NBA 2K has recently revealed the NBA 2K25 cover athlete, release date, editions, and much more information about the upcoming title in the franchise. However, despite all the great news, it was made pretty clear that old-gen platforms will continue to not have most of the new features.
The NBA 2K old-gen versions continue to be just a slightly updated version of the previous year's title, with new features only arriving at old-gen one year after its debut on current-gen.
So this begs the question, is it time for NBA 2K to move away from old-gen platforms?
All Good Things Must Come To An End!
It's undeniable that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One marked a generation, with the Sony console being the fifth most sold console of all time, at the time of writing. Furthermore, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One still have a pretty huge player base, especially the Sony console.
However, both consoles are outdated and can't keep up with most of the recently release games, or at least struggle to, which is normal, since it has been almost 11 years since they were released.
Most sports games don't include their new features in the old-gen version, and when they finally arrive they come a year late. This leaves many players wondering if it's even worth making an old-gen version.
It's certainly worth it for the publishers, as more copies sold equals more money, which means a bigger profit margin. After all, that's what companies want, to make the most money possible and please the shareholders in the process.
But even some publishers are starting to move away from old-gen. EA Sports College Football 25 won't be released on old-gen, and many fans are wondering if this is an outlier or just the first domino to fall.
The current-gen has been out for five years, has much better hardware than the old-gen, and it's also easier to take full advantage of the current-gen of consoles if you are developing the game for them and don't need to find a way to incorporate current-gen features into a 11 years old console.
Furthermore, sports games on old-gen, specifically NBA 2 K, feel just like a washed version of the current-gen version, with a new roster and way fewer features.
Why NBA 2K Should Stop Releasing an Old-Gen Version
Let me start by saying that I understand there still exists a huge player base on old-gen and that preventing millions of players from playing a title they love, and have probably played for years, is unfair.
However, isn't it also unfair for those players to, year after year, just play a recycled version of the previous year's current-gen version, since the majority of new features don't make it to the old-gen version while paying the same price for the game?
The NBA 2K24 PC version is the best example of that. It didn't have almost any of the new features the current-gen version had, and that's mainly why it received so many negative reviews.
It received so many negative reviews, that at the time, it became the second worst-rated Steam game of all time, and currently sits in the 18th place. So as you can see old-gen players don't like the games NBA 2K is making for their consoles, and for a good reason.
If I'm paying the same price for the game as everyone else, I expect it to have the same new features and game modes, no matter what console version I'm in. Unfortunately, as of right now, old-gen players pay the same price for a significantly worse product, and that's unacceptable.
You Can't Stop Progress
As the famous saying goes, "You Can't Stop Progress," but the decision to continue supporting old-gen consoles is doing just that.
NBA 2K still hasn't developed an actual current-gen game, as they are always developing two games simultaneously, one for current-gen, and one for old-gen.
This prevents the developers from taking full advantage of the current-gen hardware power and delivering a game that uses everything the consoles can offer. In the end, the customers are the ones that lose, as usual.
Old-gen players get stuck with a cardboard copy of the current-gen game of the previous year while paying the same price for the game, which is absurd.
As for current-gen players, they can't experience a game tailored for their system, that uses everything the consoles have to offer, to deliver the best possible game.
Sooner or later, NBA 2K will have to decide to move on from old-gen consoles, and the faster they can do it, the better. Yes, it might leave a lot of people angry, but if 2K is capable of communicating that decision in advance, not three months before the game releases, players can decide if it's worth making the upgrade or not.
At the same time, developers can focus on creating a game for one console generation, extracting the best out of those consoles, and delivering the best possible game, even if it comes full of microtransactions.
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