Take-Two (who owns 2K) tries to hide its mistake, but they are far too late for that concerning NBA 2K20.

In sports games, unfortunately, there’s a lot of microtransactions that try to spread like a cancerous spell. In Electronic Arts’ games, these „build the best team as possible” modes run as Ultimate Team, where you can buy loot boxes (sorry, no, EA now calls them as surprise mechanics…) for real money. Take-Two has jumped on this honeypot as well, and they have gone too far with this year’s NBA 2K game, NBA 2K20. First, we’ll embed the MyTeam trailer, which Take-Two HIDES from YouTube, as they unlisted it, but they are just trying to cover their asses. We’ll continue after that.

It seems more like a CASINO’s trailer, not a game mode’s. Most of the time, we see some people sitting on a couch (sometimes even with a DualShock 4 that isn’t even turned on…), while they participate in gambling-like activities. Slot machine? Check. Wheel? Check. Plinko? Check. There are also loot boxes, as well as three different in-game currencies, and yes, you can even buy some with real money, too.

The Internet has blown up over this trailer – currently, on the US account of NBA 2K on YouTube has 3556 likes and 17223 dislikes, which is possibly hugely manipulated, as there are over 157 thousand views, and 21 thousand interactions seem to be FAR LESS than usual. The comments, as well as several YouTube figures, such as Jim Sterling, Angry Joe, and YongYea, are ripping 2K to shreds because of it! A few examples of comments: „This looks and sounds like I’m watching a Casino ad!”, „This is legit gambling. They aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.”, „Game rating: ”E for Everyone” – also this trailer literally promotes glorified gambling. LOL, what?”

Speaking of game rating: the ESRB, the American rating board, gave this game an E. The twist here is written by Gamesindustry  in 2015: Strauss Zelnick, who is the CEO of Take-Two, is also THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ESRB! If this isn’t an issue, then nothing is! There is a big problem here – this game can be bought by kids aged 3 and above… only to see gambling in MyTeam.

Source: Gamesindustry