Since NBA 2K24 launched, no feature received as much criticism as the new badge system. The criticism was already taking place way before the game went live but reached a new level when NBA 2K24 was finally released.
The NBA 2K community was so loud that 2K was forced to listen to them and address this problem. Fans were specifically not happy with the badge regression this new system had introduced.
According to players, this feature made it harder to upgrade badges, while making it incredibly easy to lose progression and downgrade specific badges. Fortunately, NBA 2K decided to make some changes to address that major problem.
Without further ado, let's find out the badge changes implemented in NBA 2K24.
NBA 2K24 badge changes
It's very hard to see 2K, or any other big videogame publisher, admit they made a mistake. However, it seems this is one of those rare times, with 2k admitting the feature didn't deliver what they wanted, and that some adjustments needed to be made.
NBA 2K developer Zach Timmerman said the following:
"Data from your games arrived & its made it clear how badge progression is going. Expectations were set for ship & its evident we overshot at times."
Following this statement, Timmerman announced some huge changes to the badge progression system, changes which are already live.
To fix the fast regression of badges that players were experiencing, 2K drastically reduced the regression for most badges in all game modes, especially in PvP modes such as Park or The Rec.
Bagde progression was also increased for the majority of badges in all game modes. This will make it much easier for players to upgrade their badges, while not having to worry as much about their badges regressing.
Furthermore, the Immunity and Drill Savant perks were made stronger, a higher win modifier was applied in most cases, difficulty modifiers were adjusted, and drills now offer faster badge progression.
2K community applauds changes
The NBA 2K24 community was very happy with these changes. Players had been complaining about badge regression for a long time, so they were incredibly happy to see 2K address the issue.
As mentioned above, these changes make it easier for players to upgrade their badges, while making it harder for them to regress. So, it's normal to see players happy with these changes
However, despite the 2K community being happy about these changes they aren't thrilled. Most 2K players think that badge regression should be removed from the game, and I can't say I disagree with them.
This new badge system already makes it hard to achieve some specific badges. Having badges regressing because you haven't used them much in the past games makes no sense.
You want your badges so that you can use them in specific situations. Even if a specific badge will only be used twice in ten games, you want to have it. That's because that badge can be the difference between winning or losing.
Furthermore, this new system makes it incredibly hard to unlock badges such as Unpluckable. Unless players are actively trying to steal the ball from you every single game, which doesn't happen that often, this badge will be very hard to upgrade.
So, the sooner 2K removes badge regression from NBA 2K24 the better. The NBA 2K community would be delighted if that happened, and the game would become much more fun to play.
For more guides and all the latest news about NBA 2K24, check out Realsport101. You can also read our NBA 2K24 review here.