NBA 2k11 PC Patch Released - Impressions

[SpriteAlpha]

Wow. I'm predicting March, just like last year. Once again, Ronnie suckered me into thinking the patch was always "just around like corner", but no more, I'm going for March.

[wkd]

@SirShaffty I don't want to put a definite ETA on it but the problem was found already, fix doesn't take long, but QA can take days. about 3 hours ago via web in reply to SirShaffty


semi good news?

[fjccommish]

If Scottie fixed the Enterprise at this pace Khan would have vaporized it.

[Toaster]

[karlopb]

i guess the release of the patch will be early march or early april..

[koberulz]

This. 2k's turning an issue that should be the DDs' fault into an issue that is their fault, which is bizarre.

It's never been the DD's fault, it's always been 2K's. They tried to coordinate the patch releases because they can't handle it on their end, and now we see it's the retail version that they are somehow incompetent to patch.

It was awaiting approval from the DDs for weeks. How is that 2k's fault?

Though as has been said already, that they're finding a crash now seems odd.

[fjccommish]

"It was awaiting approval from the DDs for weeks. How is that 2k's fault?"

Why wait for approval from the DDs? The DDs claim the strength of their service is faster access to games. So release the patch and let the DDs explain to their customers why they're taking so long to approve a patch. That way the customers who chose not to use DDs aren't subject to the DDs.

All this is moot, however, since now 2K says the retail version patch has a problem.

[benji]

It was awaiting approval from the DDs for weeks. How is that 2k's fault?

Yeah, sure it was, and they JUST found out about the retail disc problem.

Steam has no approval process for patches. None. It barely even has one for publishing. And I doubt any of the other two services it's out on do either.

If the indie devs of every game on earth, even if they're one lone person, can push out a patch via Steam as soon as it is finished the company that owns the Grand Theft Auto series can.

Ronnie2K has been lying, like normal, for months. VC doesn't have the infrastructure to support unpatched versions, so they attempt to hold off the release and have them all come out at once lest they have to again fix their decade old online system.

Last year Gamersgate assumed they were like every other company out there, misread it, and once they got the patch they put it up. As a result 2K had to throw the rest out or it'd kill their servers. And Steam and D2D versions took a while because VC probably never actually told them to change the date and move the release up. Steam and D2D had the patch on the original release date.

I wouldn't even believe him in this case, why is the disc version the only one with an issue? What sense does that make? They simply don't care about the PC version all that much and they obviously just can't admit it has the lowest post on their totem pole.

[DVocShoeBox]

Mane........I SMELL SOMETHING..... ***Sniff*** ***Sniff*** ...... as usual, its 2k with the BS!

UPDATED:

Looks like i'm not the only one smelling it......lol

"What's that smell?"..... i told ya!

What's that smell?

[sve]

@Ronnie2K so all the DD's are done with the patch we just waiting for the dvd problem to get fixed?

@maxp2k10pcCHAMP Still waiting on DD's too but unlikely that takes longer than running the disc version through QA.

Oh man...

[DVocShoeBox]

Why is it that games like GTA can put out 4 patches in a year but 2k can't even get "one" out? Is it because its a sports game?

[Patr1ck]

Too many variables in a sports game like basketball that need to maintain balance. You can't really compare a billion dollar game like gta to a little basketball sports title. Also, The 2K devs are probably in the early development process of 2K12.

[DVocShoeBox]

.....understandable......

[karlsanada10]

But then, it Must Not Be Taking Ages before they freakin' release it!

[benji]

Why is it that games like GTA can put out 4 patches in a year but 2k can't even get "one" out? Is it because its a sports game?

No, it's because they're incompetent. And they have nine month dev cycles.

These are the same people who took a decade to actually make any attempt to replace their Dreamcast originated, aka 56k based, infrastructure.

Consolidation of the sports gaming market hasn't come just because of exclusive contracts, the entire system is based around the same concepts and design it was back in the 16-bit era. And as costs escalated despite the demands of the absurd dev cycle it eliminated the rest of market except what we have today.

