Monday Tip-Off: I’ve Lost My Enthusiasm For New Games

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on how I’ve lost enthusiasm for new basketball video games.

When the preview season for NBA 2K26 officially tipped off in early July, I was filled with dread. Frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to aggregating the news and discussing the upcoming game. Likewise, I wasn’t excited for September to arrive so that I could get my hands on it. The anticipation that I once felt for new games – even when I was hooked on the current one – simply wasn’t there. It helped temper my expectations, but as I discussed in Episode #596 of the NLSC Podcast, NBA 2K26 still failed to reach the low bar that I’d set for it.

Moreover, as I said on the show, NBA 2K26 proved to be a breaking point for me. I already felt disappointed and disillusioned with the ninth generation, but this was the final straw. Unfortunately, I’ve lost my enthusiasm for new games. Even though it’s a year away, I’m not excited about going through another preview season. I’m dreading having to play and talk about future NBA 2K releases. I can’t feel optimistic about the future of the series, or the chances that we’ll see the return of NBA Live; especially after EA Sports rescinded their proposal for a college game. Call it an extreme case of the New Game Blues if you like, but I’m not sure how I can get that enthusiasm back.

Obviously, this has been building for a while now. Sadly, the ninth generation has left me extremely unimpressed and underwhelmed. It’s not just NBA 2K or the lack of NBA Live, either. The WWE 2K series has been disappointing, holding back content to sell DLC and expensive special editions while delivering subpar gameplay. There hasn’t been a new Fallout game, and there isn’t one on the horizon. Grand Theft Auto V was re-released for a third generation, while GTA 6 has been pushed back (and will likely be focused far too heavily on the online scene). Mortal Kombat 1 didn’t delight me as a long-time fan. In short, for me this generation has felt like a complete bust.

However, my dissatisfaction with NBA 2K is at the forefront of the erosion of my enthusiasm for new releases. There hasn’t been a single release so far on ninth gen that I’ve eagerly played right up until the arrival of its successor. I can’t say that I’ve loved any game from NBA 2K21 onwards. Every one has had at least one mechanic or feature that I’ve disliked. Throughout the generation, the series has been moving in a direction that makes it harder for me to enjoy it. It doesn’t help that every game from NBA 2K23 onwards frequently crashes my PlayStation 5. They’re the only games that have such problems, so I highly doubt that my console is the cause of those errors.

In short, NBA 2K hasn’t brought me much joy since NBA 2K20, which I still wasn’t as keen on as I was NBA 2K19. Suffice to say that five or six years of disappointing releases – at least in my eyes – does little to maintain your enthusiasm for a series! At this point, I don’t expect that every annual release will live up to my expectations. I learned that many years ago with NBA Live. I didn’t vibe with every single release, and sometimes I wasn’t keen on a couple of games in a row before really enjoying what came after them. I’ve had similar ups and downs with NBA 2K games, but this is the longest stretch of feeling dissatisfied with the series since finally warming up to it.

I’m not going to try to convince anyone that the games are bad. I know that a lot of people have been enjoying NBA 2K this generation – some releases more than others – and I do think that they’re technically well-made games. From a quality standpoint, they’re light years ahead of disasters such as NBA Live 07 and NBA Elite 11! Their design doesn’t appeal to me though, and with no alternatives in the space throughout this generation, I’m definitely feeling fatigue with the series. Mind you, the familiarity wouldn’t bother me so much if NBA 2K wasn’t catering to the online elitists, taking the gameplay in a direction I find dismal in the name of representing a “skill gap”.

It’s not just the games, either. I’m weary of the predictable routine of the preview season, and the predictable exaggerations of the previews themselves. It’s been years since I’ve been impressed by or able to put stock in anything that I’ve read in any of the developer blogs. Granted, I learned to take video game previews with a grain of salt after being burned by WWF Attitude for the Nintendo 64 way back in 1999, but in recent years I’ve grown even more cynical. Ever since I compared the NBA 2K18 and NBA 2K19 developer blogs, I’ve been far more attuned to the familiar buzzwords, repetitive claims, and yes, outright lies, that make it impossible to trust such previews.

And so, it’s become tiresome to read the same thing every year. Last year’s game gets thrown under the bus, which is funny when you go back and read how it was meant to be a huge technological improvement, jam-packed with brilliant concepts. The new mechanic represents a re-focus on representing and rewarding the skill gap…which is exactly what they said about the previous game’s big gimmick, too. Aspects that were touted as exciting changes are revealed to have been bandaid fixes for something that wasn’t working quite as well as hoped, explaining why they felt like such a flop of an idea. It’s not just a grain of salt anymore. I simply don’t believe developer blogs now.

It baffles me that there isn’t more awareness of this issue; that more people don’t go back and compare developer blogs year-to-year, and clock the repetitive claims and boldfaced lies. Sadly, the most popular content creators aren’t going to draw attention to this. That would risk their access and other perks, while alienating an audience that doesn’t want to hear a bad word about NBA 2K. It’s much easier to sneeringly claim that people are just “whining” and “hating”, or that it’s a “skill issue”, or whichever thought-terminating cliché they feel will shut down any criticism. Never mind that the evidence is right there in black and white, in years’ worth of blogs and other previews!

