2K Sports Producer Rob Jones explains how NBA 2K14 exploits Sony's PlayStation 4 in this exclusive interview.
NBA 2K19 senior producer Rob Jones defends virtual currency, saying it's an "unfortunate reality" of modern gaming because "most people lack patience."
BS, they are not needed at all.
"Every game, at some point, in some way has currency and they’re trying to get additional revenue from each player that plays the game."
Every game? That's just flat-out wrong.
They aren't needed but people do want them regardless. I've never purchased a MT. But I know that people who don't have the time to grind a game everyday purchase them so they don't have to.
The unfortunate reality is that we all use to earn these things in game, now they are all locked behind a paywall with no possibility of earning them through gameplay. Basically taking away the incentive of playing 1 game constantly
The thing is, remember back when games had cheats in them. All you had to do was enter a code.
Now they charge you for the cheats in the form of special players and the ability to increase their stats at least until that player disappears because you played it too much or didn't add more 'games' to its capability.
It's pretty sickening.
One of the problems with MTs is that publishers/studios will build the game to incent you to purchase them by unnecessarily creating gratuitous grind mechanics so people buy the MTs. I am thinking of Shadow of War. Tons of grind gratuitous mechanics created to incent you to buy "time savers". I never have purchased an MT. If I can't grind it out I just don't buy the game. Seems like the industry is moving away from such "time savers" though as they are off-putting. Rather the move seems to be towards cosmetic MT. IMO, I disklike MTs in general.
If they didn’t work, they wouldn’t use them. A lot of ppl rail against, myself included, but then go and buy them, myself included, if even just a few.
Problem is this. The average age of a gamer is like 32 or something. Nowadays too many of the core players work a lot and prefer just buying things instead. Then you have a Youtube/Twitch crowd that can afford to buy them.
GTAV is a great example. It’s the best selling retail game of all time. And yet the $ made from retail sales pales in comparison to the money made off of online micros. Fortnite is free and makes more money than most games that are $60.
Fact is...it works. But there is a right way to do it. And I think eventually many of these sports games should just go f2p, as should games like Destiny, Anthem or The Division.
It's one thing to say that MT's generate a large amount of money.. it's another thing to say that it's an unfortunate reality to save player's time.. no if you want to allow player's to save time.. you can easily implement cheats like they did back in the day.. it's not real life.. all of this can be offered for free if they really cared about saving the gamer's time and actually care about the gamer. The amount of profit generated from GTA V sales alone is more than enough profit but like all companies.. greed becomes an unfortunate reality.
Asking for cheat codes and being locked offline in single player is one thing. But I am pretty sure most MT's are generally an online multiplayer issue.
All that matters is whether there is a market for microtransactions. There clearly is.
I hope this guy has an updated CV cause he'll be needing it if he keeps saying stuff like that.
They are not needed on these 60 dollar games. When you make a sports game they dont cost more to make. You literally are using a 10 plus year old engine and just making minor improvements.
Totally agree with you on that, It seems they are releasing mediocre games at full price then after a couple of months tries to peddle a new DLC together with some "improvements/bug fixes for the game."
You're 100% correct. Which makes this whole comment even more ironic, coming from a sports game producer.
They literally use old engines and assets to make these games every year and simply add some new players and update the team rosters.
I'm curious why people buy sports games yearly.
I enjoy NHL franchise and I'm still play NHL 16. Why?.... Because I don't play hockey online and I don't feel like buy the same game with just a new coat of paint.
Also rosters are still being updated so other than a few tweeks here and there and the odd new feature, it's still just the same game as the one before.
I always just stay behind a year or so on NBA 2K, PES, NHL, etc., games. That way I get them for like under $10 once the newer versions come along. It's pointless to pay full price for these types of games that just keep getting small changes/improvements every year. Not nearly enough to justify paying full price on.
For me mlb the show usually has enough change to validate a purchase. Madden is in my birth month so someone buys it for me lol. Wwe i need to stop its gotten so bad i never want to buy it again.
' ......."unfortunate reality" of modern gaming because "most people lack patience." '
Nice to hear someone in the business finally say, what anyone with brains has known for almost a decade now. Though, I'd also add that "most people lack brains." along with it.
Lack of patience isn't always the case.
Some people just don't have the time to put in to unlock everything they want. So I don't have as much of a problem with someone wanting to spend some extra money to unlock all the guns in Battlefield, for instance. Especially since they will since they will never have the time to do it through normal gameplay.
Also, there are other MT's that aren't progress based. Like skins and crap like that that you can't get in the actual game. What's the excuse for that being "necessary"? Those are the MT's I find to be the real problem. Selling things that can easily be in the game, but aren't. Personally I don't care because I never buy it, but I can see why people would be upset by it.
