NBA 2K21 Pledges Unskippable Ad Error Won't Reoccur

I doubt it will carry to the ps5 version as there should be no noticeable loading screens on ps5.

@I_Like_It i bet you theyre still in there somewhere

@Weebleman They'll still be there. To think they are just being included to kill time is astonishingly naive.

If in game ads are added for "realism", it should be the user's option to turn on or off. Otherwise, it's simply a cash grab for a full priced game.

@I_Like_It how much you wanna bet they slow down loading to keep advertising

Fortunately NBA 2K21 itself is skippable.

It’s ‘realism’ that just so happens to make 2K money through adverts. Yuck.

Because this next generation is all about r e a l i s m

With microtransactions being "phased out", developers have to make their money somewhere, so they sell airtime in their games instead. This will go on for 5 years until the next money making scheme arrives.

@MattyHammo Microstransactions aren't going anywhere on PS5, I promise you that.

In a loading screen its alright to me since it can't be skipped anyway. Not while you are trying to play the game like the EA scumbags.

Regardless of whether the hardware has superfast loading or not, they can still build in unskippable ads that pop up and pause any progress to loading, cannot be clicked away etc until a set time has passed.
Its not just 'loading' screens, as in when the game is actually' loading but can be a 'splash' screen with a set time before it can be clicked away.
Point is, they can actually build it into the game so it doesn't matter how fast the game loads, it will still display an advert with a set time until an action button to skip pops up.
Another reason to avoid this...
What ever next? halfway through a mission you get an advert break??

2K have scored a scam dunk.

That was awful, I apologise wholeheartedly

It costs more if you opt for the version that comes with a free upgrade? That's not free then is it? o_O

Nonsense like this is why you can’t justify the price increase of games. We’re told there has been no increase of price but between in game adverts, dlc and micro transactions a single title generates more for a publisher than it ever did.

I hate this and there is no excuse for adds in a almost $100 game (canadian price tax included) but playing devil's advocate what if this is a way legacy systems and servers can justife staying on longer . In the past it wasn't cost effective to keep servers and stuff going past a games prime despite maybe having a dedicated fan base . With times being the way they are there might be fewer people making the jump to next gen as fast as they normally would so this ends up being the way more games continue to ve made and sold on legacy systems . Again still no excuse for this it sucks im just wondering if this might have something to do with it .

@Ryall bahahaha excellent answer.

Should be at the end of each quarter not before the game

How could anyone in their offices think this is a good idea? But oddly enough, were these ads for fake products no one would probably care. 🤷🏾‍♂️

this game! That simple

Good thing I stopped getting 2k and madden years ago. Trash

Buffering and streaming a 15 second ad in HD will obviously make the game load slower. Fair enough in a free game, but defending this in a $60 game is nothing short of corporate bootlicking.

If we're going for this kind of realism, can we get the actual Amazon app inside GTAs phone, Sears catalogue, up to date, in RDR2, and Smith & Wesson ads in.... Well, NBA, GTA, RDR... That would compliment just about every 2k franchise equally!

"hop to dunk a two-pointer"... I can only assume this was said with tongue in cheek?

Oh and 2K is the worst rah rah rah

@hi_drnick I couldn’t tell you the first thing about basketball point scoring so let’s just say yes, it was absolutely tongue in cheek! 😃

I knew that raising the retail price wouldn't stop people from putting DLC, in-game transactions, and ads into games.

If they give away the game for $10 or $20 and the get the rest of the income from ads, ok. Maybe there should be a new business model for this... Like "pay way less and get the ads" or "pay full price and never ever see an ad".

@MattSilverado Microsoft does this with their windows 10 start games like solitaire and minesweeper. Not sure that it's better.

@RedShirtRod and you've made me realise if MS are asking for additional money for any aspect of minesweeper this and more nonsense is coming. Flipping minesweeper with Ads? Jeez. I could play without Ads in 1995.

No problem if it's not interrupting gameplay, however it must be skippable.

