NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
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 some thoughts on the idea of a standalone Legends of the NBA type of game.
NBA 2K has done a phenomenal job with historical content over the past decade or so, at least in terms of quantity and innovation. The Jordan Challenge and NBA’s Greatest brought actual retro squads to the virtual hardwood in an official capacity, when for many years it appeared as though such teams would only ever be added through modding. MyTEAM has also made extensive use of historical players as both collectibles and challenges in its various modes of play. All-Decade teams have even returned. The only thing missing is a Legends Pool for historical roster projects.
Of course, while there’s no arguing with the quantity of historical content in NBA 2K – give or take a missing player here and there – there are issues with the quality. A number of NBA Legends and other retro players have inappropriate ratings, Badges, tendencies, and animations. As attention has turned to facilitating overpowered cards in MyTEAM, there’s been less focus on player accuracy, quite frankly to the point of sloppiness. Since there are gamers who are more interested in historical content than current rosters – and as it might allow for greater attention to detail – I’m intrigued by the idea of a standalone game that focuses solely on the Legends of the NBA.
Now, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see such a game, but before we talk feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks, let’s nail down the concept. I’m envisioning a game that’s developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports, built on the NBA 2K engine. The game would feature all of the historical teams present in the regular NBA 2K releases, but no current rosters. There’d be a Create-a-Player mode to facilitate the creation of missing players, and a PC release to allow for modding. In addition to a Season and Playoffs mode, there’d be some kind of challenge/showcase mode that re-creates historical match-ups with specific goals, similar to The Jordan Challenge.
This spinoff game – let’s call it “NBA 2K: Legends of the NBA” – wouldn’t be an annual release like its parent title. Perhaps there could be a sequel or two with new content and challenges as the years go by. Failing that, the game could receive daily or weekly content under the live service model, with challenges similar to the ones found in MyTEAM. I imagine there’d be some sort of online play – possibly a more traditional online team play mode – as well as old school head-to-head. Everything about Legends of the NBA would celebrate the history of the league. To that end, I envision more historical teams being added, along with some holdout players.
Era-specific presentation similar to NBA’s Greatest in NBA 2K12, and some of the historical showcases in WWE 2K, would naturally be a must for the atmosphere. A few liberties would need to be taken owing to licensing and whatnot, and while I’m sure a few lines from the original broadcasts could be re-recorded as in The Jordan Challenge, I don’t expect that all of the original broadcasters would be in the virtual booth. It’d likely still be Kevin Harlan, Greg Anthony, and a third announcer. Still, if it’s presented as modern announcers commentating on an old game – as with The Jordan Challenge and NBA’s Greatest – then that certainly works conceptually.
Beyond the modes, presentation, and featured historical content, the most exciting aspect of this hypothetical game would be the attention to detail when it comes to the players. Because Legends of the NBA would be all about – well, the Legends of the NBA – there’d be meticulous attention paid to all of the players’ ratings, Badges, tendencies, animations, gear, and so on. In fact, I’m also envisioning additional historical dribbling, layup, and dunk packages to suit players from the 70s and earlier. There’d be no copy and paste shortcuts here, nor any placeholder players. All teams would have at least eight players, which would be set as the minimum roster size.
I don’t mind saying that I think this hypothetical game would be fantastic for any gamers who are enthusiastic about NBA history, especially if it were done properly with the appropriate care and attention. As it would be built on the NBA 2K engine, it would have familiar controls. My experience with WWE Legends of Wrestlemania – one of the inspirations for this idea – suggests that trying to change things up with retro-style controls would be a mistake. It would also have some familiar issues, but generally speaking, being a spinoff of NBA 2K would give it a pretty solid base to build upon. I’d be keen to buy it, and I believe others would be interested in it, too.
So now that I’ve described what I feel would be a wonderful idea for a spinoff game, let’s look at why it’s unlikely and unfeasible. Obviously, 2K has cleared the biggest hurdle by licensing several teams and players already, so that’s not a problem on this occasion. Rather, it’s the question of whether a Triple-A basketball title that’s focused solely on retro content would sell well enough to justify development time and costs. Professional wrestling titles that have focused on historical content haven’t sold as well as WWE games that have featured Legends alongside the current Superstars. Legends of Wrestlemania likewise did poorly, though mostly due to design choices.
If Legends of the NBA were to feature some exclusive content, or indeed be the only 2K game with historical players, then it would certainly have a stronger selling point. It’s highly unlikely that 2K would do that, as it would remove both a popular feature and a means of generating recurrent revenue from the flagship game. One might also raise the point that these improvements would be better served if they were made to NBA 2K rather than a spinoff title. I envision the flagship game benefitting from the additions in Legends of the NBA, but to that point, I’d have to concede that it would make a standalone title pointless, aside from giving 2K reason to focus on Legends.
While it probably wouldn’t stretch the budget and resources too thin to release a Legends of the NBA spinoff in between NBA 2K titles – say, sometime in June as the NBA Finals are getting underway – it probably wouldn’t be profitable enough. It would presumably make 2K a little money, and they could keep overheads low by making it a digital-only release. If there are no microtransactions involved however, the suits probably wouldn’t be very interested in the idea. Once again, the wrestling games based on historical content provide us with a precedent, and with publishers focusing on guaranteed money-makers, there’s little to no room for passion projects.
I’d suggest that the most likely scenario would be DLC along the lines of the Legends Showcase DLC that was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of NBA 2K12. Even then, it’s probably a long-shot. It’d be more feasible to implement some of these enhancements and bring back presentation and challenge modes in the regular NBA 2K games, but there’s admittedly not much incentive for 2K to even do that. The inaccuracies in their historical content aren’t costing them any sales, and fixing them won’t generate any revenue. Indeed, when it comes to MyTEAM, those inaccuracies actually make them money, since they produce tantalisingly OP cards.
It’s a shame, because on paper, a Legends of the NBA game – or even fairly-priced DLC – is something that I believe would appeal to gamers who are history buffs. Looking at the bigger picture though, it’d be difficult to justify its development when the same improvements could just be implemented in the existing game. Perhaps if those other historical games or a spinoff like Legends of Wrestlemania had sold better, there’d be more hope. Even so, times have changed, and as I said, there’s less room for passion projects and artistic experiments with Triple-A developers. What we have in NBA 2K is great in its own right, but I’d love to see this hypothetical game.
In all likelihood we won’t see such a game released, so what can we hope for instead? We can emphasise the need for accuracy in NBA 2K’s historical content. By all means keep the OP cards in MyTEAM – I’d rather they didn’t, but it doesn’t look like they’ll shy away from that approach anytime soon – and aim for accuracy in the retro teams included in the default rosters. As long as that’s not a priority though, it’ll be on us as a community to fix those errors and copy and paste inaccuracies, and expand upon the content through modding. Like a lot of fun ideas, Legends of the NBA sadly doesn’t jive with current gaming trends, but at least we’ve got something to work with.
However, if a standalone title (or perhaps DLC for the latest NBA 2K) ever becomes feasible, it absolutely must be done correctly. There can’t be small, old school guards dunking like Vince Carter, or athletic players such as Dominique Wilkins and Clyde Drexler taking set shots. There mustn’t be generic placeholders to fulfil the modern team requirements, or players riddled with inaccuracies. There are so many good things 2K could do with a game based on NBA Legends, even if it mostly borrowed from The Jordan Challenge and NBA’s Greatest. NBA history is worth respecting, and is fun to revisit. If nothing else, let’s see these improvements in NBA 2K itself.
