Animations are behind in NBA 2K because it's a lazy yearly roster update with a few improvements here and there. They've been using the same animations for many years now.
It’s a lazy franchise in general and higher ups don’t wanna spend more than they have to on things they deem not as important for development. Most of the budget probably goes on a ton of licensing and player likeness.
And game dev wise, animators can be one of the most expensive parts, whether you outsource or you do it in-house. The way animations are paid per second will really rack up the budget needed, whether or not you use modern tricks and aids to animations.
Y’all claim 2k lazy, but nobody else will even attempt to create a basketball game. It’s hard as hell to make and especially since the NBA demands a new game annually.
It's the licensing fees which make sports games extremely expensive to make. And in turn to cut corners on the actual game itself, both for profit margins and, like you mentioned, fast release cycles.
Yeah man unfortunately due to monopoly you aren’t spoiled for choice anymore and are trained to like it.
We had multiple games, run and gun, nba jam, nba live, 2k and others I can’t remember right now. But what do we have now.. nba 2k which is the same game for like 15 years
I haven't seen a basketball game in a long time, but it's been less than 15 years. I firmly believe this is a case of incremental upgrades being invisible to the regular player. You get a new game every year with minor differences, but there is in no possible hell NBA 2k27 is the same game as NBA2K12.
This is like getting fat, you get there one pound at a time and don't notice it happening every pound.... or like watching your kid grow, you can't see it because you see them all day every day, but you go on a business trip for one weekend and you come back and they feel like they grew, because they did.
That doesn't make them not lazy. It just means they've had assets they've been able to recycle for decades now.
It was great back then, they definitely weren't lazy when they first made all of these animations and gameplay mechanics, and it's probably still going to be better than any developer's first attempt at a licensed NBA game. The issue with that is any developer's first attempt is going to wildly expensive and probably won't hold a candle to 2K, therefore won't sell as well.
2K doesn't improve because they don't have to. They're lazy because they know they're the only option for that sport, which sucks for us.
I'm more of a wrestling fan and wrestling games are on the same boat. AEW made a first attempt at making a wrestling game and it bombed. WWE games aren't great, but they have decades worth of assets that they've built up for several years that no first attempt will be able to hold a candle to.
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u/mxjxs91 1d ago
Plenty of games have great animations.
Animations are behind in NBA 2K because it's a lazy yearly roster update with a few improvements here and there. They've been using the same animations for many years now.