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NBA 2K21 Is a Full-Priced Game That Is Forcing Players To Watch Unskippable Ads

NBA 2K series has been known to offer unskippable ads and after a backlash last year, they were removed only to return again this year.

These ads are usually shown during the 2K TV segments or before the pre-game loading screens. They are unskippable ads and range from advertising products like Oculus to even politics as per a user who was expressing his frustration about it on Twitter.

Last year, a viral thread on reddit brought attention to these ads. They were being offered in the 2K TV segments. It appears the developers haven’t learned their lesson and brought it again this year.







Earlier this year, UFC 4 started to show ads during replay segments in the game which prompted such a huge backlash that it forced the developer, EA Sports, to apologize about it and they removed them from the game. One of the members from the Community team at EA had shared the following statement.

I’m part of the Community team here at EA and I wanted to post here and give you all an update on this situation. Earlier this week, the team turned on ad placements in EA SPORTS UFC 4 that appeared during the “Replay” moments in gameplay. This type of advertising inventory is not new to the UFC franchise, though we have typically reserved displaying ads to specific main menu tiles or Octagon logo placement. It is abundantly clear from your feedback that integrating ads into the Replay and overlay experience is not welcome. The advertisements have been disabled by the team and we apologize for any disruption to gameplay that players may have experienced. We realize that this should have been communicated with players ahead of time and that’s on us. We want to make sure our players have the best possible experience playing EA SPORTS UFC 4, so ad integration in the Replay and overlay experience will not be reappearing in the future. Thank you for your continued feedback on EA SPORTS UFC 4.

2K Sports hasn’t commented on the status of these ads for NBA 2K21 so we have to wait and see what they are going to do with them. In the meanwhile, they are still seen in the 2K TV segments and the only possible way to avoid them is to turn off 2K TV in the options.

Source: Game Infinitus

 

[Stuart360]

Its bad enough having ads in a full price game, but unskippable ads?, nope.

 

[Hendrick's]

Stop buying this trash.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Unacceptable

 

[Eimran]

Me: Well at least they can't infect sport games with their leftist politics
2K: here have some political ads in your full priced games. GTFO

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling

 

[REDRZA MWS]

Its bad enough having ads in a full price game, but unskippable ads?, nope.

They don’t belong in the game, period. Skip labor or not.

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

The real reason why the next gen versions are more expensive, they can’t shove ads if there is no loading screen.

 

[Aguero9320]

I usually think online outrage is a bit melodramatic, but this is outrageous

I mean I would never have played this anyway, but it mustn’t be allowed to stand.

 

[Portugeezer]

Just because you pay doesn't mean "no ads". Not just in video games.

 

[Wizz-Art]

So I won't buy NBA2K21 even if it's on sale for only 2.99 like the two previous games.

 

[Concern]

Well deserved. They hiked up the price $10 for next gen too and still have a shit load of microtransactions.

Im willing to bet ads are probably strictly democratic considering people like Lebron lashing out at Trump.


Either way, they'll learn when morons stop buying this shit

 

[Iced Arcade]

no thanks

 

[Fox Mulder]

The ads arent even a new addition this year. 2k and EA sports games fly under the radar with bullshit they couldn’t get away with in genres that get more coverage.

Companies don’t have to do this stuff. MLB The Show is a great baseball game with no real competition and they don’t do any of this horrible shit. They’d still sell tons even if they did though.

 

[Kuranghi]

I'm gonna start making my own "progressive" adverts, I think the trick is to make up the most backwards-towards-reality idea/theory you can think of off the top of your head, then accuse the other side of doing something while simultaneously doing it yourself, exploding the hypocrisy meter.

 

[makaveli60]

It's ridiculous how unashamed these companies can get with their practices. They try things like this, testing the water how much they can get away with and when facing backlash they go "oh sorry, we see you don't like this, we should have been more communicative with you, we apologize blablabla."
Fuck them.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Well, that'll be a waste of the PS5's SSD. I want this game, as I actually enjoy NBA2k, but I'm not hot on this idea of ads, skippable or not. If I pay for the game, I don't want ads. Also, there's no reason for ads in a game that is an annual roster refresh that's chock full of MTX. That's just being a dick. Hopefully they remove them. I might have to hold off my purchase until then. I might not have much of a choice anyway, as securing a PS5 this year might be impossible.

