This game definitely needs competition badly!!

[Serra11]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Offline myleague and NBA today games.
Have never touched the online.

I can't say anything about the historic teams as I rarely play with them

Okay. Since the post game is almost gone nowadays, you're not affected by the double team in the post settings completely broken.
But what about the pick and roll defensive settings? Go Over doesn't work, Soft Hege, Hard Hedge, Catch Edge and Double don't work...
And these are fundamental aspects for today basketball.

[edaddy]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

While I am a firm believer in competition and irons sharpens iron 2lk and mlb the show have been the only games that give a immersive and realistic product yearly madden is a disaster

[illwill10]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Well the last time I checked nobody is being stopped from making another game...

Especially since EA never officially canceled the Live Series. I want to say that Live Mobile is still active and I still think they are still paying for the NBA license. They relocated their developers to different teams within EA. There's nothing really stopping EA from jumping back in, since they never officially canceled the series.

"Competition" is nice. But, we're not in the PS2/Xbox era anymore where the Entry Cost was low enough for a lot of companies could jump in. It felt like we had 5+ options for each sport and arcade options. And there wasn't any exclusive licenses. Not counting racing and boxing, it's just EA , 2k, and Sony San Diego as far as major sports games. I don't see another company jumping into the sports market. I'm not even sure MLB The Show sells that "well" to even consider expanding the portfolio for Sony. Games like Madden and EA FC gives EA the ability to not worry about how well other sports games sell. Just like NBA2K for 2k. I just don't see any other company jumping into the market with Cost of Development and licensing.

[Eddie1967]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Nothing will change until people stop buying it.

2k has improved every year include this years version. For some of you folks its simply time to move on.

[vetmin]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

2k has improved every year include this years version.

The subjectivity of what constitutes 'improvement' makes this a silly/meaningless thing to say. All that can really be said is that 2K changes each year and that the poly count of the game's 3D models—when it changes—only goes up, not down. My ideal 2K game would be a Frankenstein's monster of different aspects from a whole bunch of different 2Ks, and I suspect this is a common feeling.

My unsolicited Frankenstein:

Gameplay/feel = 2K15
Franchise mode = 2K21 new-gen*
Graphics =
- core engine / overall look = 2K14 new-gen
- textures and 3D models = 2K25

*never played, but feature-wise this was the ideal IMO

MyCAREER is probably an older one, and stuff like Create-A-Legend would be in there.

As for the question of competition / NBA Live, I wish Live would come back and just occupy a totally different space than 2K, rather than trying to compete directly with it. What I'd love is if Live zagged away from 2K's MyPLAYER-centrism and did something like a high-end pixel-art sort of title that blended slightly more arcade-y but still sim Golden-Age-of-2K-ish gameplay with a degree of franchise-mode depth and polish that is difficult for 2K to manage. Basically re-take a bit of the actual-NBA-fan player base, rather than trying (and failing) to beat 2K at its own game. If Live took this kind of approach (basically creating a super-polished NBA indie game that doesn't rake in as much as 2K but is also considerably cheaper to develop and update), the games would be different enough that I think most of us would probably enjoy having and playing both, as opposed to feeling like 2K > Live, so I won't buy Live.

Here's some AI-generated concept stuff, just for fun (please ignore the goofy AI-isms, lol):

[Junior Moe]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Especially since EA never officially canceled the Live Series. I want to say that Live Mobile is still active and I still think they are still paying for the NBA license. They relocated their developers to different teams within EA. There's nothing really stopping EA from jumping back in, since they never officially canceled the series.

"Competition" is nice. But, we're not in the PS2/Xbox era anymore where the Entry Cost was low enough for a lot of companies could jump in. It felt like we had 5+ options for each sport and arcade options. And there wasn't any exclusive licenses. Not counting racing and boxing, it's just EA , 2k, and Sony San Diego as far as major sports games. I don't see another company jumping into the sports market. I'm not even sure MLB The Show sells that "well" to even consider expanding the portfolio for Sony. Games like Madden and EA FC gives EA the ability to not worry about how well other sports games sell. Just like NBA2K for 2k. I just don't see any other company jumping into the market with Cost of Development and licensing.

I agree. Not to knock anyone, but I don’t understand the “we need competition” and the “we need to multi year dev cycle” arguments. Gameplay wise, I want 2K to completely redo passing. It’s the worst aspect of the gameplay imo. I doubt Live returning would make 2K focus on that specific aspect of the game. I just advocate for that part of the game to improve. I’m the same way with the multi year argument. For the people who want that, just skip a year or two. The next game you buy will have multiple years of development. At the same time, those of us who enjoy (more or less) the yearly releases get to enjoy the smaller, incremental changes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[vetmin]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

This is all academic because we understand why the yearly cycle exists and why it's not gonna change, but...

I’m the same way with the multi year argument. For the people who want that, just skip a year or two. The next game you buy will have multiple years of development.

...the point is that each year of development would be more substantive if time didn't need to be devoted every year to getting the game in a user-ready state.

