[Real2KInsider]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cold Snap

Wow. With their silence, they may as well have told him "No one buys this game to be Josh Powell." I hope it's not too soon to say this, given his tragic death in January, but it just reminds me of this Kobe Bryant quote, when asked why he held the ball so long to shoot it himself, instead of passing to a teammate: "To who? Smush Parker?"

Mathematically, let's break it down.

Let's say the standard rate for "Likeness Rights" scales by Overall rating (i.e. player role/importance).

90-99 Rating: $20,000
80-89 Rating: 10,000
70-79 Rating: $5,000
60-69 Rating: $2,500

2009 Lakers
90s (2): Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol
80s (4): Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, Trevor Ariza/Ron Artest
70s (4): Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic
60s (3): Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga, Sun Yue/Adam Morrison
[b]Overall Cost[b]: $107,500 (40,000 + 40,000 + 20,000 + 7,500)

If we add Ron Artest (10,000) & Adam Morrison (2,500) to double-up and get the 2010 team, that's $120,000 per year.

There are 67 Classic Teams in NBA 2K21 and more will naturally be added with the passage of time. If each team costs $100,000 per year that's 6.7 million dollars per year. These are with GENEROUS figures that probably undersell how much the top players actually make.
(I ask again, how much money do the Classic teams/players bring in?)

The starting salary for a 2K developer is roughly $45,000, and the average is probably less than $100,000. When people complain about broken features, unbalanced gameplay, etc, they need staff to commit labor hours to these things. Game quality absolutely should take precedence.