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NBA 2K Online reaches 19 million registered ballers in China
While Take-Two was busy counting its fat stacks of cash following its healthy fiscal 2014 financial report, it also noted milestones in its collaborative efforts overseas. Namely, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed during the company's call with investors today that "usage and player engagement with NBA 2K Online continued to gain momentum, and it's now the number one PC online sports game in China with 19 million registered users." NBA 2K Online was announced in June 2009 as one of Take-Two's major pushes into the Asian market. Arriving in October 2012, the game is a free-to-play basketball simulation for PC that features every licensed NBA team. It is the result of a partnership between Take-Two and Tencent, a developer with experience in crafting free-to-play versions of popular properties suited for the Chinese market, including Monster Hunter Online for Capcom and FIFA Online 3 for EA. [Image: Tencent Games]
2K Sports: NBA 2K10 PC online patch is 'currently being worked on'
Many PC players of NBA 2K10 are reportedly having serious issues with the game's online functionality. While the degree of difficulty appears to vary from player to player, there are some pretty epic threads of woe being sewn on the 2K Sports and Steam forums regarding the game. As one tipster explains to Joystiq: "Online support has been basically non-existent, despite it being clearly advertised by 2K. To be clear, when I say 'non-existent,' I mean 'non-existent.' This isn't an issue of slightly laggy gameplay, or anything like that. The lobbies in the game are completely non-functional, and it doesn't even seem possible to connect to other players." When contacted, 2K Sports told Joystiq that a patch is "currently being worked on, and in the testing phase. It will be released as soon as it is ready." That's probably of little consolation to office chair athletes left playing a pick-up game by themselves, as this patch has apparently been in the works for months. On the bright side, considering NBA 2K is an annual franchise, maybe the next installment won't have the same problems? [Thanks, Sam G]
Take-Two announces push into Asia with NBA 2K Online
Did you know that at 1.3 billion people, the mainland Chinese population encompasses around 1/6th of the world's population? It's true! This might help to explain why Take-Two Interactive announced today not just the launch of NBA 2K Online -- an online basketball game for the Asian market -- but also the creation of Take-Two Asia, a new satellite office for the BioShock publisher. The game is being co-developed by Take-Two and Chinese game company Tencent Holdings Limited for distribution in China and "other key markets" (notably Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia). Information on the game's pricing structure or what it looks like or, well, anything really is rather scant, though we do know that it will include "all of the NBA teams, as well as current and retired NBA players." Will the game be free-to-play with microtransactions? Will it ever be offered on this side of the Pacific? Will we be able to showboat our jersey in a raucous celebration of happiness a la Kobe Bryant when we dunk on fools? We just don't know.
EA's NBA Live cover Gilbert Arenas prefers NBA 2K series
The next time EA decides to put an athlete who's an actual gamer on their NBA Live cover, it might help to have vetted him first. As Jon Robinson of IGN points out in a piece about who will replace Shaq as NBA 2K's cover athlete, Gilbert Arenas would have made sense. In a Q&A session on NBA.com last November when Arenas was asked if he plays NBA Live he answered, "No. I play NBA 2K. It's real, the NBA 2K. The other one, now ... it's too fake."Robinson points out that while 2K was looking at Arenas for their cover this year, EA Sports grabbed him and got his signature on a contract to promote the game he has described as "fake." Arenas is apparently giving feedback to the team behind NBA Live on how to improve the game and "taking an active role in the product." Given the reviews for the last NBA Live title, hopefully Arenas is spending plenty of time with the EA team improving the game while he recovers from a knee injury. If Arenas actually helps in turning the franchise around it may usher in a new era of gamer athletes who don't want their likeness on a mediocre product.