 

[Kuranghi]

Well, that'll be a waste of the PS5's SSD. I want this game, as I actually enjoy NBA2k, but I'm not hot on this idea of ads, skippable or not. If I pay for the game, I don't want ads. Also, there's no reason for ads in a game that is an annual roster refresh that's chock full of MTX. That's just being a dick. Hopefully they remove them. I might have to hold off my purchase until then. I might not have much of a choice anyway, as securing a PS5 this year might be impossible.

Thats why Sony are really drip feeding the info, the big bombshell they are going to drop soon is that the rumored 125GB of reserved space on the SSD is actually just ALL progressive adverts. They recorded 7 years worth and its just sitting there on the drive waiting to ruin all our games.

 

[oldergamer]

Me: Well at least they can't infect sport games with their leftist politics
2K: here have some political ads in your full priced games. GTFO

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling

Better then rightwing politics featuring trump. I'm sick of that friggen guy. What was the political ad in this instance, the NBA telling people to go vote?

 

[AmuroChan]

Next year's version will allow you to play as legendary basketball player Chairman Mao!

 

[Guileless]

The ongoing sales success of the NBA2k franchise has left me very pessimistic about the future of Western Civilization.

 

[Gonpachiro Kamaboko]

I remember when PS+ gave 2K16 as one of their free games and I really enjoyed it until I realized that in order to play the “story” mode you had to either grind for hundreds of hours to make your character better or just slide that credit card to skip it. Totally ridiculous practices.

 

[xrnzaaas]

It's gonna be funny when they'll find an excuse to put them in PS5 & XSEX versions despite almost no loading times.

 

[Smoke6]

Man why can’t that add undisputed segments and Stephen A/nex Kellermen on to the game instead of this!

 

[Dibils2k]

just sub to 2K Prime and you wont have to see another ad!

 

[Trimesh]

Luckily I don't have to worry about this - I stopped buying EA shit years ago. Seriously, WHY are you still buying this shit? Surely it's obvious by now to anyone with even the slightest sliver of sentience that EA will constantly fuck over their customers in new and exciting ways on an ongoing basis. You can either wait until it exceeds your own personal tolerance level or go "fuck this shit" and just bail now. They are not going to improve, and every cent you give them just encourages them. Stop buying their products and let them go bankrupt - some other (almost certainly less cunty) company will pick up the licenses and the developers can go and work for someone else - maybe someone that doesn't ass-rape them on an ongoing basis by terrible working practices.

Sorry, this is 2K - but it's the same shit.

 

[Uhtred]

You all let them get away with it. MTX too none of us make enough noise so here we go

next gen-=more ad’s more MTX, more expensive games.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Luckily I don't have to worry about this - I stopped buying EA shit years ago. Seriously, WHY are you still buying this shit? Surely it's obvious by now to anyone with even the slightest sliver of sentience that EA will constantly fuck over their customers in new and exciting ways on an ongoing basis. You can either wait until it exceeds your own personal tolerance level or go "fuck this shit" and just bail now. They are not going to improve, and every cent you give them just encourages them. Stop buying their products and let them go bankrupt - some other (almost certainly less cunty) company will pick up the licenses and the developers can go and work for someone else - maybe someone that doesn't ass-rape them on an ongoing basis by terrible working practices.

Sorry, this is 2K - but it's the same shit.

With downloadable rosters, you really only need to buy 1 version, and then update rosters. However, for new consoles, you will need to get a version of the game eventually. That's the case for me. Been playing the PC version of NBA2K20, and was hoping to get 2k21 for PS5. The ads are the only thing that bother me. I don't care about MTX, as that's all optional.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Stop buying this trash.

