Take-Two is refusing to transfer NBA 2K currency to new games

NBA 2K is a yearly release, which means that there’s a new version of almost the same game every year. Gamers spend money to play with updated rosters and slightly tweaked graphics every year. If they’re lucky, Take-Two and 2K Sports will give them a new game mode or something else interesting.

In that sense, it is a costly investment. These games sort of bridge the gap between standard games and live-service titles, but the comparison would be spending money to play every new season of Fortnite (not just to get the new battle pass).

These sports games would probably function better as live-service titles with yearly updates for new rosters, but the developers and publishers want money. It is unsurprising, then, that the latest behind-the-scenes revelation is that NBA 2K‘s VC won’t transfer, costing gamers even more.

NBA 2K gamers can’t keep VC from game to game

In NBA 2K games, Virtual Currency is the lifeblood. You can buy it through microtransactions, but you can also earn it organically by playing the game. It’s difficult, but you absolutely can avoid paying to win. It just takes a while.

Eventually, though, you max out. You will have VC but won’t have any MyPLAYER or MyTEAM upgrades to purchase. You can spend aimlessly on team packs, but if you already have an elite squad, it feels pointless.

The VC you earn after that point is largely useless. Unfortunately, Take-Two has shot down the simple fix of letting it transfer to the new game. So, when the servers die (which takes a little over two years on average), that money literally vanishes.

Michael O’Dwyer, VP of product management for NBA 2K, said via Insider Gaming, “We want every new game that we release to be a completely fresh start where every user, regardless of whether they’ve been in a prior game or they’re entering our franchise and seeing this current game for the very first time, that they all come in with an exactly equal opportunity.”

Bad argument from 2K

The argument is that implementing that feature would be too difficult and not worth the time. “We know it‘s a massive undertaking which would come at the direct cost of many other things we want to invest our dev, time, and resources in. Not to mention we don‘t even think the player benefit is there, so we don’t want to do it,” Michael O’Dwyer said.

Ultimately, you can see right through the answer. Since it’s primarily an online game, the internet would make a transfer pretty simple. You could link the money to your NBA 2K profile, which you need to play the game. A simple tweak to connect it there rather than to the current game would solve everything. EA already does this for FC Points in EA FC.

That would, however, deplete the profits for Take-Two and 2K Sports. It’s evidently not enough to charge a minimum of $70 every year (upwards of $100 for special Deluxe Editions). They also need to make money by selling VC instead of letting NBA 2K players keep what they’ve earned.