NBA 2K13's All Star Weekend is a Preorder Bonus

[Nick]

I guess the "big announcement" was some stupid marketing ploy then. Yawn.

For the PC gamers this announcement is basically translated to - "This year, there will be a feature left off your game. Yay!"

[Andrew]

I'm guessing if it comes out the same time as the game like the hidden team did you'd probably be able to hex edit, since I'm guessing it would be within the install.

It's possible. That'd be great if so, but like I said before I'm not optimistic about that.

[Andrew]

We've posted some roundtable reactions to the All-Star Weekend pre-order announcement over on the main page, which you can check out here:
http://www.nba-live.com/nlsc-roundtable ... -nba-2k13/

As most of you are probably now aware, NBA 2K13 will be the first basketball video game to offer the NBA All-Star Weekend as a pre-order bonus for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, rather than a standard feature for everyone out of the box. While there has been no word yet on how users who play NBA 2K13 on other platforms or do not pre-order the game will be affected by this promotion, we can’t help but think how more of the additional teams, modes and features that basketball video game players have taken for granted over the years may be restricted to pre-order bonuses or pay-for downloadable content in the future.

Please check it out and feel free to leave a comment.

[Leftos]

https://twitter.com/Ronnie2K/status/208250696766722048

The All-Star pack is not available for PC. Sorry about that.

Piss off.

[xerion]

Wow, I am definitely not throwing away 30 bucks this year!

[daninoz]

I'm so mad right now. I'm not gonna pay anything for the game this year. Sometimes I play NBA 2K9 just to play the Dunk contest and I was really excited about the ASW in NBA 2K13, but I can play it because I don't have the money to buy a console. SO MAD.

[RedPhazon8]

It's so dumb how the PC continues to get left out of certain things within the Sports Genre. If you're going to sell products on it there's no excuse to leave features out of it, especially if the feature should be in the main game in the first place. Hopefully the game is as mod friendly as 2K12 so we can at least get something unique out of it.

[Leftos]

EA did release a full FIFA 12 for the PC, after releasing half-assed versions of their console counterparts, each iteration using last year's engine while the current engine was console exclusive.

I guess that 2K still considers that piracy for the PC is way too high for them to actually care about the PC. That's why the $30 price tag, the delayed support and them keeping the DLC as console-exclusives.

[JaoSming]

I guess that 2K still considers that piracy for the PC is way too high for them to actually care about the PC. That's why the $30 price tag, the delayed support and them keeping the DLC as console-exclusives.

yea....no.

Honestly, I have no idea why the game is $30 and not $60, other than the fact that it is rare for any PC game to actually cost $60 anymore.

The delayed support is due to the PC version being the minority of all the other versions of the game. Sure, 2K would lose an audience if they got rid of the PC version (which in turn gets rid of the OnLive version) but we are a speck in comparison to the combined consoles. Honestly, I'm surprised we even get a server (2K9 didnt).

The DLC is understandable too, since there is no good, easy, way to allow all these different DDs to allow the sale of DLC. Especially when it takes so long for 2K to sync a patch date with all of them. If it was Steam exclusive (like 2K9) then I would feel differently about it, but it's not, so its not feasible.

[benji]

The DLC is understandable too, since there is no good, easy, way to allow all these different DDs to allow the sale of DLC.

Other companies seem to manage it.

[Leftos]

EDIT: benji beat me to the DLC/DD argument.

They could still limit the DDs they use to a manageable number so that they could get the DLC to us. It's a choice they've made, it's not like they're forced to use a gazillion DDs. They've seen how many problems this is causing them, with DDs "rejecting the patch" and the delays and the DD-specific problems and everything.

If they wanted to give us the DLC, they'd make it happen.

And yeah, I'm not expecting the game to climb to $60, but it could climb to the regular PC price ($50 or $49.99 if you prefer).

Still, do we have the actual numbers regarding console vs. PC sales of the past iterations? I'm guessing you're right, because if we were big enough a market I guess they'd treat us better, but I'm curious as to what the numbers actually are.

Still, is the number of NBA 2K12 PC gamers low in total, or is it just the number of PC gamers that actually bought NBA 2K12 low? That's what my "piracy" argument was based on.

[Patr1ck]

No pc dlc because they don't really have a DRM system in place for it. As soon as one pc player has it, others would just need the files and a settings file with the code unlocked. On the other hand, with the pc version of 2K12 keeping a live connection with 2ksports servers, it's just a matter of implementing proper checks from the server. Even then, hackers would still find a way as they always do.

Considering the length of time it takes them to convert a patch for the pc version, I'm sure it's just a resource problem.

