Fans demand free-to-play version of NBA 2K23
The overall cost of NBA 2K23 and the fact that buying the full-price game does not give gamers a huge advantage throughout the season has resulted in gamers constantly clamoring for the series to be made free-to-play.
The response for NBA 2K23 has been tremendous. The game is easily the best ever released in the NBA 2K series. However, in order to get ahead, gamers either need to play for long hours on a daily basis or choose the easier, yet expensive, way out and buy their way to progress.
Considering the investment that such a move demands, quite a few gamers seem to believe that going free-to-play will create a more level playing field and allow gamers to actually put money into their teams. Of course, such a move seems unlikely simply due to the success that NBA 2K’s current model has had.
NBA 2K23: Will fans get a free-to-play version anytime soon?
Going the Konami way and introducing a free-to-play version of the overall game can prove useful. However, such a game will be separate from the current NBA 2K23 game and will not really serve the purpose.
Currently, NBA 2K23 has seen a plethora of new packs being released every few days. The Tis the Season pack is online with the likes of a Galaxy Opal Michael Jordan and pink diamond versions of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on offer.
Free-to-play gamers can open the pack to a limited extent, and also have a three-part challenge that they can complete in order to gain a free pack. However, gamers looking to score a particular player will need to invest a lot of money and will still have a very low chance of snagging their card of choice.
Such limitations have been constant through the years and have resulted in only a small number of players putting in money for various items and packs. Gamers have also argued that this is unfair as they have all bought the full-price version of the game and therefore should have a fair chance of snagging the best players.
By going free-to-play, gamers will have a better chance of investing money, and the number of players investing in the squad is bound to increase.
Such a model has been taken up by Konami with respect to their eFootball and has resulted in an increase in revenue. However, considering the amount of success the current iteration has had, with more than five million copies sold within days of the release, such a move seems very unlikely to happen anytime soon.