With that being said, if you like the current direction of NBA 2K, then for you those previews probably delivered good news. If you’ve been enjoying the games, then you understandably won’t feel deceived by the developer blogs. I do think it’s worth noting where previews have backtracked on the previous year’s claims and made admissions about certain features and design choices, but I also understand that for other people, the games have indeed lived up to the hype. Between my dislike of this generation of titles and a lack of trust in the previews however, covering new games both pre- and post-release is a task that I can unfortunately no longer muster much enthusiasm for.

As I said, NBA 2K26 was my breaking point. Even with low expectations, I felt let down once again. As a new console generation looms, I can’t shake the feeling that I won’t truly enjoy a single Gen 9 NBA 2K. I wish that wasn’t the case. Yes, I do have a predisposition for retro gaming that long predates my disappointment with the current generation, and I’ll happily return to old favourites to get my gaming fix, basketball or otherwise. Still, I don’t want to feel as though I have nothing to look forward to. I’d much prefer to have the best of both worlds, meaning enjoying the latest game while also rotating through some old favourites for a change of pace whenever I feel like it.

Instead, my enthusiasm is gone. Right now, I don’t expect that NBA 2K27 will be any more to my liking than NBA 2K26. I anticipate feeling the same cynicism as I read next year’s developer blogs. I have no doubt that I’ll sceptically roll my eyes when I see content creators calling it the best game ever, and insisting that anyone who dares to disagree is a hater who’s stuck in the past. I’m unsure of how I’ll manage any joy or enthusiasm when I cover the news, react to previews, and then finally install the game on release day. As it stands, I’m wondering how to keep covering and talking about NBA 2K26 without feeling like a Debbie Downer who’s raining on everyone’s parade!

There’s another nagging thought in the back of my mind here: that age and longevity is a factor. I’ve been running the NLSC for 24 years now, and I turned 40 last year. I’ve been making it a point not to fall into a mindset of “Oh, I’m so old”, or become stubborn in my views, when I’m still far too young for that. A lack of enthusiasm for new games and anything else that I don’t feel a nostalgic attachment to is a grumpier attitude than I’d prefer to have. However, there’s no denying that I’m not in the key demographic now. From the soundtrack to mode design to the style of gameplay, the current generation of NBA 2Ks are being made with a different audience in mind.

Of course, that’s not to say that younger gamers are unanimously delighted with recent games, or that they don’t share similar criticisms. Grumbling about the open worlds of The Neighborhood and The City might sound like an “old head” gripe, but I’ve seen people younger than me express disdain for it. The fact that The City has grown smaller and smaller since NBA 2K21 indicates that the key demographic isn’t any keener on a massive, sprawling map in a basketball game than I am. Similarly, I’ve seen gamers of varying ages echo my criticisms of everything from the gameplay to microtransactions, so it’s not as though I’ve aged out of games that everyone adores.

One of the major differences of course is that because I’ve been running the NLSC for almost a quarter of a century, I’ve spent two decades covering games of fluctuating quality and personal appeal, and increasingly lacklustre preview seasons. Whereas many gamers have wisely chosen to skip a year here or there, content creation has unfortunately put me in a position to be underwhelmed by a string of releases. Throw in the fall and ultimately unsuccessful comeback of NBA Live, burning out on the annual grind in MyCAREER, and the increasingly disposable nature of new games, and it’s no surprise that I’m drawn to the past rather than looking ahead to the future.

I’d like to say that this is knee-jerk reaction to feeling disappointed in a game that I already had drastically low expectations for. Certainly, if I do come to enjoy NBA 2K26 more than my first impressions suggest that I will, it’ll restore some measure of optimism and enthusiasm moving forward. The chances of that feel slim, but I won’t dismiss the possibility before I’ve given the game an opportunity to make a better second impression. More to the point though, this is the culmination of many years of frustration and disappointment. Again, my enthusiasm for new games and the future of the genre has been waning throughout this generation, so this is the final straw.

My lack of enthusiasm for new games and my eagerness to dust off old favourites is no doubt linked to my feelings towards the real NBA. As Dee and I have discussed on the NLSC Podcast, this definitely isn’t my favourite era of basketball. To that end, just as I prefer to watch classic games and highlights, I’d much rather play with the rosters of yesteryear in video games. Note that I’m not just talking about the 90s here, as the titles and seasons that I’m nostalgically revisiting run through to the early 2010s. As oxymoronic as it may sound, over the past few years new games have felt incredibly stale, whereas old favourites and other retro kicks have felt like fresh experiences.

Needless to say, I have no problem sticking with those older titles over new releases. I’m not ashamed of that preference – indeed, I’m a keen advocate for retro gaming of all genres – and it makes more sense to play something I enjoy than force myself to like something that isn’t to my taste. Nevertheless, I’d like to have more enthusiasm for new games – basketball or otherwise – and genuinely look forward to the future of the hobby. It’s why I’ll endeavour to keep an open mind and make an effort to give new releases a second chance, just as I’ve allowed some classic games to win me over. I’d certainly like to recapture my enthusiasm, but man; right now, it feels impossible.