How new NBA 2K24 gameplay features improve newcomer experience – out Sep 8 on PS5 and PS4

21.08.2023 - 15:03 / blog.playstation.com / New

The NBA 2K franchise has a storied history of bringing the most authentic hoop gaming experiences to basketball fanatics and gamers alike. We recently sat down with Gameplay Director Mike Wang to discuss improvements and how the gameplay is more accessible for newcomers in NBA 2K24, available September 8 on PS5 and PS4.

PlayStation Blog: For starters, can you tell us about your overall role on NBA 2K24?

Mike Wang: My role is basically anything that involves the on-court experience, controls, and animation. The gameplay on the sticks is what my team is in charge of and what I’m directly involved with.

Gameplay upgrades are a big focus for NBA 2K24. What are some of the changes to gameplay that you’re most excited to highlight for the fans?

There’s a ton of highlights for gameplay, but I think one of the main things we wanted to focus on this year was accessibility. That was something we heard loud and clear from our community. That’s where a lot of our design changes come from, directly from the community. And they loved shooting last year, especially the more advanced and hardcore players really loved how it was more skill-based, and really let the best players rise to the top. But at the same time, we felt that we could have made it a little more accessible for the newer players and for the players who are young kids or people who are new to 2K. So, that was a big focus for this year, in just making the game more accessible. And it really extended to everything from shooting to defense, coaching. Pretty much every aspect of gameplay was made more accessible. So we’re excited about that.

Were there any other community-requested changes that the team wanted to make sure were implemented in the game this year?

One of the biggest things that the community at large really wanted to see improved was paint defense. That’s one that I think we really stepped into this year thinking, how can we improve it on different levels and different systems in our game. So the body up, that’s basically our on-ball defense in the collisions that happen when you body up the ball-handler, that system got blown out, especially under the basket/around the rim, that contact there, the post-contact in the paint shots especially–being able to put a body on a shooter in the paint was a big aspect of improving paint defense. Scoring in the paint feels correct. And scoring in the perimeter feels correct, you get the right results when you take the right shots. Or if you’re getting guarded, and you’re taking bad shots, you get the results you expect. So those are the kinds of things we’re always trying to improve on year after year.

What was the underlying inspiration for the gameplay improvements regarding specific players’