NBA 2K21
Over the years, 2K has been known to flood August with information about the upcoming version of NBA 2K in what feels like a last-minute rush. It’s hard to argue with their results from a sales standpoint as the game has cleared 10 million units sold each of the last few years.
Even with that track record, the information release, or the lack thereof, is noticeable. The year has been a strange one in almost every way, so delays are understandable. The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the world and for a time, 2K developers were impacted in a major way having to work from home.
According to a recent Ask Me Anything with gameplay producer Mike Wang, the 2K devs have been working with all necessary tools for weeks in preparation of NBA 2K21.
Still, it appears something is causing a delay. If COVID-19 has everything running behind, disclosing that information wouldn’t be a bad idea, and it’s not likely to give off an image of vulnerability.
It’s not hard to see that fans are getting info late on a game 2K hopes they pre-pay for in the next few weeks, if they haven’t already.
In 2019, we saw screenshots on July 15. We still haven’t seen real screenshots produced for the current-generation version besides the one that was released earlier this week of the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard.
The unveiling of the soundtrack for NBA 2K21 happened on July 27. Last year, the same information was available on July 20 for NBA 2K20.
The MyGM/MyLeague blog is usually a staple for the early portion of the 2K info drop. In 2019, it was released on July 29. We still haven’t seen that yet for NBA 2K21.
The current-gen gameplay trailer for NBA 2K21 was released on August 6, which is a full week later than it arrived for NBA 2K20.
Usually, a gameplay blog follows the release of the trailer, and that would make sense as a few things were teased in the brief preview. That still makes you wonder when or if a MyGM/MyLeague blog is coming, which in turn creates concern over how much has been done to improve the franchise modes in 2K.
Over the last five years, 2K has continued to innovate and broaden the spectrum of their ever-expanding product. However, during that time, there are so many areas related to communication that seem to be falling through the cracks.
Hopefully, this delay is just the latest breadcrumb strategy, but at some point it starts to feel as if we’re being a little too secretive and not keeping a dedicated fanbase informed about the next product that people are undoubtedly prepared to sink loads of time and money into again this year.
