NBA 2K19

It seems that 2K Sports will be releasing First Look screenshots for NBA 2K19 throughout the week, featuring members of Team 2K. The latest screenshot features Jayson Tatum, who had a standout rookie season with the Boston Celtics in 2018.

As with the previous screenshot featuring 20th Anniversary Edition cover player LeBron James, the latest screen also reveals Jayson Tatum’s Overall Rating. It seems Tatum will be rated 87 Overall in the default roster of NBA 2K19, up from the 82 Overall he was rated in the final official roster for NBA 2K18.

Check out the full screenshot below. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section, as well as join in the official screenshot discussion taking place here in the NLSC Forum. Once again, it looks like we’ll be getting screenshots of the Team 2K members throughout the week, so stay tuned for more previews of prominent players and their initial Overall Ratings!

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2K Sports have revealed the second official NBA 2K19 screenshot via the game’s official Twitter. After providing us with a glimpse of Standard Edition cover player Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first official screenshot, the latest screen features LeBron James, cover player for the 20th Anniversary Edition.

In addition to showing LeBron in his new Los Angeles Lakers garb, the screenshot also reveals him as a member of Team 2K, and his Overall Rating of 98. This would assuredly make him the highest rated active player in NBA 2K19. In NBA 2K18, the All-Time Cavaliers and All-Time Heat versions of LeBron were rated 99 Overall, while the active version on the Cavs was rated 97.

Check out the screenshot of LeBron James below, and feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on how the game is looking so far. You can also join in the discussion of all the official screenshots in this topic in the NLSC Forum.

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PlayStation Australia has revealed that 2018 Rookie of the Year and former number one overall draft pick Ben Simmons will appear on the Australian cover of NBA 2K19. This marks the first time that Australia has received a regional NBA 2K cover.

As reported by Operation Sports’ Steve Noah, the cover will be available in both Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, it will apparently be double-sided, with Ben Simmons on one side and Standard Edition cover player Giannis Antetokounmpo on the other.

The cover art is very similar to the Standard Edition and 20th Anniversary Edition, featuring slogans associated with Simmons and his journey to the NBA. As a Novocastrian, I was disappointed to see that there aren’t any references to his time in the city where he played rep basketball (and where his father played professionally in our NBL), but it’s still great to see him on the first Aussie NBA 2K cover.

Ben Simmons is the second Philadelphia 76ers player to appear on an NBA 2K cover, with Hall of Famer and original 2K cover player Allen Iverson being the first. Teammate Joel Embiid was confirmed as the cover player for NBA Live 19 last week.

Check out the full cover art below. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section, as well as join in the discussion taking place in our NBA 2K19 Forum.

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Following what seems to have been a completely inadvertent leak last week, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo has been officially revealed as the cover player for the Standard Edition of NBA 2K19. The cover art is similar in theme to the 20th Anniversary Edition cover featuring LeBron James, who has just signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Antetokounmpo becomes the first European player and Milwaukee Buck to appear on the primary cover of NBA 2K. Pre-order customers will receive a Sapphire Giannis Antetokounmpo MyTEAM card, along with 10 MyPLAYER packs (one delivered each week), and 5000 VC.

In addition to the cover reveal, we also have our first “First Look” screenshot of the year, naturally featuring The Greek Freak. Check it out below, along with the full cover art.

The 20th Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K19 comes out on September 7th, while the Standard Edition drops on September 11th. This year’s Prelude, once again only available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, will be coming out on August 31st. What do you make of the cover reveal? Do you have any thoughts on NBA 2K19 so far? Have your say in the comments section below, and join in the discussion here in the NLSC Forum.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on two very important areas in NBA 2K19: matchmaking and microtransactions.

I’ve mentioned matchmaking and microtransactions in previous articles discussing what I feel must be done in future NBA 2K games, and with the preview season more or less underway, it’s time to revisit these issues. Both are aspects that the NBA 2K development team must handle carefully, to ensure that the experience provided by NBA 2K19 is as accessible and as enjoyable as it can be. If the wrong approach is taken, then this year’s game is going to suffer from the same problems as NBA 2K18, with similar backlash. 2K is overdue to show its fanbase some genuine goodwill.

