The NBA Finals have not even concluded quite yet for the current season and NBA 2K22 is already less than two months away from release. Not much information has been released about the game prior to now, likely thanks to COVID and the very different style of E3, but 2K Sports and Visual Concepts held a preview event recently where some of that information was released. While we were not able to see any gameplay yet, we learned some exciting things about a new integration between the game’s MyCAREER mode and the City on next-gen platforms.
In past iterations of NBA 2K, whether it was with the Neighborhood or the City, they were a completely standalone entity. MyCAREER has been the narrative experience year to year where there are cinematics and a set story mostly for you to play through on your NBA journey, while both the Neighborhood and the City were the more open sandbox world for you to explore and play basketball at your leisure. This is changing in NBA 2K22 though, at least on the next-gen platforms.
Exclusively on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, MyCAREER and the City will be completely integrated for time, with you using the same character across both of them. The goal here was to “deliver on the narrative experience” by tearing down the wall between the two modes, which is sort of similar to how MLB The Show 21 integrated Road to the Show’s character into Diamond Dynasty for the first time. That integration was kind of hit and miss with fans of that game, so hopefully it is handled a little better here overall in the end. However, we won’t really find that out until the game actually releases.
Even though MyCAREER is being integrated with the City on next-gen platforms, that does not mean you can expect the same for last-gen. In the version of those platforms, MyCAREER will be its own separate entity from the Neighborhood, which serves the same purposes as the City in those versions.
Within this newly integrated version of the City and MyCAREER, one question asked to the dev team was whether Rookieville would return again. For those that did not play it, this was essentially an entry area you were stuck in until you reached a certain level before you could even enter the City proper. The good news is that it was confirmed by Erick Boenisch, Executive Producer at Visual Concepts, that Rookieville would be no more in NBA 2K22. Instead, there is a way better intro that will put you right into the City from the start.
They also confirmed that there could be some sort of authored story with cinematics for your player within MyCAREER and the City, but they specified that it would be dependent on your player. Unfortunately, they did not go into any further details on that and said more was to come related to that.
NBA 2K22 will release for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 10.
