Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five things that really should carry over year-to-year in NBA 2K.

Many years ago, I reflected on what I described as the New Game Blues. In short, when you’ve come to really enjoy a particular release in an annual basketball video game series, it can be tough to move on. The new game doesn’t feel as familiar and welcoming as the one you’ve been playing religiously for the past year. On top of that, all your progress is effectively gone, since it doesn’t carry over. Whether it’s a career mode game with a maxed-out avatar, an awesome squad in a card collecting mode, or a franchise mode game that’s five years in, it’s in the past now. Starting over is a pain!

Naturally, this has only gotten worse as the games have become greedier and pushier about microtransactions. That annual loss of progress is even harsher now that we’re confronted with the pressure to spend above and beyond the cost of purchasing the games in order to really enjoy them to the fullest. Also, as the online scene in NBA 2K has becoming increasingly toxic and elitist, being mistaken for a newcomer is just as miserable as actually being one. It’s a long shot given the greed that permeates the Triple-A gaming scene nowadays, but if these five things carried over year-to-year in NBA 2K, it would generate a ton of goodwill, and greatly improve the experience.

1. VC Balance

Let’s start with the digital item that’s at the forefront of lawsuits against Take-Two, and has inspired a shady new Terms of Service: Virtual Currency. Although our VC wallet is shared between multi-generational versions of the same game on the same console family (i.e. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and Xbox One and Xbox Series X), VC infamously doesn’t carry over to the next release. If your adventures (or your purchases) on the virtual hardwood have left you with a massive VC balance, then you better spend it while you can. Otherwise, it’s gone for good. We don’t even have the option of transferring our balance to a new game at a cents-on-the-dollar rate.

I’m always wary of declaring something to be possible when there may well be a technical reason that it isn’t, but the fact that we have cross-platform wallets tied to a user account suggests that it would be viable. The real problem is that it would save us the grinding that pushes gamers towards buying VC to skip the tedium, thus it’s not good for Take-Two’s recurrent revenue profits. Admittedly, there’s the issue of giving returning gamers too much of an advantage out of the gate, which is why I’d suggest a one-time, cents-on-the-dollar transfer. That way, gamers would be rewarded with a fair head start for their loyalty, enthusiasm, and any VC purchases in the prior game.

2. MT Balance

While the current lawsuit is focusing on Virtual Currency – since it’s the one we’ve always been able to purchase and is an issue in multiple modes – there’s a similar problem with MT (or MTP). To that point, now that we’re able to purchase MyTEAM Points the same as VC, we’ve got a second currency that 2K considers “fictions” that can be bought with very real money. Even before NBA 2K24 ditched the old Auction House for the Player Market, losing your MT balance when a new game came out was painful. The ability to transfer MT to a new game would’ve offset the pitiful payouts and lack of VC earnings, and the grind to upgrade your weak new MyTEAM squad.

Needless to say of course, as with allowing VC to carry over year-to-year, it wouldn’t be conducive to maximising recurrent revenue. As I noted though, allowing someone to transfer a massive amount of currency from the previous game would likely upset the competitive balance, giving them a huge advantage over newcomers. Then again, so do the MyTEAM pre-order bonuses, but the special editions are money-makers, so we know that they’re not going anywhere. And so, once again, the ability to make a cents-on-the-dollar transfer of your MT balance would be a fair compromise. You wouldn’t bring it all over, but you’d receive an ample MT advance as a loyalty bonus.

3. Online Records in MyCAREER’s Connected Modes

Of all the things that could and should carry over year-to-year in NBA 2K, this seems like the most feasible, and potentially the most useful. It’s a bummer starting over from scratch every year, but you can make the argument that each game is a brand new journey that needs to be more challenging at the beginning. You can also argue that bringing over huge VC or MT balances would impact the online scene, or simply acknowledge that Take-Two has no financial incentive to allow it. However, showing a gamer’s records from previous titles in addition to their stats in the current release wouldn’t cost them any recurrent revenue, while also being extremely useful for us.

Specifically, I’m talking about records and stats in MyCAREER and its connected modes from previous games being displayed on the current game’s player cards. As it stands, even veteran online NBA 2K gamers look like newbies when the slate gets wiped clean every year. If you could bring up someone’s card and see that they’re an accomplished online gamer, with a respectable record and stats and a good average teammate grade, it might be reassuring that they know what they’re doing; if such things are important to you. Obviously you’d need to be on the same platform with the same user account, but if so it should be possible, and would be highly beneficial.

4. Basic Cosmetic Items for MyPLAYERs

There’s a reason that every year in MyCAREER, we start out with the same brown shirt and grey sweatpants. We’re supposed to hate how generic our MyPLAYER looks, and be desperate to update their wardrobe. Since VC is used for both cosmetic items and attribute upgrades, we’re forced to budget it…or buy it, as Take-Two would prefer. Now, you could say that it doesn’t matter what our player is wearing; it’s not a Barbie Dress-Up game, you know! Except…it kind of is, now. Park gamers will judge you by your fit, and avoid anyone in the default clothes. Even in NBA MyCAREER, most of us want to give our players an accessory or two, and buy some new shoes.

Rather disgustingly, 2K openly encouraged gatekeeping clothing when they posted a meme shaming the default outfit for Halloween back in 2022. Even if it was intended to be light-hearted, it was incredibly tone-deaf, given the greediness of the solution to a problem that they created. All the more reason to allow some basic cosmetic items – such as the generic shorts, singlets, and t-shirts – to carry over into the next game, if not making them free altogether. I mean, they’re still basic, so Park gamers are still going to be snobby about it, but at least there’ll be more options out of the gate. Even if nothing else will carry over, this small token of generosity would be appreciated.

5. Some Measure of Progress & Content

I realise that’s rather vague, but it’s admittedly difficult to say just how much progress and content should carry over year-to-year in NBA 2K (and indeed, what would be feasible, since content can and does change). Again, too much of a head start is likely to disrupt competitive balance in online play, and possibly render the single player experience too easy as well. However, NBA 2K is a series with modes and mechanics that are better suited to games without annual releases, and with much longer support cycles. Being sent back to square one after making all that progress in last year’s game can also result in a poor first impression of a new release, since you’re underpowered.

With all the goodwill that Take-Two has squandered in recent years, some kind of loyalty/returning gamer bonus would go a long way. Granted, you can’t have gamers bringing their OP 99 Overall MyPLAYER into a new game at launch, but you could start them out at around 75 Overall; something that should happen anyway, but let’s compromise. Similarly, being able to bring over a couple of nominated favourite cards from MyTEAM (or trading them in for equivalents) could make those early games more fun. And you know what? If the game is more fun at launch, people are going to stick around, and might even buy some VC. Loyalty is a two-way street, after all.

What are your thoughts on these things carrying over year-to-year in NBA 2K? What else should carry over, and how else could the games be fairer to us? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

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