#NBA 2K13 PS2 SERIES#
Samit: Before I get to your NBA 2K14 question, I'd like to note something about the series at large.
#NBA 2K13 PS2 PS4#
My question is, did all the problems NBA 2K14 had on the PS4 and Xbox One break this streak? Making 'That 2K': How Visual Concepts brought NBA 2K to dizzying heights FIFA, as good as it is, never did something as profound as 2K12's love note to the league's glory. However, NBA 2K12, thanks to the NBA's Greatest mode that took dozens of beloved teams from the past and swaddled them in period-perfect broadcast presentation, stands apart as the pinnacle of greatness outdoing itself annually. It's always hard to judge the true "best" game in an iterative sports title where, if a series deserves best-ever acclaim, the latest one absolutely should be the most playable and enjoyable.
Well, NBA 2K11, which I nominated for overall game of the year at another publication, essentially stole the lone nomination with which NBA 2K12 could have done more. Rob recalled how people in our line of work pumped FIFA 10 as overall game-of-the-year timber - which is now an utterly rare thing - when it was FIFA 11 that should have gotten such consideration. It was clear that Visual Concepts considers FIFA more of their competitor than anything else EA Sports was doing or not doing with basketball. In addition to loving and playing a lot of basketball, Rob plays and loves soccer. Rob Jones, the senior producer for NBA 2K, and I discussed FIFA's rise about three years ago, when he flew to my home to show me NBA 2K12.
#NBA 2K13 PS2 PS3#
What you forget, though, is that FIFA didn't really get its footing until around 2008, where 2K's basketball game never broke stride coming from the old Xbox and PS2 generation, and really poured it on right as games for the PS3 and Xbox 360 hit their peak of quality. That's some strong stuff, though, when you consider the world-class presence of FIFA, whose fans must again feel like an American who doesn't get soccer is digging for reasons it can't be the best. It sounds ass-backwards, but it really does work as a tribute, and I agree with Jon's thoughts that NBA 2K on the last console generation is the best multi-year run any sports video game has had. Owen: It says a lot that the NBA 2K series is so comprehensively good it can realistically simulate something as stupefyingly bad as Jon Bois' unwatchable league set 20 years into the future. What follows is a series of letters in which they recall the venerable franchise's recent glory, and gaze hopefully into its future. Here at Polygon, sports fans Owen Good and Samit Sarkar decided to use the occasion to look back on the NBA 2K series in their own way.
It may signal the death of the NBA as we know it. Today, you can check out the season finale of NBA Y2K on SB Nation. Visual Concepts continues to develop its respected brand of sports videogames for Take Two Interactive and is the central development studio under the 2K Sports brand.SB Nation: The slow, miserable death of basketball in NBA Y2K. SEGA sold Visual Concepts and its Kush Games subsidiary to Take Two for $24 million in January 2005, and Visual Concepts' ongoing sports franchises (which included basketball, hockey and baseball, amongst others) were put under a new umbrella, 2K Sports. Visual Concepts created two action games for the Dreamcast (Floigan Brothers and Ooga Booga), but was largely dedicated to its sports franchises and was later restructured within the company to develop SEGA Sports titles exclusively, with games across all sports genres (developed by and/or managed through production by Visual Concepts) for the Dreamcast and later for multiple gaming platforms.ĭespite the success of the SEGA Sports franchises, SEGA withdrew from sports publishing after rival Electronic Arts locked up the NFL and ESPN licenses in late 2004/early 2005. Formerly an independent development studio working on titles such as Interplay's Clay Fighter, the action game ONE, and early versions of Electronic Arts' Madden NFL, Visual Concepts formed a relationship with publisher SEGA and was picked up by SEGA to build a solid foundation of sports titles for the launch of the SEGA Dreamcast.
#NBA 2K13 PS2 FULL#
Founded in 1988, Visual Concepts Entertainment is responsible for the full development and marketing of the critically-acclaimed 2K Sports line of videogames.