According to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, NBA 2K18 has been a massive monetary success by nearly every measure. In a conference call earlier this week, with the transcript being provided by GameSpot, Zelnick revealed that NBA 2K18 has sold over $6 million copies, which is more than NBA 2K17 sold by this time last year. Beyond the raw sales data, Zelnick added that “people vote ultimately with the usage. And the usage on this title is up 30 percent in terms of average daily users.”
NBA 2K18’s excellent marketing has to take some credit for their impressive sales data, but regardless of how many NBA players tweet about NBA 2K18 on a nightly basis, it’s a good basketball video game. NBA 2K is simply selling fans a good product.
Despite how well the game plays, many long-time users have been very vocal online about NBA 2K18‘s robust microtransaction system that is riddled throughout the new MyCareer mode. We touched on it in our review, but the complaint is that NBA 2K18’s MyCareer mode is too reliant on spending money outside of your original $60 to really get the full experience.
NBA 2K18 has already made some changes in this regard. Within days of its release, NBA 2K slashed the cost of some aesthetic upgrades like haircuts, coloring and facial hair, but some NBA 2K fans are not satisfied.
The good news is, according to Zelnick, NBA 2K is listening to your complaints, admitting that “there has been some pushback about monetization in the industry.” Zelnick later stated, “we are concerned about any perception, any negative feedback .. and we’re taking it really seriously.”
Zelnick wouldn’t reveal that more changes to how microtransactions are being utilized in NBA 2K18 are coming, but this is a step in the right direction, and complete acknowledgment that your voices are being heard. If the developers behind NBA 2K don’t address these issues in NBA 2K18, at the very least, it’s hard to imagine that NBA 2K19 will be as microtransaction heavy as NBA 2K18 considering all the feedback they’ve received, and that’s a win for everyone.
