Wayback Wednesday: The NBA 2K14 Server Shutdown
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the controversy that surrounded the NBA 2K14 server shutdown.
The unfortunate reality of games with online features is that at some point, support for those titles will end. Obviously, this is a useful way for companies to push us towards buying a newer release, but in all fairness, it’s also understandable that the servers are shut down once a game’s userbase has largely moved on. Naturally, this happens even quicker with annual sports games. As much as we hate to lose online support for older classics, most gamers do move on every year, making it difficult to justify the expense and effort of maintaining the servers indefinitely.
It’s still a bummer though, especially when we’re locked out of save files and content that should be able to function in a limited capacity offline. While we’re never pleased to see the end of online support, the NBA 2K14 server shutdown ten years ago proved to be particularly controversial. Not only did it impact the way that Take-Two handled online support for future titles, but it also hinted at future controversies with a lack of communication and goodwill when it comes to the NBA 2K series. To that end, it was a significant event with lasting ramifications! Let’s take a look back…way back…
On March 31st 2015, the NBA 2K14 server shutdown took place. Needless to say, this put an end to all online play including leagues and ranked games, as well as MyTEAM. The last official roster update would also no longer come through, and NBA Today would be unavailable. Fortunately, offline versions of MyCAREER and MyGM were still playable and fairly fully-functional. There was no way to equip any MyPLAYER accessories and clothing items, and the offline VC that the modes now utilised couldn’t be farmed in quick games or transferred between them, but the core experience from the MyCAREER story to the RPG elements of MyGM were intact.
While the prior gen version of NBA 2K14 was obviously also affected by the server shutdown, on PC at least, we could preserve the official roster update. Modding was also unaffected. As far as the wider basketball gaming community was concerned though, it was good news for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gamers, especially when a 2K rep told Polygon that online MyCAREER and MyGM saves would be converted to offline files. However, this didn’t turn out to be the case. PS4 and X1 gamers soon discovered that contrary to 2K’s promise, their save files were no longer accessible. They could still start new offline games, but all of their previous progress was lost.
To state the obvious, MyCAREER and MyGM gamers weren’t happy, regardless of whether or not they’d spent any money on Virtual Currency. The fate of those online files had been a topic of concern prior to the server shutdown, so initially there was relief when Polygon reported that they’d remain accessible in a limited offline state. When that didn’t happen, gamers naturally felt as though they’d been misled; or, to be more blunt about it, lied to. Back in 2015, Take-Two only guaranteed 18 months of online support for their games. That was long enough to see us through to the release of the next NBA 2K plus another six months, but that wasn’t necessarily long enough.
After all, MyCAREER and MyGM both feature multi-season play. It takes most of us a while to play through an entire NBA season – especially on 12-minute quarters – so not everyone would’ve felt like they’d finished up with NBA 2K14 after 18 months. On top of that, the PS4 and X1 versions were released later, thus they only received around 16 months of support! Of course, as frustrating as that was always going to be, the NBA 2K14 server shutdown was even more controversial than usual since gamers had been led to believe that online files would become offline saves. Had that promise not been made and then broken, gamers would’ve been disappointed, but prepared.
Instead, gamers were hardly mollified by an incredibly tone-deaf response from 2K Support. This form email referred to the save files as “retired”, also stating that “all good things must come to an end” while further attempting to placate any frustrated gamers by telling them “rest assured your MyCAREER or MyGM went out while on top”. Unfortunately, this just came across as extremely patronising! Even if it had been worded more diplomatically, once again, the fact that this was not what 2K had promised when asked about the ramifications of the NBA 2K14 server shutdown was what bothered gamers the most. 2K seemingly lied, making the situation much worse.
This led to the first major backlash to an NBA 2K title. There had been some negative reactions to previous releases, and Visual Concepts and EA Sports had both looked extremely petty with the barbs they’d traded during the preview season for NBA 2K10 and NBA Live 10, but this was different. NBA 2K had built up a considerable amount of goodwill with basketball gamers as NBA Live faltered and failed to deliver the sim experience we desired. NBA Live had become the subpar game from EA Sports, a highly-unpopular company. NBA 2K was in a much better place, and while it’s naive to trust any big corporation, at the time the series really felt like it was “for gamers”.
