The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

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The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:32 pm

As reported by Matt Bertz of Game Informer:

Last year Visual Concepts released an early free demo for NBA 2K17 called The Prelude, which let you create a MyPlayer and then play through his college years before getting drafted. This early section of the game let you sample the gameplay and carry over your save if you wanted to buy the full game.

NBA 2K18 is getting its own Prelude come September 8, provided you are playing on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. 2K Sports hasn't shared any details on what we'll be playing just yet, but if you're itching to see what NBA 2K18 has to offer, circle the date on your calendar.


Safe to assume it'll be another preview of the early stages of MyCAREER, with the progress carrying over into the full version. No PC version of The Prelude again from the looks of things, but I assume it'll be like last year where it's content you'll play through in the full version anyway, so the only thing the PC version will be missing out on is a hands-on preview ahead of the Early Tip-Off Weekend the following week. The companion app should logically also be out in time to scan in our faces for The Prelude; hopefully it also supports the PC version of the full game, as was the case last year.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby miki_92 on Wed Aug 09, 2017 5:28 pm

Andrew wrote:
Safe to assume it'll be another preview of the early stages of MyCAREER, with the progress carrying over into the full version.


not really according to Steve from OS

@Steve_OS: NBA 2K18 Prelude is completely different from NBA 2K17 Prelude. More details in the coming weeks.


I will never understand this console exclusive BS, I pay the game same way they do, why would I have less rights
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:55 pm

PC port is probably being finished as they have roughly people working on or testing it - 33 as of time of typing this, 70+ during the peak times.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby bigh0rt on Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:21 pm

miki_92 wrote:I will never understand this console exclusive BS, I pay the game same way they do, why would I have less rights

Nobody is forcing you to.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:37 pm

Interesting. Wonder if it's just become a fancy name for a more standard type of demo. I'd have assumed it would be something related to MyCAREER. Guess we'll find out in the coming weeks, then.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby [Q] on Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:02 am

miki_92 wrote:I will never understand this console exclusive BS, I pay the game same way they do, why would I have less rights

I don't have the actual numbers, but I'd imagine they make a ton more from console game sales than PC game sales.

Andrew wrote:Interesting. Wonder if it's just become a fancy name for a more standard type of demo. I'd have assumed it would be something related to MyCAREER. Guess we'll find out in the coming weeks, then.

I could see them doing an NBA live style demo allowing you to try like my park or a regular game
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:21 am

[Q] wrote:I don't have the actual numbers, but I'd imagine they make a ton more from console game sales than PC game sales.


They do. PC sales are a drop in the bucket compared to the number of units moved on consoles (and then microtransactions on top of that).
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby I Hate Mondays on Thu Aug 10, 2017 5:05 am

Andrew wrote:
[Q] wrote:I don't have the actual numbers, but I'd imagine they make a ton more from console game sales than PC game sales.


They do. PC sales are a drop in the bucket compared to the number of units moved on consoles (and then microtransactions on top of that).


Piracy is still a issue. You won't believe how many PC players don't give a damn about the online features and love to play the game offline. To be honest, I could've pirated the game since 2K15 because I only play exhibition simulation-games 90% of the time. Luckily, I am not that kind of a person and I still like online roster updates + accurate stats.
But if you add the people that play a pirated game, the PC community would expand. The skidrowreloaded website has like 35K hits on the game. That's only one website. Guess there are a ton of other local torrent websites that have more than 5k hits. You add them up and you get the numbers PSN has. Too bad those 35K+ people don't want to spend a penny on the game.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Thu Aug 10, 2017 5:40 am

Let's not forget that some people treat piracy as demoing the game though. There is an overlap, which might not be insignificant, between players that pirated the game and later purchased.

I was actually thinking what if they released a demo where you could use Play Now with a few (let's say 4) teams, start MyCareer and play a few games in the NBA, same for MyGM since it will have story and let's say MyTeam with first 4 domination matches unlocked.
I'd like to think that number of people pirating the game would be lower.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby I Hate Mondays on Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:46 am

Dommy73 wrote:Let's not forget that some people treat piracy as demoing the game though. There is an overlap, which might not be insignificant, between players that pirated the game and later purchased.

