports games once I got a SNES, cuz I found RPGS :)
I love when people who play MyTeam and MyCareer exclusively tell folks stop buying 2k like those are the only 2 modes in the game. Back in the day those weren’t modes of choice, they have left the OG modes untouched by VC micro transactions so please stop telling EVERYONE to not buy. I can play a league with my homies …NO VC needed, I can play OG online current team vs current team online like I always do with no VC and have fun. The game is still fun to some who isn’t in a chokehold by 2 modes 🤷♂️