For years now the NBA 2K series has always received criticism over the predatory practices that they have over the sports gaming industry. The practices we’re looking at are VC or virtual currency. VC is used in the MyCareer mode to upgrade player’s characters and buy outfits as well. However throughout the years. 2K has been making the practice worse and worse with the inflation of VC prices and raising the skill gap of online play. In order to remedy all of this, NBA 2K24 should be free-to-play.
Related: All NBA 2K24 VC Prices
Unlike other sports titles such as Madden, NBA 2K’s only form of currency in MyCareer and Online is VC. Sure players can earn VC by playing through the story mode and playing matches, however, the amount you receive is very minuscule. The only way to earn a decent amount is to play the game on Hall of Fame difficulty, which the majority of players won’t want to do. In order to expedite this process, the only reliable and sure way to earn VC is to buy it. VC makes the world go round and NBA2K isn’t afraid to show it. Playing NBA 2K without cracking open your wallet feels virtually impossible to do.
Seeing how the entire game surrounds itself around VC, it’s even more disappointing to see that VC is used to purchase everything. From the clothes that you wear on and off the court to upgrading your player, you need VC. It leaves the player having to choose between leveling up or picking up some nice drip for themselves. Even then the clothing options are just as expensive as leveling up your overall. To make matters worse, upgrading your character is a pain since it gets more costly as you level up your overall. For example, putting in about 35,000 VC which is $9.99 may not even raise your overall if you’re at a high level.
If it hasn’t convinced you that 2K has gone full predatory mode with VC, they implemented a battle pass system with NBA 2K24. For those who don’t know a battle pass system has a free track and a premium track that offers players rewards as they level up through it. But the kicker is the premium track costs real money, in this case, VC. There will also be an option to spend more VC to skip a few tiers to earn those rewards faster. Battle pass models are usually prevalent in F2P games as they have to earn money somehow. However, NBA 2K24 is a title that the majority of players will have to pay around $70 for and 2K expects people to spend even more money on a battle pass.
Now that all the facts are present, how can we solve it? NBA 2K24 being free-to-play can alleviate some of these predatory practices surrounding VC. If the My Career mode was F2P then most players would be able to avoid spending money on the initial cost of the game and putting it towards something else. The NBA2K series already has the feeling of a F2P model. It’s likely that anything won’t change in the future as 2K is making money off of this practice, but one can hope. While going F2P won’t fix the more glaring issues surrounding VC, it’d be a start.
Stay tuned for more gaming content, including updates to NBA2K24 and newly released titles.
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