Today 2K showed its support for the beloved, but often neglected, arcade sports sim genre by announcing they will publish Saber Interactive’s sequel to NBA Playgrounds. As a result, the game will now be called NBA 2k Playgrounds 2. Saber Interactive seems like they’re in good hands with 2k, a publisher whose name holds a lot of credibility when it comes to basketball video games. I’m excited about this collaboration and have been more faith that this sequel will be better than the first game. The name change makes sense and the brand recognition will, hopefully, make NBA 2k fans more likely to pick-up NBA 2k Playgrounds 2 (even though it’s a mouthful to say).
Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, had this to say:
The original NBA Playgrounds was a fantastic throwback to the glory days of arcade-action sports. The new NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 will step up this energy and attitude big time – with a bit of added NBA 2K flair – giving fans of both franchises an exciting new way to game with friends around the world.
Hopefully we’ll be hearing more about what that 2k flair means for this franchise. We’re still waiting on a concrete release date as the game was initially set for May and then got delayed a week before its launch, likely due to this new partnership. But NBA 2k Playgrounds 2 does have a release window of this fall and will be available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
When it comes to basketball it doesn’t get higher than 2k. Personally, this is the extra push I needed to be sold on the sequel to this arcade style basketball sim. What about you? Will you be picking up NBA 2k Playgrounds 2? Did you play the original, NBA Playgrounds? Shoot your shot in the comments below.
And be sure to read our review of NBA Playgrounds.
