NBA 2K22 Gameplay Director reveals major details in now-deleted tweets

NBA 2K22 is just a few short weeks away, but news is still relatively scarce with no gameplay trailer having been released for the title.

We did finally learn more recently in a string of now-deleted tweets by Gameplay Director Mike Wang, and it looks like changes are coming in NBA 2K22.

NBA 2K22 details revealed in now-deleted tweets by Gameplay Director Mike Wang

Getting a haphazard group of reveals and answers via a handful of tweeted replies by a title's Gameplay Director isn't exactly the usual method of announcing something about an upcoming release.

However, that becomes all the more intriguing when that Gameplay Director chooses to delete all of those tweets, which is exactly what Mike Wang has done.

Back on August 21, 2021, Wang started tweeting from his personal account and replied to a series of tweets by fans with answers to several questions about NBA 2K22 gameplay.

Within hours, Wang had changed course and deleted all of the tweets where he'd discussed shooting mechanics, dribbling changes, MyPLAYER animations, and other various gameplay details about NBA 2K22.

Actually looking at everything that was revealed about NBA 2K22 is a bit of a challenge, but we've still got copies of a majority of the tweets Wang later deleted.

You can see some of his now-deleted tweets about NBA 2K22 gameplay below:

Shoutout to the r/NBA2K subreddit's account on Twitter for having retweeted most of these around when we were able to secure screenshots prior to their deletion.

The bottom two on the far right of the image are thanks to 2KIntel and a reply to their tweet by @Blaze_4real.

The only tweet seen above which is still live is the one beginning with "new seasonal animation content drops," and he followed a reply asking for gameplay that "lots of info will be hitting soon."

Other than those two, Mike Wang scrubbed his account as far back as a tweet he sent in July, and exactly why he chose to send things out only to delete them still remains unclear.

While we can't know for sure, the current lack of a gameplay trailer or any real footage of NBA 2K22 in action has many players worried about potential delays or issues during development and that some of these details might not make it into the game at launch.

Then again, it's entirely possible that Mike Wang was told the details shouldn't be released in this way and chose to delete them pending an eventual gameplay trailer or deep dive via a Courtside Report.

Shooting, dribbling, MyPLAYER animations, and more

Among the topics covered in Wang's now-deleted tweets, he touches on shooting mechanics, dribbling, MyPLAYER animations, and even ratings.

Here are the exact quotes later deleted by Gameplay Director Mike Wang:

• "shots won't be taken away, only added"
• "you won't lose 99 this year"
• "overalls won't drop this year" and in a follow-up, "to clarify, you won't lose overall on next gen as we have a different system in place there. overalls can still fluctuate in current gen"
• "we're gating more animations based on size and ability this year"
• "dribbling is closer to 20 than 21 control-wise. eg. holding the pro stick always shoots like 20. but there are new moves/combos you're going to want to learn."
• "the plan is to release the same sig anims on both gens"
• "Current and next gen are much more similar on-court this year compared to last"
• "Some of the content is from previous 2K's, like the Curry slide, but most will be new"
• "some content will be season exclusives. but the actual on court gameplay sigs (shots and moves) will stay in the game once they're dropped"
• "you don't have to be as high as last year to be a perimeter shooting threat.. if you have good timing at least"

While we weren't able to locate original tweets to verify, these other details were also compiled from apparently deleted tweets by Wang in a post on the r/NBA2K subreddit:

• "hard to explain in a tweet. main change is a much larger weighting toward coverage. aiming is gone. i explain more in the upcoming courtside report in a couple weeks. shooting is more predictable this year. i’m pretty confident the community will like it"
• Steady Shooter has been removed
• "the vibration shot cue is gone"
• Turning off the shot meter still gives a boost
• There will be a new shot meter
• New jumpshot landings will be added

We'll unfortunately have to wait and see when the gameplay trailer and Courtside Report about gameplay get revealed to get more clarity on all of these changes.

When will the NBA 2K22 gameplay trailer and official details be released?

While all of these tidbits are fascinating for the time being, we still need a proper look at things and something more official that wasn't hastily deleted within hours of being posted.

Fortunately we have a window of time now, as it was revealed earlier this week that gameplay will be revealed in more detail the week of August 30, 2021.

Unfortunately the "week of" phrasing doesn't give us an exact date or time to look out for these next reveals, but we can expect gameplay news between August 30 and September 3.

Seasons took the first reveal, and we saw that go live on August 24 at 11am ET with a full Courtside Report about Season 1 and how Seasons will operate in NBA 2K22.

With what appears to be two reveals set per week, they could be looking at a Tuesday and Thursday model, meaning the most likely reveal date and time for gameplay right now is August 31 at 11am ET.