This. 2k has been spiraling down this path for years and people are still buying it?

 

[Deleted member 801069]

Just because you pay doesn't mean "no ads". Not just in video games.

clearly there are ads, that’s what the OP is pointing out

not sure what your point is

 

[cormack12]

This generation will remove loading screens, but now your games will have ad breaks

 

[Bo_Hazem]

 

[bender]

The death spiral of my interest in the series since the Dreamcast days is sad. There is still an impressive game under all the shady monetization schemes.

 

[Arkam]

I have no problem with in game advertising (even full price ones) as long as it’s not invasive. The Billboards in Burnout Paradise, the Monster Energy cans in Death Stranding were totally fine. But a straight up commercial as if this was a F2P.... oh hell no. It being political is just salt in a gaping wound.

come on 2k, you can be shady, but you gotta be smart.

 

[TalentedMrJ]

Haven't bought 2k since Kevin Durant was on the cover
Glad I quit supporting yearly sports releases, especially with this BS

 

[KevinHelpUs]

Stop buying these games. Complain all we like, if we keep rewarding these companies with our money, they will continue to do this. There is no other solution.

 

[THE DUCK]

Its easy to say "why are you all buying this", but when there is no viable competitor, and you love playing nba games, its kind of like:

- if 711 were the only place that sells slurpees, and you love slurpees but hate 711

- there was only one gas station in the whole city, the guy that owns it got you fired from your job that sells gas, but you need gas for your car

- ebgames is the only store that sells the latest gta game, a game you put 500 hours into and love, but you hate ebgames

In all the above scenarios, you likely still shop there......

 

[Dorohedoro]

 

[Truespeed]

So we now need ad blockers for games? Someone get in touch with github.com/gorhill and commission him to make a custom ublock origin for 2K products.

 

[Blond]

Lol I remember when AD's in video games were supposed to lower retail prices.

 

[DeeDogg_]

The ongoing sales success of the NBA2k franchise has left me very pessimistic about the future of Western Civilization.

lol pretty graphics go burrrrrr

 

[bosnianpie]

Haven't bought a game in the franchise since 2K14. I can confirm that it's possible to live without mtx infested crap that is anti-consumer to its core. Don't give them a dime, this is unacceptable.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Thats why Sony are really drip feeding the info, the big bombshell they are going to drop soon is that the rumored 125GB of reserved space on the SSD is actually just ALL progressive adverts. They recorded 7 years worth and its just sitting there on the drive waiting to ruin all our games.

Last week when the TOS for the PS store updated they make all users opt in for targeted advertising. There was an option to opt out...but that only opts you out of the targeted ads not ads in general.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft has been doing this for years, only a matter of time until the same situation happened in games.the Xbox dashboard looks like one giant ad to me (I have not seen the new XSX dashboard so maybe that has changed).
*edited for spelling and punctuation

 

[Fuz]

Fucking idiots.

 

[Golgo 13]

And this shit will continue to sell because consumers are uninformed morons.

 

[TacosNSalsa]

Ads placement like this tends to have the opposite effect on me . I'll actively out of my way to avoid a product if it has aggressive ads like this

 

[Kdad]

When I buy a game on Android it specifically warns me about the game containing ads and or IAP.

The platforms should force all developers to put such warnings on box or digital stores prior to purchase.

 

[Puskas]

At this point I have zero sympathy for the normie consoomers buying these yearly rehashed sports games from the industry’s worst publishers.

The schmucks complaining are also the first ones to buy the next iteration.

 

[wolffy71]

An ad on the scoreboard or floor is one thing but unskippable ads in game is ridiculous. Make it a free game if ur gonna do that garbage.

 

[wolffy71]

At this point I have zero sympathy for the normie consoomers buying these yearly rehashed sports games from the industry’s worst publishers.

The schmucks complaining are also the first ones to buy the next iteration.

What other sport game are you gonna get? If ur a big sports fan theres no option.

 

[Thirty7ven]

If you pay 70$ for this trash then you are a sucker.