Written evidence submitted by Jonathan Adams

Take Two Interactive and 2K Sports: The NBA 2K Franchise:

Introduction:

NBA 2K has been a market leader in basketball simulations since it’s inception most notably on the next generation of consoles taking over from NBA Live, developed by Electronic Arts and EA Sports. NBA 2K has been widely critiqued for its pay to win mechanics across its two key and most popular modes “My Career” and “My Team” these systems of loot box activities is what drives profit for the game. In addition to these NBA 2K as partnered with global companies where you will continually see advertisements, offers and deals or sales to encourage the spending of real money in exchange for Virtual Currency “VC” which is used across all modes within 2K. VC is used to purchase clothing, attribute boosts to make your player stronger, boosts which make your player tire less meaning you have a sustained advantage, animations to suit your style of player, attribute upgrades where once a player has reached a certain cap they can upgrade to new overalls to become stronger and finally miscelensious items such as skateboards, bikes, mascots, megaphones, tattoos and haircuts.

NBA 2K is sold as a standard edition or a legend edition featuring in game items. NBA 2K19 retailed at £59.99 and £84.99 respectively.

My Career:

Within the my career mode players can have their own player from the start of the mode and play in the NBA following a career story. Players can upgrade the player to perform better in associated skills to their own particular player from 60 overall to 85 overall at the cost of 190.000 virtual currency costing £39.99 from the moment the mode is started. Players use my players to partake in NBA 2K associated online modes. Virtual currency ranges in the UK from the following amounts to their corresponding prices. This also a universal pricing structure for other game modes. Players are spending up to £95 to achieve 85 overall if they choose from the moment they begin this mode on day one.

Virtual Currency Breakdown: 5,000 VC £1.60

15,000 VC £3.99

35,000 VC £7.99

75,000 VC £15.99 (Most popular according to in game) 200,000 VC £39.99

450,000 VC £79.99 (Best value according to in game)

Players earn attribute upgrades payable with VC by playing one of five modes My Park which is a street basketball mode, Ante Up where players stake VC per game, should they win they have a chance of doubling their winnings or taking a VC jackpot which rolls over with every game played. Rec or Pro Am, a mode consisting of traditional 5v5 basketball, the cages which is an arcade arena similar to NBA street another video game and My Career which is the NBA mode.

These upgrades are based on performance, the stronger the performance the more “my points” when a player reaches 100% on the my points cap they achieve new attribute upgrades payable only via VC. A players maximum cap is 99 which takes according to research 816 in game hours averaging a certain my points number to achieve. Though this number isn’t known as each player can be built differently to an individual own personal style and preferences. Players are encouraged to purchase boosts which give enhanced abilities to make this path faster and to be more competitive in each of the four modes disclosed, though these boosts cost anywhere from 200 VC for one boost up to 2,000 for 10.

NBA 2K has a playground where these modes all start from when a player selects the my career mode. Within this area people can play the street mode My Park, shop in the NBA Store, Footlocker or Swags a store to buy street clothing commonly used for your player when in the neighbourhood. These are all payable via VC and have corresponding prices dependant on the items selected in any of the stores. The neighbourhood is also where players can load into and play Rec / Pro Am, Cages, Ante Up and buy the performance boosts previously mentioned.

Should players reach the 96 overall mark, 2K multiples the amount of VC earnt across all modes to x2. Though to this point players receive no financial in game awards until 96 has been achieved. Players can also be “double barred” this means a player stays at the same overall for two my point caps meaning they have to spend double the VC to upgrade towards the next overall raining.

My Team (2K version of Ultimate Team, as seen in EA franchise titles)

My Team is the most popular mode outside of my career which every 2K player must start in order to play online with their individual character, My team is a mode where you create your own team and use that team to play against the computer or take the team online where a tournament mode called My Team Unlimited had a $250,000 tournament which players qualified for by playing games on the My Team mode.