At this point sport games, just like mobile games, are already lost, gamers will rarely receives a good normal sport games again thats just a games with no mtx/lootbox/ads as long as there's exclusive publishers deals 😕

If they're going to do this, offer it as a 30 dollar cheaper version or something, or just don't put them in the game. I don't play sports titles and if it's a clever add for realism, maybe but it's very blatant they're making way more off of this. The day this stuff turns up in a genre I like is the day I quit for good.

@I_Like_It I'm sure, it will be an ''Timed" Ad ***** deal lol

When I buy an ad simulator, the last thing I want is for a game of basketball to break out

I can't wait for the scandal of 2k intentionally prolonging loading screens to increase advertising time

Simply go offline if you dont need it at the moment.

Hey guys, remember when a whole lot of people thought that once games were $70, publishers would do away with MTX and all their other egregious monetization?

Lol...

Im going for insult.

@Robinsad While dev costs have increased, the entry price of games have remained relatively flat. This is due to DLC, ads, and in game transactions. I'm not at all surprised or upset unless game prices increase.

Part of the problem is gamers who facilitate this kind of thing by continually throwing their money at companies who are greedy, anti-consumer to the extreme, and fill their $70 game with MTs, loot boxes etc.
I realise the options for basketball games are limited but if consumers actually voted with their wallets instead of complaining about it pre or post purchase, it sends a message to the corporate hacks who green light this garbage.
These games are all identical aside from graphical improvements and rosters anyway.

@art_of_the_kill who the heck thought that? It’s an obvious and greedy pattern, used and abused by the same 4 or so conglomerates who generally make ***** lowest common denominator trash anyway. There are so many developers and publishers which go out of their way to treat their customers correctly. From my perspective I won’t be supporting any of this crap with my money.
Why would I play Destiny or COD or NBA2K when I could play Resident Evil or Dark Souls or Nioh or Ghost of Tsushima or any of the numerous other games which don’t bleed you dry or prey on children.

This is illegal in Sweden unless the game is sold only to adults (18+) Commercials aimed directly to kids is not allowed here. Hopefully some parent sue them so we get rid of this crap once and for all.

@Zeke68 Thats excellent. It’s great to see some countries have progressive laws which protect children. One that springs to mind is France’s laws regarding advertising junk food to children.
I sometimes wish I lived in Europe.

I agree that some kind of legal action would be a great precedent. I’m looking forward to the day that the law catches up to people who spew death threats on social media and all that ‘pretty much a hate crime’ kind of behaviour.

@Jayofmaya imagine if ads for Dell or Pepsi appeared in Dark Souls or Elder Scrolls?!? I reckon I’d quit at that point too. I’d be too heartbroken!

@Bondi_Surfer that comment made me laugh hysterically. Thank you.

I stopped playing street fighter on ps plus from the other month as it kept advertising the same up and coming tournament. So bloody annoying.

Even though this is totally scummy, misleading, and downright invasive, I still feel like most people playing 2K won't really care. Sports games are already the least valuable games you can buy:
Same content every year with updated stats and rosters.
Build-a-team modes online require you to gamble real money on packs to be enjoyed.
Little to no resale value on the titles.

If those things don't bother sports gamers, I doubt an ad or two will. Alright back to NHL 21.

@izick Game prices have increased. PS3 I would say the standard was £40, PS4 £50-55, PS5 is now £70. But there is no way to justify this other than greed as the titles are more profitable than ever.

Yikes. Every now and then I get tempted to pick up something like NBA2K as I used to be a basketball fan when I was younger, but ugh - nothankyou.gif.

@get2sammyb are u joking about the gatorade bottle?

The adverts do not add to realism... watch a video of a proper broadcast of NBA and then watch these... if they were implemented in a more authentic way people would be more accepting. And even then they should be skipable...

Also they should be there at launch - same as CTR and the awful changes there - they sent out review copies and once reviews are up they add nasty stuff in.... not acceptable... we as a community should push back and Push square suggesting (again) it adds to the authenticity isn’t helping. American sports have long had authentic adverts in games and we haven’t complained this is VERY different and should be reported as such

I do not really care if an adverts there or not. There are a lot of services I pay for but still have advertising that come with the product.