An analogy would be something like: Imagine your boss likes for you to present him with an update on what you're working on at the end of each workday (for like 15 minutes). Kind of annoying, but whatever. Then imagine he changed it to instead be 5-minute check-ins at the end of each hour. Not only do the literal meetings eat up more of your workday than before, but you also have the 3-5 minutes before each meeting where you're distracted thinking about what you will say to your boss, you're more restricted in terms of when and for how long you can schedule phone/Zoom meetings (since the hourly meeting with the boss will interrupt them), etc. It would just generally hurt your ability to be dialed in for extended stretches where you can focus and get quality work done.

So yeah, if you bought 2K23, then skipped 2K24, then bought 2K25, you'd see a bigger change than if you were purchasing annually, but it likely would have been a more significant change (and likely in a more polished, less buggy/glitchy form) if 2K themselves had skipped 2K24 and—instead of having to devote resources to getting a game ready for market that year—devoted all their resources to continued development.

[illwill10]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

I agree. Not to knock anyone, but I don’t understand the “we need competition” and the “we need to multi year dev cycle” arguments. Gameplay wise, I want 2K to completely redo passing. It’s the worst aspect of the gameplay imo. I doubt Live returning would make 2K focus on that specific aspect of the game. I just advocate for that part of the game to improve. I’m the same way with the multi year argument. For the people who want that, just skip a year or two. The next game you buy will have multiple years of development. At the same time, those of us who enjoy (more or less) the yearly releases get to enjoy the smaller, incremental changes.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm in a different boat since I have GameFly. With Gamefly, I can keep a game a month to a month a half, then return it. Then rent it a game again in the future. So in theory, I don't have to buy most games. I bought EA CFB 25 and have 0 regrets because I could stop playing it for a while and pick it back up and have fun. In theory, I could just rent CFB 26. But, if they add specific features, I'd buy it again.



When it comes to 2k, I typically bought the game on sale around Black Friday every other year. But, I got to a point where I'm done with 2k. I just don't care for the direction of the series and don't see it changing. Would competition help, I guess it would. But, I don't have no consideration that EA is getting back into the sim Basketball market. If not EA, then who. These other AAA publishers aren't jumping into the Sports market

[Real2KInsider]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

So yeah, if you bought 2K23, then skipped 2K24, then bought 2K25, you'd see a bigger change than if you were purchasing annually, but it likely would have been a more significant change (and likely in a more polished, less buggy/glitchy form) if 2K themselves had skipped 2K24 and—instead of having to devote resources to getting a game ready for market that year—devoted all their resources to continued development.

Maybe if they were building the game from scratch each year, but the devs never stop working on the game under the hood and most of what they work on doesn't go live until it's ready. Everything that gets patched 8 months after the game releases is also part of next year's game.

The main distinction is they have to be clear in their focus within their shorter windows. They'll focus and complete one thing at a time rather than shipping three half-finished features.

[vetmin]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

The main distinction is they have to be clear in their focus within their shorter windows. They'll focus and complete one thing at a time rather than shipping three half-finished features.

What you’re describing is part of what I’m saying: The annual cycle forces a certain workflow/timeline that may not be what’s best for what’s being developed.

Let’s say that, after 2K25 launched, 2K had 3 major new features in mind that they wanted to all be in gamers’ hands by Fall 2027 (i.e., for 2K28). Let’s also say that the dev team knows they can make all these features work better by first reworking some of the game’s core architecture, but they also know that it’d take most of a year to do that, which means they wouldn’t have time to implement any of the 3 features in time for 2K26. If there were no 2K26 or 2K27, however, then the workflow/timeline could be shaped more freely within the 3-year window, leading to a more polished end result.

In reality it’s of course not this strict; as you point out, devs for annual titles obviously have ongoing, long-term projects that they’re working on. But my more general points are just that (1) forking development off into a consumer-ready game takes work in and of itself, so doing it annually as opposed to every 3-4 years is just more total work (and less work on other stuff, if we’re assuming the same amount of total resources being poured into the series); and (2) a release date is an external factor that influences the development workflow/timeline, so the more frequent the release dates are, the more the workflow/timeline is influenced by factors unrelated to the technical demands of the project.

[ESG Mac]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

2k has been the head honcho for NBA for so long doesnt even seem like anyone wants to go up against it. they put so much into it

[papaey]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

2k has improved every year include this years version. For some of you folks its simply time to move on.

2k25 goat offline gameplay wise 2nd 2k16

[Funkycorm]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Honestly, this is the first time I went back to a previous version instead of playing the current version. I had already held off until a few months after release to get 2k25 and was almost immediately turned off by the draft class generation. To the point, where fictional draft classes were not going to end up being a worthwhile venture. I almost immediately returned to 24.

Everyone will have their opinion on which version is the best. In my mind that is 2k24 and I am sticking with that one.

[rockchisler]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

We don’t need competition we need a college basketball game. I’m taking Detroit Mercy to the sweet [emoji637][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[papaey]

Re: This game definitely needs competition badly!!

Honestly, this is the first time I went back to a previous version instead of playing the current version. I had already held off until a few months after release to get 2k25 and was almost immediately turned off by the draft class generation. To the point, where fictional draft classes were not going to end up being a worthwhile venture. I almost immediately returned to 24.

Everyone will have their opinion on which version is the best. In my mind that is 2k24 and I am sticking with that one.

- cpu not calling timeouts
- unrealistic free throw percentage
- lack of turnovers
- all fg made are swishes

These are all game breaking on 2k24 that are fixed this year. But ok each of our own.