My Team features packs, a system where players can spend virtual currency by using real money to have the chance of collecting elite cards. These cards can be anything from contracts, basketballs, stadiums, jerseys, coaches, contracts attribute boost cards, healing cards and of course players. The player cards range from bronze the lowest tear, to Galaxy Opel which is the rarest form of card within NBA 2k.

Players can also collect cards for rewards, there is an auction house where players can use my team points which is the in game currency to buy players and or packs. This currency is only achieved in game and can’t be purchased.

If a player collects 2500 cards they achieve a reward for the rarest card in that particular mode. Though because like in my career this currency is so low when achieved players often opt for the VC options and use real money to purchase packs instead.

2K will sell packs and boxes to players with varying chances of pulling a higher tier player. Some boxes are priced at 240,000 VC around £50.00 and alternate with new cards and content being added often being historical players and updates from the NBA season where players perform well which cost more VC to obtain due to the higher card rating.

With the upper tier packs or boxes the description stipulates you have an increased chance of securing a higher tier card but quite often you only collect one player. These boxes are often sold as boxes of 10 or 20 including at least one card and four other items per pack.

Players in the my team mode will regularly be forced to play people with elite teams where money has been spent in order to obtain these players. For those who aren’t looking to play the mode and spend money they’re limited to just the offline portion which doesn’t give any reward for time invested. For players looming to play online regardless of a persons skill players are largely forced into purchasing packs and therefore being a game of gambling and odds in order to try and be competitive due to the very nature of this pay to win methodology instead of who may or may not have the most skill. These packs and enticing offers are displayed within the neighbourhood, so for players who don’t play the mode they’re still forced to see this gambling advertisement in addition to those endorsement advertisements from 2K partners who often sponsor bespoke themed events for the neighbourhood environment. Companies such as Ruffles, Mountain Dew, Jordan, Reeses Puffs, Gatorade, Beats by Dre and gaming companies that promote VC sales such as Gamestop or Game.co.uk

Influencers: Social Media and YouTube:

NBA 2K has a strong online presence, whether with celebrities playing the game or to other professional sports such as Football, American Football in addition to some NBA players. YouTube content creators all have their own style, Chris Smoove the founder of the 2K online community has been uploading 2K for more than a decade and is widely regarded as the mastermind behind 2K’s global profile. Chris and other creators have or do feature different modes within NBA 2K. My Team is heavily featured online by creators and there has been growing concern and speculation that cards are given to players to be promoted and or to encourage people to invest in the mode due to the teams which they have. Youtubers do not disclose whether they’re sponsored by 2K but do invest in the game for creator purposes which also encourages people to see the mode and spend money based on the cards and loot boxes they get from their respective investments.

Miscellaneous:

NBA 2K has recently sold the game for as little as $3 in a test period. Whilst that sounds a good proposition to reference my earlier point about being able to buy your way to 85 overall for a price of around £39.99 for each player doing this the game is technically sold at a price around £45.00 close to the RRP. 2K throughout the year in association with its sponsors features events or periods of time that feature 2x my points.

Players use this opportunity to speed up their progression of their character and it’s badges which is the players abilities to reach the next cap. In the instance of new players this means they have the potential to spend more VC to upgrade if they do not have the sufficient amount required.

Closing Thoughts:

NBA 2K has been spiralling out of control for some years now with regards to the micro transactions across all featured modes. Due to the demise of the NBA Live franchise from EA,  2K has largely taken hold of the console market on both Xbox and Playstation platforms. The concern that has been widely documented is that every year the game releases, the transactional schemes appear to worsen. Becoming more explicit with players having to part with more real money to achieve little in game reward.

In the case of my team the mode isn’t a matter of skill or basketball intellect, it’s a question of who has the most finances to gamble away in the hope of securing these specialist cards in some cases playing nothing like their in real life equivalent in order to win. It’s a problem across the gaming landscape and one most notably in sports or free to play games outside games like Call of Duty.

I strongly welcome this investigation by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and extend my thanks to the committee for the handling of this investigation into immersive and addictive technologies.

Jonathan Adams

British Paralympian

June 2019