It must be tough, being a game developer. Not only do you have to devote all your time to making a living, breathing playground out of a mish-mash of code and art, but if you work on games like the NBA 2K series, you have to deliver a brand new entry every year. With NBA 2K19 now out in the wild, we went to New York to celebrate with the game’s makers and of course to chat to the NBA players that inspire them. But with a new NBA 2K game coming out annually, can the games’ developers remember the finer details of the franchises’ illustrious past?
We asked them a bunch of (admittedly pretty tough) questions, and er, it turns out that even if you spend years of your life making these games — it doesn’t mean you know everything about them.
Want to see if you know more than 2K? Well, you can test your b-balling knowledge by taking part in the tricky quiz below:
NBA 2K Facts
Feel like slam-dunking your friends with some b-balling knowledge? Well, here are some fun facts you can pretend that you totally already knew.
- The first four games in the NBA 2K series feature commentary from fictional announcers Bob Steele and Rod West, portrayed by Bob Fitzgerald and Rod
Brooks respectively. - We asked if the NBA 2K series had 18‘primary’ installments. The other, non-mainline installments were VR or Online titles.
- The series has always looked to include some big name actors in the My Career mode and this year is no different. This year fans get treated to the voice-acting chops of
Anthony Mackie, Haley Joel Osment, Ricky Whittle and Aldis Hodge. - Moving the My Career to China is a bold move that takes the game in a new direction. In order to immerse the player in what it would be like to play in the CBA, the game features authentic commentary in Mandarin Chinese.
- The soundtrack has always been a topic of great discussion and 2K have always sought to get the best talent involved. Previous soundtrack curators include, Pharrell, DJ Khaled, LeBron James and Jay Z. This year they have worked with Travis Scott as Executive Producer on the soundtrack.
- This year there are 3 cover stars on three different versions of the game. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the cover athlete for the standard edition with LeBron James as the cover athlete for the 20th Anniversary Edition and NBA Rookie of the Year Award winner Ben Simmons, an Australian native, will grace the cover in Australia and New Zealand.