I originally planned to discuss matchmaking and microtransactions separately, but the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that the two issues are closely linked. Their respective shortcomings in last year’s game combined to make its most popular online modes far less inviting and enjoyable than they should’ve been. The lack of in-depth matchmaking made the pay-to-win aspect of microtransactions a much larger issue. Likewise, the impact of microtransactions in NBA 2K18 made the lack of proper matchmaking all the more apparent and problematic. If handled better, they needn’t cause as many problems with the competitive balance in NBA 2K19.

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As you may have noticed, over the weekend we added forums for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19. With the preview season more or less underway, it seemed only appropriate to move discussion about this year’s games to their own sections in the NLSC Forum, rather than keep them in the NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K18 forums respectively.

I’ve also created the portals for each game here on the main site. You can find the NBA Live 19 subsite here, and the NBA 2K19 subsite here. The initial screenshots for NBA Live 19 have already been added to the game’s portal, and both subsites have links to all of the resources that are available so far. That includes articles in the NLSC Wiki; check out the NBA Live 19 article here, and the NBA 2K19 article here.

More details will be added throughout the preview season, so stay tuned to the NLSC for the latest news and information on this year’s games from EA Sports and 2K Sports. As always, I invite our community to help out with our Wiki resources, not only adding new info to the NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 articles as it becomes available, but also our other articles as well. With our new forums launched nice and early this year, we’re also hoping to get some good discussion going, so join in the conversation today!

2K Sports has officially revealed LeBron James as the cover player for the 20th Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K19. A couple of teaser images hinted at a forthcoming announcement, while promotional materials seen at GameStop let the cat out of the bag in regards to LeBron gracing the cover. As noted yesterday, this is his second NBA 2K cover following NBA 2K14.

The game is already available to pre-order, and the pre-order bonuses have also been revealed. There will apparently be only two editions this year: the Standard Edition, and the aforementioned 20th Anniversary Edition. The Standard Edition retails at $59.99 USD, and will be released on September 11th, 2018. The 20th Anniversary Edition, which offers more pre-order bonuses including some physical collectables, retails for $99.99 USD and comes out September 7th. At this time, it appears that pre-ordering the 20th Anniversary Edition will be the only way to play NBA 2K19 four days early, in contrast to the Early Tip-Off Weekend promotion across all editions in years past.

A trailer has been released to celebrate the announcement. It features clips of LeBron James in previous NBA 2K games, though not surprisingly, doesn’t feature any NBA 2K19 footage. The trailer is accompanied by the song “How Could They Have Known?” featuring 2 Chainz, Rapsody, and Jerreau, tying into the game’s tagline of “They Will Know Your Name”. Check out the trailer here, or watch it below.

Additionally, The Prelude has been confirmed for release on August 31st. As in previous years, it will allow gamers to get a head start on MyCAREER. The Prelude will once again only be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gamers, meaning PC and Switch gamers will have to wait until the game drops to jump into the mode. Speaking of MyCAREER, pre-order information also confirms that The Neighborhood will return in NBA 2K19.

Please see below for the full cover art for the 20th Anniversary Edition – which notably features LeBron James in a generic black jersey – and a list of all the pre-order bonuses. The cover player and artwork for the Standard Edition of NBA 2K19 will be revealed at a later date, with a placeholder image currently being used on the pre-order page. We’ll post more information as it becomes available, but in the meantime feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below, as well as join in the discussion here in the NLSC Forum.

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NBA 2K19 will have a 20th Anniversary Edition, as per teaser images posted by the game’s official social media accounts. Further information on this year’s game would appear to have been leaked via promotional materials at GameStop, which seemingly reveal LeBron James as the cover player.

At this time, it’s unclear as to whether LeBron will be the cover player for the standard edition of the game as well, or just the 20th Anniversary Edition. He previously appeared on the cover of NBA 2K14, which was a launch title on the current generation. According to the promotional signage, the 20th Anniversary Edition will be available on September 7th, while the standard edition will be available on September 11th, confirming another Early Tip-Off Weekend promotion.