Ads in game.... I just say... I uninstalled Street Fighter 5 after repetitive ad for some champion tv or what it was.

If I want ads (who wants it???) I play mobile game. Dot.

Btw I'm trying to avoid things from ads at all, because the only truth is: Good things sell themselves, Crap things need ads.

@Arnna I guarantee you, a WHOLE lot of people thought that. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people defend MTX by saying "It's either this, or a price hike!" Hell, there's someone in this very thread who thinks that MTX are being done away with.

So yeah, those guys are going to have to come up with a brand new excuse to justify them, it seems. Funny enough, Jim Ryan recently defended the price hike by saying that "the value is obvious." Yeah, no it's not. Not if games are going to continue to be treated as if they're free-to-play and crammed with every scrap of monetization under the sun, up to and including intrusive ads like this.

@get2sammyb well thats just silly, i gotta look that up

Does anyone actually buy that it was an accidental placement?

This is the equivalent of a YouTuber Apology Video.

So they accidentally added adverts into the game? I don't believe that for a second

I think we all know that these "errors" are intentional and they are just looking new way to show us their ads, thank god people still sane enough to go against it.

How convenient for them and their sponsors 🙄

Translation “we got called out about it so now we are backpedaling”.

Isn't this like the 3rd time they've done this? I'm guessing they will have a similar response for when they do it to 2K22.

@art_of_the_kill which is why it’s more important than ever to spend wisely and not support these companies and their practices. EA and Activision are the worst offenders, that’s where I’m starting!
Do I want Tony Hawk and Crash? Yes I do. But nothing changes if I don’t stick to my guns.

@YETi.... Yep that ad and the grinding are annoying in street fighter..... I cannot believe such a great franchise has been reduced to a GAAS garbage........ And what the deal with locking 95% of the fighter roster behind paywall and grindwallss........

@djlard.... Dude I have also downloaded Street Fighter 5 from PS+, My God what has Capcom done to the Franchise........ I mean essentially 95 to 98% of the fighter roster is unplayable and lock behind the paywall and grindwall............. Street Fighter is essentially a mobile game and really has no longer any business carrying the legendary Street Fighter franchise name........ Is Capcom trying to kill the franchise or what........ It is the worst beat em Up/ fighting game of this generation....

@Arnna Yeah, it would stand out a bit: Demon, zombie, rocky cliff, dark spire, advert for Netflix, demon. XD
As far as the protection for children, yeah and then unfortunately sneaky companies like Coke or KFC advertise unhealtht consumables as healthy and sell more or unacceptable foods to places like mexico or Caribbean islands!

@GREGORIAN I tell you, I would overcome unskipable tutorial, I would overcome locked characters, I would even overcome paywall for some characters... but what I didn't get was some forced ad and huge loading times. I was really hoping to give it a try, in an hour of playing I managed to fight ten (yes in numbers "10") fights... C'MON 10 FIGHTS!!! IN AN HOUR!!! ok I admit about 15 minutes took digging in options, but four minutes of loadings for one fight that took about 30 seconds??? Even PSX would be faster in loading this game. And cherry on pie was 20 secs loading of screen where you flight to another location that took 2 seconds. ARE.... YOU... FU(KING... SERIOUS???

I remembered my school years, where in informatics, we had Apple LCII computers with DOS emulator that showed speed of 2.2Mhz.

Cmon even ZX Spectrum with tape loading was faster!!!

Known bug... 😂
... ads are gaming coronavirus...

@djlard.... I was pulling my hair(almost threw the controller) while waiting on the loads screens and the forced ads and asked myself if the game was still downloading additional content only to find out its just the 4 minute load screen for a 30 second fight......... They really knockednthe taste for the franchise.

I just hope that with the recent changes in the street fighter lead team as done by Capcom recently, I hope they reboot the franchise on the the gens.....

... I can honestly say I'll never purchase a 2K game... they're just the worst... they're purely a money-grabbing corporate machine designed to suck every penny from you whilst making 'quality' games like WWE, etc... you react with your wallets... no thanks!