It is not an unfortunate reality because people lack patience. He is completely wrong and it is said that he wasnt called out on it right then and there.
For instance they could just give you EVERYTHING up front for free since you paid $60 for the game period. Not every game uses/used a grind mechanic. That was a mechanic put in to reward/make the game last longer. Did you grind to unlock Street Fighter in the Arcade or SNES days? Do you "have" to unlock crap for a sports game? The "game" is playing it, not grinding for unlocks. That is just putting "rpg" mechanics into a sports game and is unneeded to begin with.
Luke Lawrie, Stevivor -- "The people I’m friends with know that I’m fairly passionate about a few hobbies. Those include video games, movies, and basketball. So when given the opportunity to have an early look at NBA 2K18; combining 2 of my favourite things – and getting to chat to some of the developers behind the game, I had to jump at the chance."
So NBA 2K14 won’t be joining us in 2016
you mean like the old sports games during the ps1, n64, snes and nes days that had no online at all?
No?
You can still play those now granted you have the correct hardware...
They have taken out a HUGE part of the game, multiplayer. In this day and age, that is unacceptable.
It literally costs them nothing to have a few servers open for the few people that still wish to play their purchased game online with other people.
Shit the game is only what, 2 years old?
That's pathetic support.
If they wish to stop online gameplay, they should be required to release server software so people can host their own game servers.
i am not agreeing with what they are doing but it is obvious they want people to buy the new games and not just keep playing online forever. this pushes people to play the new one or like i was referring to keep playing the old one but not online. so how is the game a waste or a rental if you can still play the game minus the online multiplayer?
this is another example of trying to keep revenue going in a market where costs keep going up to make these games. if a game is not functional at all because it relies on servers and they pull the servers then that is a better argument to put forward. then that means it is a rental.
online multiplayer has and always been a bonus in sports games but as a business it makes perfect sense for them to close their servers to help their business model. you want to have repeat customers and the tricky part with sports games is it is harder to convince gamers they need to upgrade each year because of incremental changes that some don't feel it's worth it. this is one way to try and push them but of course there are repercussions because many feel cheated now that their older games re useless. the industry really doesn't want people to sit idle with anything. they want people to keep investing. that's the business model with a lot of products.
let me remind everyone nothing is obvious. Only 2k actually knows the numbers of active users still playing 2k14. It is an old games with 2k15 and this years 2k16 both [obviously] being out. So this is actually 3 years old in sporting years. Also it seems to me that like NHL & maybe even Golf that NBA is somewhat of a niche market in gaming and it's easy to consider that few if any are still online w/ 2k14. Either way we simply don't know. I personally don't like the idea of online games or games that require online connectivity because of this. However from a business perspective if it's no longer feasible to keep the servers dedicated to an older game no one, or very few are playing then it's time to shut down. After all you can go out and buy NBA 2k15 for $10-20 now? Even those who can't afford to upgrade annually can at least scrape up that to buy last years and stay online. Shite, I'd donate to someone who truly couldn't afford it.
Its ok I hated 2k14 it was complete ass. 2k16 is miles better you'd be doing yourself a disservice sticking with that old shit.
You are missing the point, they are forcing you to buy the next game which is wrong.
This is not unheard of 2k has to pay for and maintain those servers. Its their perogative to shut down a two year old game. Get over it bro
No i wont get over it, it is wrong and you are an idiot if you suggest it is ignored.
What is so wrong? Companies do this to older games all the time. Its not like the moment 2k16 comes out they make 2k15 unplayable. 2k14 is two years old at this point, outdated, and was barely playable online the year it launched. 2k probably looks at the metrics, sees barely anyone touches that game, and so they stop supporting it. I really dnt understand your argument im sorry if u feel forced to abandon 2k14...
I think it's pretty sad when they do this to a two year game. But I suppose, when they make yearly releases it's to be expected. But, there are games that still have servers up. I know it's not nearly the same, but I can still play Call of Duty 2 on the 360 online and there is still some people playing. That came out in 2005. A 10 year old game is still active with the sequels also active.
I would welcome a future where sports games just released new updates/add-ons instead of releasing new games each year. Just upgrade the graphics and so on and release a new game every few years maybe.
The sports series really should be updateable platforms at this point instead of yearly releases. Problem is i imagine its way more profitable to sell a 60 game every year
Realistically, there probably were not enough people playing 2k14 to justify keeping the servers running. It's more practical to repurpose those servers for the newer games that more people play. I'm sure the vast majority of sports gamers moved on to 2k15 or 2k16.
NBA 2K14 still has no competition.