Although these details are yet to be officially confirmed, 2K Sports appear to be gearing up to some official announcements to formally tip off the NBA 2K19 preview season. The following teaser image bearing the slogan “They Will Know Your Name” was Tweeted out a few hours ago:

#NBA2K19 pic.twitter.com/dE7OVTE2Nh

— NBA 2K 2K18 (@NBA2K) June 5, 2018

Presumably the slogan refers to the theme of this year’s MyCAREER mode, which likely confirms another story-driven experience. We’ll be sure to post more information as it becomes available, and discuss the developments in forthcoming episodes of the NLSC Podcast, but for now, what’s your take? Have your say in the comments section below, and join in the discussion here in the NLSC Forum.

With June and the NBA Finals fast approaching, we’re inching closer to the preview season for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19. With NBA Live 19 having a presence at EA Play, we’ll likely hear some preliminary information, and perhaps even catch a glimpse of the game, within the next couple of weeks.

Conversely, Visual Concepts has traditionally held back on releasing previews, trailers, and information for NBA 2K until quite late in the preview season, so we may not hear much until July, or even August. Of course, the Legend Edition of NBA 2K18 featuring Shaquille O’Neal on the cover was announced in early May last year.

Speaking of The Diesel, it seems as though we’ve received a small nugget of information about NBA 2K19, as the official NBA 2K Twitter account recently shared a photo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wearing motion capture suits. This would obviously suggest that the two Hall of Fame centres have recently participated in a mo-cap session for NBA 2K19. Shaq originally posted the photo here on his Instagram account.

Although new retro teams have been added in recent years, there has been a general feeling that 2K’s efforts with the historical content have been halfhearted at best. Several historical players were missing Badges at launch, and many of the placeholder players are blatant copy and paste jobs. A lot of faces are also strangely inferior to previous games, even going back to the previous generation. With Shaq and Kareem providing mo-cap, it may be a sign that greater attention will be paid to the retro content in NBA 2K19. If nothing else, we’ll likely be seeing some new post moves in the game, thanks to the two legendary Lakers.

Join us for Episode #250 of the NLSC Podcast later today where we’ll be discussing this, and other news from the past week. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on how getting back to basics with NBA 2K19 would be a great move after the controversy and dissatisfaction that surrounded NBA 2K18.

For years, NBA 2K has been the dominant brand in basketball gaming. It started with EA Sports’ misfire when NBA Live 06 was released on Xbox 360, devoid of Dynasty Mode and generally being a rough transition to the next generation. As NBA Live continued to struggle, NBA 2K stayed the course and went from strength to strength, garnering higher ratings from reviewers and eventually becoming the top-selling NBA game when NBA 2K9 outsold NBA Live 09. The series has continued to innovate and receive praise from gamers and gaming publications alike, setting sales records and expanding its brand with its own weekly TV show, and now an eSports league.

And yet, despite all its success, the brand doesn’t feel as untouchable as it once did. NBA 2K18 received an unprecedented amount of backlash over its greedy and anti-consumer approach to microtransactions, which greatly affected some of its most popular modes. Beyond that controversy, a lot of gamers felt that the game had simply taken a few steps backwards with a new motion system that didn’t seem quite ready, AI that didn’t feel as smart or realistic, and rosters that were riddled with problems. While 2K’s strategies for “recurrent revenue” obviously won’t be going anywhere, I’d suggest that NBA 2K19 could otherwise really benefit from going back to basics.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five improvements that are needed in both NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19.

The NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 Wishlists that we’ve submitted, in my opinion, comprehensively cover the most important suggestions for fixes, enhancements, and additions for both games. Each game has its own list of improvements that we’re hoping to see added in the next release; for NBA Live 19, I would suggest that it comes down to further polish to gameplay and more depth to modes. NBA 2K19, on the other hand, needs a slight course correction after some missteps in NBA 2K18. With that being said, while the games have their own issues, there are currently some that are common to both series, and areas in which they can both improve.

Please note that I’m not suggesting that these are necessarily the most important issues that must be addressed in both NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19. As I said, our Wishlists demonstrate that both games have a long laundry list of things that can be added or enhanced, and several are specific to one series or the other. Indeed, I’ve already discussed some of the specific things that NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 need to have in previous Friday Five columns. These are just areas where both games have some common problems and room for improvements, though the respective solutions may differ slightly. With that being said, let’s get to the first item on the list.