[benji]

Piracy has nothing to do with poor support for the PC. That's a lie spread by publishers so they don't have to tell potential customers they aren't relevant.

The number of people playing it on Steam rarely if ever cracks a thousand. If you copy that across known DD's and then triple that total number for retail you're under 10,000 people playing it on PC. The total sales of the game on all platforms is five million.

The reason they put it out on PC at all, is the same reason they put it out on the PS2 and Wii (both of which are also not $60), relatively non-existent development costs for free money.

Sports games in general are in that "casual" market that thinks it's hardcore. It buys Madden/NBA/NHL, GTA, Call of Duty, and Gears of War/Halo and that's it. Their PCs are for facebook and writing papers. Thus it's not a particularly large market for American sports games.

FIFA and football in general are exceptions because of the global market, especially in PC dominant markets such as Europe and Asia. Plus the most played game on Steam, Football Manager, which is PC-centric in design.

They aren't putting DLC on the PC because it's not worth the resources, the PC port is easily done and probably has only a few people working on it at all. They aren't going to expend those resources to bring over DLC outside of the launch window that's not going to get bought.

[JaoSming]

Still, is the number of NBA 2K12 PC gamers low in total, or is it just the number of PC gamers that actually bought NBA 2K12 low? That's what my "piracy" argument was based on.

Look at the players online stat on the home page in 2K12, on PC its maybe a couple thousand. On the 360, its in the 10s of thousands

[Leftos]

Okay, I see your argument. Guess we'll always be second-class.

[JaoSming]

for comparison, 4pm EST
PC 1,269 Online
360 55,383 Online

69,999 Total Online (According to nba2k.com)

[daninoz]

The lack of support in PC version is not becuause of Piracy. Piracy is because the lack of support in 2K12.

In a pirate version you have all the game but online matchs. If you know that the only thing different from a Pirate version or a Paid version is completely crap, then there is no reason to buy the game.

I'm buying this game 2 years in a row, and I only play 1 online game.

You can't wait to all the people buy the game, but if they make sure that all the people that buy it get what they want, then most of the people is going to buy it.

You can't say "I'm gonna improve this game only if most of the people buy the game", you have to say "Hey, I really improve this game. That must be a good reason to buy it, don't you think?"

[22cedric]

@Ronnie2K said on his twitter Gotten online complaints, have dev looking into them. I'm glad that this will be addressed since that's a big issue for NBA 2K fans.

[benji]

It's as Brad Wardell and Gabe and so many others have properly illustrated it, worrying about piracy only harms you and your consumers.

People will pirate. You can't stop it. Even if you make your game a pain in the ass to pirate or take away functionality, they'll just pirate something else not buy your game and aren't harmed. It's your consumers who then have to jump through hoops to get games they bought work right.

The goal is to provide content and other reasons for people to willingly BUY your game.

2K did this when they added Jordan and the legends, there was a reason to get the game for people who like basketball but aren't the people who buy a new game every single year to start the season. The sales of 2K the last two years have IIRC exceeded the sales of both 2K10 + Live 10 combined. People weren't doing that just because of it being the latest basketball game but because there was Jordan and the legends.

We also need to put some perspective on things, it's not like they're treating console gamers all that much better. You HAVE to pre-order to get this, you had to pay $15 for the Legends Showcase, they put out the same amount of total fixes just earlier, online has been busted on the consoles too, games dropping, the leagues haven't worked for years, etc. If their support of the PC version is like a 3/10, their console support is maybe a 4/10. (Let's not ignore that the ports are good, support for the 360 pad, all the modes, NBA Today features, rosters, etc. EA was dumping out a PS2 port and never following up on anything.)

It's the reality of a ten month dev cycle.

[Leftos]

Yeah, your post made me laugh, 22cedric.

[RedPhazon8]

Another good example is when you look at CoD Games. There's a huge amount of console support vs the PC version, and the PC version isn't supported by elite for w/e reason, and it's always late on dlc/patches, and you know they're lazy if they do a half-ass server system... The system with the greatest potential is dumbed down by the market itself.

[daninoz]

https://twitter.com/pastapadre/status/2 ... 0731382785

With no All-Star Weekend for the PC version of NBA 2K13 even more clear that its just an add-on and no integration in Association/My Player.

[hova-]

If they really wanted to show some love for those of us who have been buying the game every year (despite only minor improvements at time), then the ASW would be in the game by default.

This is making money out of nothing - what if there is no improvement in the game and everybody preorders it because of the ASW? 2k's going EA.

[benji]

what if there is no improvement in the game and everybody preorders it because of the ASW?

The people who preorder yearly franchises deserve what they get.

[Uros12]

If they made it available to play that mode in My Player and Association,then I would care more but right now I dont.