Poll Results from this morning of users still having server related issues in NBA 2K15.

With the release of NBA 2K15, the team at 2K Sports and Visual Concepts promised a much improved experience when connecting online. After NBA 2K14 suffered with connectivity issues throughout most of the game's life cycle, we were told that 2K's top engineers had spent the entire NBA 2K15 development cycle working on network infrastructure. What has been delivered, at least so far, is nothing short of a disaster.

Attempts to connect to the 2K servers and to other users have been met with nothing but frustration through the first two weeks of the game's release. While the experience has been fraught with frustration, it has slowly began to improve over the last week.

However, major issues still persist.

Head-to-Head

Whether you want to play a ranked game or just play with a friend, connecting for a head-to-head game in NBA 2K15 was initially quite difficult. I tried many times to connect with a friend who lives within five miles from my house to play a quick game. I've been successful once, and that game kicked me back to the PlayStation 4 dashboard in the 3rd quarter. I tried on the night of October 7th, I tried again on the 8th, and again on the 9th. When I was able to connect, the experience was decent. Mostly lag free up until we were kicked from out game back to the dashboard. On the night of the 10th I attempted to connect for some ranked games and was unable to connect. I'm sorry to report that on the night of October 11th, I was also unable to connect to a ranked game.

This kind of frustration has already driven me to the OS message boards seeking out information about other user experiences and advice on how to connect and stay connected. I've read the frustration of the community and it mirrored my own.

As time has progressed, the connectivity has continued to improve -- but you can't help but feel a disconnect could come at any moment thanks to the early miscues. Many of the issues now are likely locally driven as 2K's servers have seemed capable of handling head-to-head games over the last few days with little issue.
 

MyCareer and MyTeam

I first want to point out that MyCareer can be played without an online connection. However, in my opinion, and the menus in NBA 2K15 admit this; it is a limited experience. So with that in mind one of the first things I tried to do with the game was start a MyCareer. On the night of October 7th I couldn't connect to 2K at all, and was therefore relegated to single player quick games. On the 8th I finally got connected, but the connection was far from stable. I scanned in my face using the new face scanning technology in NBA 2K15. If you've done this, you know how frustrating it is to get this right. After a few attempts I was able to get a decent cyberface and went to start MyCareer.

As soon as I did this however, my upload failed and I was taken back to the screen to start my player over again. This happened multiple times on the nights of October 8th and 9th during my initial play testing. I lost between nearly 10 face scans either because the upload would fail or because I attempted to increase my attributes or check the MyCareer store and the game would simply lose the connection and reset my information. Needless to say, this whole experience left me very aggravated with MyCareer early on.

MyTeam is 2K's version of Ultimate Team and the idea works well with basketball. Unfortunately in NBA 2K15, the mode is barely working even today. I initially attempted to start MyTeam and was immediately met with endless loading that eventually kicked me back to the NBA 2K15 start up screen. The next night I was able to connect long enough to play two solo challenges and collect my rewards. Since then in my initial playtime testing period, I haven't been able to finish and get credit for one MyTeam game, either in the solo challenges or the online challenges. Typically the game will connect, let me play one or two quarters, and then boot me back to the dashboard. This has been beyond frustrating.

Fast forward to today, and while both modes should be working according 2K's 'fix', many users are having issues accessing their MyTeam and MyPlayer files on the 2K servers. Some have gone so far as to say that they've had VC disappear from their profiles as well. Some people can't even access their MyTeam, others can but with frustrating results.

For now, both MyTeam and MyPlayer seem to be broken for one reason or another for NBA 2K15 players. If the modes are working now, we cannot guarantee you'll see them continue working in the future. Our best advice is to make sure you document (with pics) your VC and progress so that if you run into save file issues many others are, you will have a compelling case to give 2K's support team.

The Park

One mode I want to touch on here, but can't, is MyPark. My frustrations connecting online are now documented, but MyPark takes this to another level. I've had instances on both October 10th and 11th where my player would lag out and then disappear altogether. I've gotten the CE-34878-0 error numerous times. I've also had my player stand around waiting to play, then suddenly be warped onto mid-court and have the game freeze. No single mode has tested my patience quite like MyPark in NBA 2K15 did early on.

A patch has been submitted for the issues in The Park, but until it arrives issues still remain for many gamers in the Park. Many of those issues revolve around the broken MyPlayer mode -- as many players want a customized avatar in the Park with them. Others are simply having issues getting games started, although those specific issues have waned quite a bit in the last week.

Final Thoughts

At this point, the best thing I can say about NBA 2K15's online modes is that it probably can't get any worse than it has been the last two weeks. It has to get better from here, doesn't it? The connectivity issues are unacceptable. I've read the community's frustration and experienced more than enough of my own. The team at 2K is working on the issues for sure, and things have steadily improved. However, the list of issues gamers are still having is rather long.

After last year's debacle, one has to wonder why the same approach was attempted once again -- this time with relatively similar results as last year?

The root of NBA 2K15's problems lie in the fact that with so many modes either directly or indirectly tied to a connection to the 2K servers, when they aren't functional, it cripples what should seemingly be single player experiences because of online connectivity issues. One would think a better approach would be to store VC progress locally and only update that progress to the 2K servers when a gamer wants to purchase an item using VC that requires online access, otherwise you are left with users unable to give their single player experiences a go because online servers are down. By reducing the amount of people simultaneously hitting the servers, you may even improve the online experience for those wanting to actually play online.

However, due to the current approach, many paying customers are left with a game that they cannot play or can only play in a very limited fashion for significant chunks of time. NBA 2K15 is once again, similar to NBA 2K14, off to a rough start in the online area. Let's hope that the issues are resolved and that we can all enjoy the full game we payed for sooner rather than later.