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Please be advised that our official Wishlists for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 have been submitted to EA Sports and Visual Concepts respectively. Our contacts at both companies were very receptive to the feedback that we compiled, and will be taking it into consideration as both games continue to be developed. While there is no guarantee that everything on our Wishlists will be implemented or addressed, we’ve at least done our part in providing constructive feedback and letting our voices be heard.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Wishlists! Participation wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as it has been in previous years, but there was some great feedback in there. We’ll be looking to open the Wishlist topics a little earlier next time around, but as it stands, we were still able to submit them in time for them to have an impact.

For the moment, both Wishlist topics will remain open in the NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K18 sections of the NLSC Forum, so feel free to keep posting suggestions and discussing ideas for the upcoming games. Once the NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 sections are opened later this year, the topics will be locked and archived there. If you want to jump into the conversation, you can find the NBA Live 19 Wishlist topic here, while the NBA 2K19 Wishlist topic can be found here.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on the annual round of deceptive, clickbait content that claims to be leaked footage and information.

The preview seasons for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 are still at least a few months away, but it seems that the fakers are getting an early start. Over the past couple of weeks, supposed “leaked” details and fake trailers for this year’s games from EA Sports and Visual Concepts have been making the rounds, and sadly, it seems a lot of people have been fooled. As we discussed in the most recent episode of the NLSC Podcast, these practices do nothing to help the basketball gaming community. We need to be aware that people are trying to fool us and call it out, not entertain the notion that clear fakes and clickbait lies are leaked media and reliable scoops.

This behaviour is nothing new, and I’ve discussed it before. As long as online gaming communities have been around, there have been trolls signing up to forums or getting in touch with fan websites, claiming to have insider information. With social media and YouTube providing platforms for virtually everyone to have their say and create content, it’s easier than ever to spread misinformation and hoaxes. The more tech savvy trolls can easily whip up screenshots and even videos that can be presented as leaked previews of an upcoming release. At a glance, the better fakes may be halfway convincing, but really, the only thing that’s leaking here is a bunch of hot air.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five things that NBA 2K19 needs to have.

As I mentioned last week, Wishlist season is upon us. These days, we don’t just collect feedback for NBA Live, but also the NBA 2K series as well. Our NBA 2K19 Wishlist topic is open for constructive feedback, which we’ll be looking to pass along to the development team at Visual Concepts as soon as possible. As with NBA Live 19, NBA 2K19 is already in pre-production, so it’s important that we get our Wishlist in as soon as possible, in order for it to have the best chance of making a positive impact on this year’s game from 2K Sports.

While it’s impossible to compile a comprehensive Wishlist in just five points, I do have some ideas about what I’d like the general areas of focus to be for NBA 2K19. I certainly don’t pretend to speak for all basketball gamers – as I said last week, our Wishlist itself is intended to get a good cross-section of what the community wants – but having spent a considerable amount of time with NBA 2K18, and the series in general over the past six or seven years, I do believe that I have some suggestions that would benefit NBA 2K19. While the game is obviously wildly successful, I also feel that there’s ample room for these technological and conceptual improvements.

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Please be advised that our Wishlist topics for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 are now open! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with our annual Wishlist – which we now compile for both NBA Live and NBA 2K – it’s an effort to collect constructive feedback on what we want to see in the next game. We prioritise the feedback according to what the community most wants to see added, fixed, and improved, and then send it along to the development teams at EA Sports and Visual Concepts.

The key to compiling a useful Wishlist is to identify the most important issues as concisely as possible, while also elaborating and being specific where necessary. In other words, saying that you want “better gameplay” isn’t particularly helpful, whereas explaining the changes you want to see for a better gameplay experience (without a long-winded rant) is feedback the developers can actually put to good use. The aim is to be clear and to the point, explaining what you want out of the next game without turning it into a 5000 word essay.

One suggestion is to post your top 15-20 suggestions for the game. Alternatively, you may choose to post your top 5-10 suggestions in different categories (gameplay, career modes, franchise modes, online, etc). As long as it’s constructive and comprehensive feedback, we’ll be able to reach some sort of consensus as a community, and provide the development teams at EA and VC with an idea of what we most want to see in NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19.

Pre-production is obviously already underway on both titles, so we want to get our feedback in as soon as possible. As such, if you’ve got ideas and suggestions for this year’s games, start posting them now! I’ll be sure to post some reminders over the next few weeks, as well as a bulletin when we’ve officially submitted each Wishlist.