Failing to deliver on a promise a company rep had publicly made, and following it up with a statement that came across as condescending and patronising, hurt that image. Of course, there were already signs that the series’ success had begun to foster a brash and arrogant attitude at Visual Concepts. Some of the NBA 2K14 developers and 2K reps had very publicly mocked NBA Live 14 before both games were released. It’s not that their criticisms were unfounded, but their remarks came across as bullying and unprofessional towards their peers in the industry. Indeed, it pre-emptively soured me on NBA 2K14, and it wasn’t until years later that I came to properly appreciate it!
In hindsight, it was a sign of things to come. From apparently feeling untouchable and above criticism, to anti-consumer practices, to a seeming inability to communicate without being condescending, to being reluctant to deliver bad news and looking even worse as a result, the mishandling of the NBA 2K14 server shutdown hinted at future controversies with the series. Perhaps we should’ve expected worse things to come, but in our defense, NBA 2K had banked a lot of goodwill at that point, and we were generally enjoying the games. Thus, rather than resigning ourselves to an undesirable outcome, there was hope that 2K would listen to the backlash, and make things right.
That hope wasn’t in vain, as Take-Two did take the backlash seriously. Online support for NBA 2K14 was restored on April 8th 2015, allowing gamers to pick up where they left off in their connected files. Furthermore, Take-Two changed their policy to extend online support for their titles from 18 to 27 months, a guarantee that is still in effect to this day. For the NBA 2K series, this meant that a game’s servers would remain online for two whole seasons, plus the first three months of a third. While it would still mean that features and modes would eventually be lost, it provided gamers with a more generous amount of time to wrap up their business before moving on.
There were lingering issues as some gamers remained unable to access their online saves immediately after the servers were reactivated, but it was ultimately a good result for the community. 2K responded to the valid criticism and warranted outcry with a reasonable and sensible change to their online support policy, and retroactively applied it to NBA 2K14 as well. With such a show of goodwill, we were even able to overlook the company shamelessly patting itself on the back by referring to NBA 2K as being “the highest rated NBA simulation video game franchise” in their statement. Not that that wasn’t true, but bragging while doing damage control is rather cheeky!
Of course, it’s easier to read those statements with far more cynicism a decade later. Since then, the NBA 2K series has pushed its luck and burned goodwill by making upgrades in MyCAREER more expensive, charging VC to customise hairstyles and beards for our MyPLAYER at a virtual barber, quietly removing a Pink Diamond LeBron James MyTEAM card obtained with a leaked code, nerfing ways of earning VC while dragging their feet on fixing problems that prevent VC payouts (or simply never fixing them), promoting elitist attitudes in the online scene, and generally being greedy and anti-consumer. It’s become difficult to give them the benefit of the doubt.
With that being said, the writing was on the wall as early as the NBA 2K14 server shutdown. Some might say that the introduction of Virtual Currency in NBA 2K13 was the harbinger of what was to come, and it’s tough to argue that. However, the blunder with the NBA 2K14 server shutdown and the initial clumsy attempt to save face are, in hindsight, very reminiscent of controversies that we’ve experienced since, and the poor/lack of communication that has accompanied them. Sadly, as NBA 2K has established a virtual monopoly in the space and content creators have been forced to toe the line for perks and access, it’s become harder for backlash to effect change.
At the same time, it’s an example of 2K doing the right thing by gamers in the wake of justified criticism, and as such, an example of why it’s so important that we speak up. Not only did an excellent game get a reprieve with extended online support, but future releases have also benefitted from the change in policy. Unfortunately it wasn’t the last time that we’d feel burned and disrespected by the NBA 2K series. Granted, when you consider what we’ve lost in more recent games, the NBA 2K14 server shutdown certainly could’ve been much worse. Nevertheless, it was both a triumph and a red flag we should’ve heeded, making it an important event in basketball gaming history.
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