NBA 2K19 Is A Nightmarish Vision Of Our Microtransaction-Stuffed Future

[redBadger]

Majority of people complaining about this are probably still buying Red Dead 2, ergo unintentionally supporting Take Two anyway.

[Gorou]

That sounds too much like actual progress, it's gotta be something like "we completely revamped the animation system" and just have players shuffling around like they have been since 2009

[Czer]

actually EA sports games came up with the microtransaction systems since like 2006 and actually implemented it for real-money spending in 2009 iirc, and that made it become retardedly profitable for them and thus incentivized them and all others to toss them in everything they could, especially sports games

https://youtu.be/PTLFNlu2N_M

[Gorou]

Ultimately this

That's how they get you, they sell you a bunch of shit you don't want, or at least shouldn't have to pay for, along with something you do want.
Everyone does it now, Apple with their removal of the internal AUX jack, Valve with their widespread eradication of custom player content, EA with the migration of basic player customization that was in their sports games since 2009 over to Ultimate Team to sell it back to you.

[Reg]

I think an issue that might appease this is universally increasing the price of video games from $60 to $65. I feel like a lot of these predatory practices are done as cash grabs but also to appease the fact the games have maintained the same price for decades regardless of far higher production value and currency inflation.

[sir whoopsalot]

Has the voice acting in 2k games improved, though? I tried 2k15's career mode and the dude who voices your player is one of the most giftedly bad voice actors I've ever heard.

[hexpunK]

You're probably going to get a;
"something something BUT I MAKE GAME something something"
response to that, as if being a developer actually means your say in the demographics and spending habits of consumers actually means more.

The sports game playerbase are a peculiar breed as microtransactions were pretty much introduced via sports games, and are where most of the MTX money can be made. The sports genre in general sees really consistent and constant sales numbers compared to other genres where people do just stop buying some series after a while or if the newest entry is just kinda shit. It's a much more casual market like that.

Due to the annual release nature of sports titles it means they get to try a lot of new MTX systems really quickly and see what sticks before applying it to other genres. Though as evidence with Battlefront 2, it's not always a smooth transition between genres. Progression blocking lootboxes do well in sports games, but very few other genres actually stand for them.

[Peachy]

Just saw the special edition of this for 100 bucks on the switch store.
It came with essentially nothing but the virtual currency, and some t-shirts and shoes. I thought that wasn't a bad of a deal with the physical goods, then I realized that the t-shirts and shoes were digital.

100 dollars. For a digital copy of this game with some extra digital tat.