Microtransactions in games have been a big topic for the past two years, though recently more and more developers and publishers have decided to take their customers' feedback to heart with regards to any pay-to-win (P2W) elements.
The NBA 2K series, particularly with NBA 2K18, has been a particularly egregious example. While a great game, arguably the best basketball game there is on the market, it pretty much forced players to spend money on the game's Virtual Currency (VC) in order to avoid a massive grind.
This is changing with this year's NBA 2K20, as Visual Concepts Senior Producer Erick Boenisch told USgamer. The upcoming basketball game will feature much faster, reportedly by an order of magnitude, leveling progression in the MyCareer mode.
For us, it's really important that our customers feel perceived value in the game. We've designed the game such that everything like that is supplemental. It's there, it's optional if you want, but everything has to feel natural. It can't be like a mobile game where you eventually hit a paywall. We never hit that in NBA 2K, and I think that's a really important point to drive home.
We didn't want people to feel like they were so trapped in this grind anymore. Really, the game is more fun when you're on more of a level playing field with everyone else, and you're not feeling like you'll never get to an 80 or an 85. Hopefully with all the earning opportunities we give you, and the ability to move up much more quickly, you'll just be able to play and get there pretty quickly.
NBA 2K20 is set to release on September 6th for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. A Google Stadia version will be available once Google's cloud-only platform debuts some time in November.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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