Why NBA 2K12 Fell Short - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Why NBA 2K12 Fell Short Stuck

Posted on December 7, 2011 at 04:48 PM.

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There's a lot of negative sentiment around the community about NBA 2K12 this season, some of the complaints are entirely justified. In fact, I'd say they're completely warranted in many cases.

But we're not here to complain or bash, we're here to try to give a rational explanation for why exactly NBA 2K12 seems to have 'failed' in many people's eyes (at least in terms of sales, which is the strongest indicator of approval or not we have). Here are what I feel the top three reasons for the game seeming to fail in the sales department at this point:

The Lockout. Let's just get the easy and most obvious answer out of the way. The lockout killed NBA 2K12's sales above and beyond anything else. Most analysts predicted sales shortfalls of 50% or more, and while many in this blog space tried to argue the lack of NBA would make many want to buy the game, it just never works like that in the real world. But sales are on pace to be well below 50% of last year's totals if you believe some charts. So it just doesn't end with the lockout.
Jordan Was Cool...Until He Wasn't. The buzz surrounding last year's release was just enormous. In every way, people were hyped because Michael Freaking Jordan was about to be in a video game again after a long hiatus. And not just any game, but one which promised to be the most realistic game of basketball in some time. Fast forward a year, and when it came out Jordan was on the cover, there was a collective groan. The marketing strategy for this game was to play it safe and hope the sales just came in on brand recognition it seems. Unfortunately for 2K Sports and Take Two, they have found out the hard way that the NBA 2K brand is just as expendable for gamers as Tomb Raider was (and Call of Duty will be).
What Do You Have to Offer Me Again? Of course, the ever proverbial word of mouth is a big factor in getting a game over that hump from year to year. And the word of mouth simply wasn't that good. Games today, in the days of social media, are made or broken by how word carries. Hype can breed hype and disdain, disdain. NBA 2K12 had enormous expectations, impossible expectations of it. Gamers wanted a revolution but instead got an evolution and some cases, a careful step back by the developers. That was unacceptable. It's like whoever is going to follow Joe Pa at Penn State, they probably won't be a bad coach -- but they have no chance of living up to that legacy.

So what do you think? Are you enjoying NBA 2K12 this year? Do you think the game should be considered a failure given the horrible sales compared to last year? Let me know by commenting!!

Chris is the Executive Editor at Operation Sports. He is a native Oklahoman, has been playing sports video games since the age of eight and chases tornadoes in the spring.

Comments

# 31 dcal @ Dec 8

It is systematic of having the only basketball game in town. When there is no competition for a given product innovation goes away and 'milking the product' becomes inevitable. It is true in gaming and in life. I expect NBA2k13 to be alot better, considering EA will soon be jumping back into the NBA mix.

# 32 LucianoJJ @ Dec 8

With the recent price cuts for NBA 2k12, I've been extremely tempted to pick up a copy. ChrisS's story, and the comments remind me of the debate over NCAA Football 12. We've learned that patches don't necessarily address all issues. Waiting for more patches is frustrating, as well. While NBA2k has come light years from the Dreamcast days to become one of the top sports titles, it is not immune to having a bad year. I'm torn between buying it now and waiting for a patch, or just holding off until some time in 2012, if I ever buy it at all.

# 33 Armor and Sword @ Dec 8

Word of mouth is what kept me playing 2K11. I love 2K11 with a passion and after getting some feedback from some very trusted friends I have hee at OS it was an easy decision to take a pass on this years game.

Now keep in mind 2K11 was the first basketball title I purchased since NBA Live 2006. I fooled around with 2K9 and felt it was a dunk fest so I passed on that when I made the jump to the PS3 from the PS2/XBOX.

I am very tempted to pick it up once it drops to 20 bucks used just for the legends mode.

But for Association play which is what I am hardcore into on 2K11 I am sticking with last years game. Not only that the amount of classic rosters I have makes 2K11 replayability far suprior to 2K12.

So since I am only interested in one mode...why play full retail?

# 34 Tim187J @ Dec 8

Lack of game play improvements killed 2K sales this year. Maybe for 2K13 how about improving the game play. Defenses is bad the stars are nearly impossible to stop online. Players shooting 3's like they Ray Allen. Good defenders like Tony Allen can't stop nobody. Thought they said something about how user on ball defense will effect shooting percentages I can't tell. Right Stick defense is really useless only thing that seems to do is get me in foul trouble and slow my guy down. Contact means nothing because it will be a foul or they still make the shot. Guys can win games playing no on ball defense. Guys that have no skill what so ever can still win because the shooting are way to high and spamming the steal button. Fast breaks are nearly impossible to stop. Online is complete garbage this year. Last year other than the hop step and spin dunk online was good. I could stop anybody. I love destroying Miami Heat users because all they do was go to Lebron all game and I could lock him up no problem. Fast to forward a year later I'll be lucky if I can even make him miss one shot let alone stop him. Look legends are cool. But at the end of the day I want a game that doesn't make me want to break it every time I play it. Focus on the game play next because if wanted to see legends i'll go to NBA TV and the watch some old games.