I was actually thinking what if they released a demo where you could use Play Now with a few (let's say 4) teams, start MyCareer and play a few games in the NBA, same for MyGM since it will have story and let's say MyTeam with first 4 domination matches unlocked.
I'd like to think that number of people pirating the game would be lower.


Not if the community somehow finds a way to unlock all the teams using just that Play Now feature and the Demo, lol. That happened with FIFA before. Joke aside, you are right. Probably a huge amount of those hits were made by people who used the pirated version as a Demo.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:40 am

All good points. Historically speaking though, PC basketball gaming has been a niche within a niche within niche. Of course, in this community, we're well aware of the platform's benefits, despite the smaller user base. :)

The important thing is that we don't miss out on any content, and I don't think that we will here. Even if the premise of this year's Prelude is different, I would assume the content it's previewing is still going to be in the full game anyway, so it's just a week-early hands-on the platform is missing out on. That's still unfortunate, but it's not as bad as missing out on official roster updates, bug fixes, or other content, which has been the case with some PC releases ported during the previous generation.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:19 pm

To be fair to 2K, they do the free weekends, so there is some kind of a demo, even though it's time limited.

I Hate Mondays wrote:Not if the community somehow finds a way to unlock all the teams using just that Play Now feature and the Demo, lol. That happened with FIFA before. Joke aside, you are right. Probably a huge amount of those hits were made by people who used the pirated version as a Demo.


Well... You can do a special build of the game, which would be unfortunate for those with shitty connection as it would require them to download the whole game anew (although the demo could be smaller). The Prelude works that way anyway.

Other than that Andrew is right, the PC version gets pretty much the same content with few notable exceptions... The additional (college) teams were added to in-game store much later than on consoles, I'd guess around the time somebody remembered they should put the Dream Team there.
Another one is voice. I do not care about in-game voice chat at all, we on PC have many superior options anyway if we want to play with friends. And I couldn't care less about voice chat with randoms as chances are they won't speak English anyway.
The issue is voice controls - I haven't been able to make it work on PC version (worked fine-ish on PS4). Hell, Andrew with Kenny once managed to get me a technical just from their chat on PS4. I was using a headset and waiting (in a quick game) for them to finish ProAm game after I lost connection to them.
I'd still appreciate being able to call plays or make subs on the fly without having to navigate menus that at least in 2K17 could be very clumsy (also screw that timeout menu from 2K17).
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:14 pm

I never got around to doing a feature on the college teams DLC, but that was kind of a bust. It's content that really should've been in the game by default.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:46 pm

Those were the college teams made out of their respective NBA players with adjusted ratings, right?

Still, there was some timed disparity between PC and consoles, possibly caused by someone simply not caring enough about minor platform.

I don't think having a PC specific community manager would hurt. Someone to be on top PC specific issues and to communicate with PC community, because let's be honest - neither LD2K or Ronnie have shown much attention to PC community before, at times ignoring or even being pissy about getting PC related questions.
Past years when there were major issues with PC, Leftos came here asking for help (crash reports etc). That would be community manager's job among other things.
I don't know what kind of contract Leftos has (and it is none of my business anyway), but I can imagine being a community manager is not part of it.

Perhaps a fresh blood in the Marketing and PR generally would be beneficial for everybody...

EDIT: Just checked some stats, there is 6.5k+ players online now, peak is regularly 8k+ players (concurrent). Overall estimates are that 400k+ people own the game on Steam (no necessarily purchased for full price).

That IMHO deserves one dedicated person.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Thu Aug 10, 2017 11:50 pm

That's right. They remained console exclusives, as far as I can tell. They don't show up in the Steam store, at any rate. I picked them up on PS4 when they were on sale, just to check them out (and potentially do a video or write-up about them). There's not much to say, though. It's kinda nifty, but it's the kind of content that should be in the game out of the box.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:16 am

They are in the in-game store (for VC) on PC. However they were not available at the same time as consoles.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:41 am

They are? I don't see them there.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:06 pm

Though up until now I never tried clicking them and it caused my game to stuck loading. Only the dream team package works as I already have it.

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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:10 pm

I can't even find that.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby ThePointForward on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:40 pm

I had to go to MyCareer > Store > Everything Else and there is the Additional Teams.
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Re: The Prelude Coming September 8th (PS4 & X1)

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:09 pm

I'll take another look.
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