Loot boxes and “pay to win” elements provoke an increasingly hostile reaction from players, and their unpopularity and profitability have brought the games industry under greater scrutiny from regulatory bodies around the world. But rather than reduce their flagship sports franchise’s reliance on these types of “gacha game” elements, 2K Games have apparently opted to get while the getting is good. First, the publishery added an in-game casino to GTA Online, where you can use real-money to acquire and gamble in-game currency, and now NBA 2K20, the latest edition of the most popular licensed NBA game in the world, has a new version of its MyTEAM mode that looks like a walk down the old Atlantic City boardwalk.*Previously: "GTA Online players won’t stop killing the casino valet"
While EA is at least trying to reduce the salience of loot box mechanics across its games, 2K is all-in on building a casino where a premier sports sim once stood.
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Of course, being this brazen with a franchise this globally popular only increases the odds of killing Golden Gacha Goose, but that is a problem for the future.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
"Not Content With Just Loot Boxes, 'NBA 2K20' Has Actual Casino Games"
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