# 35 Jakeness23 @ Dec 8

I have a couple blogs on here as to why NBA 2K12 isn't as good as advertised TO ME. Most of the things could be fixed in a patch, other things can't. I for one look forward to the competition next year when there will be two companies going at it again. Competition will always bring out the best product. I don't want to type out all of my negatives for this game, as I said, you can just take a look a couple of my blogs to see what I think about it.

# 36 shadia147 @ Dec 8

Looking at the Glitch thread, it appears to me that most of the issues involve problems with the Internet Connections and Xbox.
I gotta say.. To me, that indicates the problems (At least a large number of them) lie more with Microsoft than 2K. So far as Online play not being a good Sim , I can only say that the quality of Online Experience will always depend upon the quality of the people playing online.
In both of these statements, I would assert that few of the problems people have stated are actually due to a lack of quality from the actual game.
So therefore the very reason for this blog feeds into a misconception that somehow 2K is at fault for a) Online glitches, b) That Michael Jordan has been retired for some time now, c) The Lockout, d) The economy .
Would someone please point out to me whch of these "Flaws" did 2K have any control over?
And why does there seem to be a "Hit Job" going on? And what crime did 2K commit that deserves such bad press?

# 37 Boge @ Dec 8

I didn't bother with 2K12. I tried it and there was too much bumping and holding with player-lock. I know that will not be fixed in any patches, so, like I said before the game released, I'll have to cross my fingers for 13.

# 38 ruffrider1980 @ Dec 9

2K Sports & Visual Concepts kind of blew it this year with NBA 2k12. The online game play with taking out crew, making team up worse, not allowing us to play on the same team with friends in online association, and not even allowing us to play with the legend teams online against our friends.

My friends and I played alot online together last year in 2k11, but this year since there is not much there we hardly play at all. I expected better things from the online this year compared to last year, so its a understatement to say that I am very disappointed.

# 39 tabulaRasa @ Dec 9

I think ea affiliation on This site by certain members , has something to do with the negative comments on the game.

# 40 cashless @ Dec 9

Can you even play online now? I just lost all interest after a cavalcade of dropped connections and broken match makings.

I didn't love the new mechanics, such as the playbook, hopstepping and directional passing seemed less effective, but I'm sure I'll get used to them.

I didn't play 2k11 a great deal in the beginning of last years season either, so I'm sure 'i'll get completely immersed later on.

# 41 AiiRxJONES @ Dec 9

The game is str8 but if your not putting in crew next year let me know ahead of time so i dont waste my hard earned MONEY!!!!

# 42 basehead617 @ Dec 10

The game is better than 2K11.. Period. Only a fool could say otherwise.

# 43 TajDeni @ Dec 10

the issue here is the difference in mindset btw the 2k followers and the Live followers. most ppl who were with 2k from the beginning mostly play offline association and most of the ppl that played and came over from live are online gamers.

2k needs to go back to nba2k8 and just have 1p vs 1p online games and continue to focus on their association mode. and outside of that get out of the online basketball world, because they obviously cant master it 4 whatever reason. most of their followers play offline anyways

nbal live as the name suggest needs to strictly be an online game and have no offline game at all, because they shown that they cannot properly due hum vs cpu interactions. just create an online game built around 1p vs 1p, 3p vs 3p and 5p vs 5p. thats all their fanbase cares about anyways

problem solved...

but i will say that tho i cant prove it, my spidey senses smells something very evil going on here with these attacks

but like i said the EA followers only care about online

# 44 xavier16 @ Dec 10

Could it be that NBA 2k11 was just so good, that people are still getting use out of it a year later. I have played so much on 2k11, that I haven't each touched NBA 2k12 yet. Yes, I did purchase it, but have only played one or two games on it. But I have played 200 full games on 2k11. So maybe it has nothing to do with the 3 reasons that were given, but simply, some didn't purchase it cause they didnt feel the need to upgrade.
This same logic kept me from purchasing NHL 12. I have loved NHL 11 and didnt feel that purchasing 12 was that necessary since I was loving 11 to death, and there weren't that mean changes to warrant the upgrade.