OPINION: NBA 2K14's Post Launch Failure is a Good Thing for Sports Gaming - JohnDoe8865's Blog

JohnDoe8865's Blog

OPINION: NBA 2K14's Post Launch Failure is a Good Thing for Sports Gaming

Posted on January 21, 2014 at 06:29 AM.

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The opinions stated within this blog post are mine alone and in no way associated with OperationSports.com or anyone in an official capacity for this website. This blog post contains my thoughts.

NBA 2K14's post launch failure is a good thing for the future of sports games and let me tell you why. Imagine a world in which 2K14 had a flawless launch. No server issues, no corrupt save issues, no crashes to the dashboard, and no broken features. As a gamer this sounds like basketball utopia. However, in this scenario, I believe 2K's implementation of virtual currency would not have come under the same scrutiny that it has. Now that's one man's opinion but I think it needs to be discussed. As people's frustration grew over a broken game with broken saves and broken features, people also started to notice other things wrong with NBA 2K14. The virtual currency implementation, the lack of local save files to your HDD, and the reliance on always connecting to 2K's server to name a few.

In many ways, NBA 2K14 embodies that "always online" spirit that gamers erupted against en masse when the Xbox One was initially revealed. Microsoft walked back these features and the rest is history. 2K14 often feels like a game made for that always online world. The always online nature of the game didn't reveal itself right away either. I paid my $64 at launch and bought 2K14 like many of you did. I went home and was blown away by the graphics and gameplay, like many of you were. Many gamers were in the "honeymoon" period with 2K14 and rightfully so. It wasn't until after the launch of the game and after the reviews were posted by every major site, OS included, that the gaming world woke up to what was going on.

I myself might have downplayed or diminished the grumblings of fellow gamers on some issues had I not experienced a broken MyCareer save that couldn't be played until Patch #2 was released. At the time I was furious. But now I'm glad that it happened the way it did. It gave me a chance to stand back and reflect on the game and it's various issues. It afforded me the opportunity to look at the implementation of VC as a universal currency across all modes. It gave me the chance to wonder why it took so long to boot the game up sometimes. It game me a reason to wonder why I couldn't find the roster I had worked on unless I was disconnected from online (as I was when I first worked on the file). I'm not saying that all of these issues wouldn't have been noticed by gamers eventually. But I do believe the roar over them would not have been as loud and I don't believe that major websites and even our own Press Row Podcast would have devoted entire stories to "vc", had 2K14 had a trouble free launch and fantastic post launch support. We'd have all been too busy playing the game!!

So yeah, I'm glad that NBA 2K14 launched with so much broken, now that I reflect on it. It gave sports gamers a reason to question the future of our hobby and to start speaking up about our concerns for this generation of sports games. Without gamers and critics crying fowl over the way that "vc" was implemented, would we as a gaming community have had any meaningful discussion about the state of micro-transactions, in-app purchases, and always online in December and January? I don't know the answer but I'm glad we didn't have to face that. In large part because of NBA 2K14, baseball gamers the world over now ask questions about SCEA's "universal currency", scheduled to debut in MLB: The Show 14. All sports gamers have rallied around the idea that we shouldn't have to connect to a server in order to access our local save files. I think some really positive discussion came from the failed state of NBA 2K14 and it just might be the tip of the spear for gamers to shape what kind of experience we demand and accept from our sports games going forward. And it even expands beyond sports games to console games in general. NBA 2K14's failures have been a massive story. And rightfully so in my opinion.

I believe that in the long run we might look back at NBA 2K14 and be thankful that we had to address some of the issues that we have addressed as a gaming community. It might prove to be this generation's Madden NFL 06 moment for some of us. For different reasons obviously but perhaps more important. The failure of NBA 2K14 on so many levels is a good thing for the future of sports games.

If any of you would like to comment, I'd be happy to know what you think about it.

Comments

# 1 Dazraz @ Jan 21

Excellent write up. You make same very good points.

# 2 tril @ Jan 21

nice write up!!!!
cant argue with your logic.
All I can say is that 2k will learn from this and correct these issues and make sure they do not reoccur in future titles.
2k has proven that they listen to consumers. VC will be revamped for next year as well as some of the other features folks complained about about.