NBA 2K19 Community Angered by Seemingly Unskippable Ads

By Joseph Knoop

NBA 2K19 players are complaining that unskippable ads are surfacing in the basketball sim game across multiple platforms.

In a Reddit thread created Saturday, Reddit user afilathiel posted a screenshot of a loading screen from NBA 2K, along with a caption reading “Unskippable ads in a 60$ (sic) game, [expletive] 2K.”

Loading screen advertisements aren’t a new concept in 2K sports games (a helpful post on the NBA 2K subreddit explains you can disable them by turning off 2K TV in the game’s settings), but this influx of complaints across Reddit and social media indicate the rate of ads may have taken an upswing. Other Reddit users in the same thread chimed in with their thoughts.

“Just experienced this,” wrote bobridges34. “Ads on free mobile games is one thing. I’ve already paid for this [expletive]. Not cool.”

It’s worth noting that NBA 2K19 very recently went on sale across multiple platforms for $2.99 or similar prices, making it about a 95% discount. Being an annualized series, with a new game coming out around September every year, it’s not unreasonable to think that 2K was attempting to bring in a new wave of players before switching focus over to the inevitable NBA 2K20 later this year.

“The sneaky [expletive],” wrote user dramaticpotatoes. “Sell the game at a $3 price point to get an influx of players so they can pull this shit. Such a predatory company, it’s disgusting.”

IGN has reached out to 2K’s PR for clarification on the issue, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Joseph Knoop is a writer and producer for IGN, and you can NBA Jam with him on Twitter.