Historic Teams Won't Be Available Online

Same as last year, as confirmed by Kotaku:

None of the 34 teams unlockable in "NBA's Greatest" will be available for online multiplayer modes. There had been some confusion, even hope that they would, as earlier reports suggested that once a team is unlocked from "NBA's Greatest" it is available across all modes of play. 2K Sports just confirmed for me all the modes in which these teams can be used, and online multiplayer isn't one of them.

It's understandable when you consider the points Owen raises, but a shame all the same.

Turrible decision by 2k. Remove them from ranked games yes, but you should be able to play with them online.

I'm an offline player anyways so doesn't bother me but will bother many others.

Same here.

I also agree with Owen that the dire predictions for NBA 2K12's sales are overblown. They might take a bit of a hit in the face of the lockout, at least initially, but it seems most folks are excited about what they see in the game and will be willing to play with last season's rosters with enhanced gameplay and game modes, as well as enjoy the historical content and new stuff in My Player. It's not like there's anything 2K can do about it, as long as there's a lockout there's no season or offseason movement.

I posted on front page my thoughts on his predictions, I predict 3 to 3.5 million if lockout continues. NBA 2k11 was an outlier due to MJ factor, no Live/Elite, Lebron changing teams etc. I think 2k12 was due to drop back to 4 mill anyways, but we shall see.

Yeah, I'd say that's a fairly safe bet.

This doesn't effect me much at all, like you guys, the majority of my time on 2K is offline.

It's a bad decision. But it is actually not, because I never played a decent online game(pc version) so I didn't know even that in 2k11 we could play with historic teams. I mean, 2ksports really think that their online multiplayer features are functional? If they make a game that is only possible to play online with Heat x Mavs, but it ACTUALLY WORKS, it would be better than having the possibility to "play" with every team.

Doesn't affect me at all. I play offline mostly. But it would be a cool feature to have cuz some of my friends(and me) were looking forward to trying out the teams and seeing how we'd fair against each other. oh well still buying it anyways

I'd say it's a good decision. I played with mediocre teams like the Bobcats (mostly in 2k10), Kings, Clippers, Wolves & Wizzards often and I'm always glad to find an opponent which is not Heat or Lakers. As much as I like challenges but '12 Kings vs. '96 Bulls isn't a match I would like to play very often...

As Owen mentioned, the fact the NBA's Greatest teams are unlockable also potentially presents a problem. Still, for those who would've liked to have played some unranked games with them or were looking forward to a historical team lobby, it's understandably a letdown.

Maybe we'll see a historical online game lobby in NBA 2k13. To me it stills seems the right move to keep those team unavailable for online games, but I understand that it may lead to some unhappiness among those who'd like to use historical teams online...

This doesn't effect me much at all, like you guys, the majority of my time on 2K is offline.

Same here. But still, I understand how it might disappoint those who mainly play online.

Absolutely

This don't bother me at all...

Offline play all the way!