Companies trying to make NFL games fell from five to two in a two year span, MLB went from seven games to two in a similar span. That's why they went exclusive. There were simply only EA and 2K left standing that could do third party sports game development, in such a situation a monopoly makes sense. Marx recognized this.

[onyx030]

Too many variables in a sports game like basketball that need to maintain balance. You can't really compare a billion dollar game like gta to a little basketball sports title. Also, The 2K devs are probably in the early development process of 2K12.

little basketball sports title ? you know they had over two million copies sold of 2k10 ? and earning ANNUALY 100mio$ or more on a videogame where you additionally spend more money every year for advertisement then the production itself i wouldn't figuere that a pc patch is so hard to release like they claim.
come on already, that's the buety of pc, you can bring out fixes immediatly. i've never heared of such a BS like 2K is telling. It's just funny. They call their game a simulation and u cant even take a charge and cpu making 5 fastbreaks in like 1minute LOL. the only reason why i'm still playing now is because of the project by juza. 2K is one of the bigger game producing companies on this planet. So please dont tell me that a billion dollar company cant bring out a patch within the first weeks (at least a quickfix for charges and fastbreaks), because its just PATHETIC - nothing else. And everyone who is still believing this ronny guy should read my post again, he's a muppet without any influence at all, and sometimes it seems like without information at all.

have a nice day

[benji]

Yes. It's also worth noting that the sheer bulk of the patch already exists and has been applied to the engine. There is no reason to think the console only fixes would not work on the PC.

They have some other issue that either Ronald2K does not understand (highly likely) or they're like normal just making up crap.

I can't wait for when they drop the PC version or at least jack the price up to $60 to "combat piracy" (which will result in sales bombing and them ditching the PC) since they provide such poor support to the PC SKU even after raising the price. I don't think they have any clue outside of the obvious "price it lower on PC" strategy in terms of ensuring a successful place in longterm PC market.

It's pretty much clear at this point that the guy "in charge" of the PC version is basically the only person working on it. All the gameplay fixes were done and patched a while ago. Despite the PC centric problems, I'm sure most people would not have minded getting all those gameplay/association/myplayer fixes back when the consoles did and waiting on the PC stuff. We'd play on low online if we could actually use My Player and crap properly.

[BrotherJRB]

You guys do realize 2k made a PC game despite it making any substantial profit?

I swear you guys are the whiniest bunch of people I have ever seen over $30.

Remember every other company has abandoned the PC market. The mere fact that 2k even puts out a PC game I am surprised and content, even if it is crap.....this years game was far from it.

The company has kept us informed about that patch....so wait....or whine on message boards.....that'll show them.

[benji]

Ah, the good old "how dare you ever criticize anything, at least you're getting something!" argument. How DARE consumers ever express displeasure with a product.

Remember every other company has abandoned the PC market.

News to me.

[wkd]

everyone knows people buy pc games to play online

if the online game play on nba2k11 wasn't ridden with so many problems, there would actually sell alot thus cutting out a lot of people pirating the game

[Lunatic Wolf]

everyone knows people buy pc games to play online

if the online game play on nba2k11 wasn't ridden with so many problems, there would actually sell alot thus cutting out a lot of people pirating the game

All the PC games I buy, I buy them to play single player.

[BrotherJRB]

Ah, the good old "how dare you ever criticize anything, at least you're getting something!" argument. How DARE consumers ever express displeasure with a product.

Remember every other company has abandoned the PC market.

News to me.

NBA Live Series Center......now I done don't think they make that game anymore for the PC....

Sports games on the PC....shrinking market. Every company has abandon it except for text sims and maybe international sports. The big four sports in America Football (none), basketball (2k), baseball (2k), hockey (none). 10 years ago these were all made by multiple companies for the PC.

Continue on though....But how dare you criticize someone who is actually happy with the product....the good old stay out of my illogical thread and don't dare say how the game is actually fine. How dare I actually comment that I am very happy with my purchase and the company who made the game. How dare I.

[benji]

So you didn't read my posts above your prior one. The sports gaming market has imploded like so many others within the video game industry.

And no, ten years ago you couldn't get multiple games for each of the Big Four. Front Page was dead by then. Microsoft released NFL and NBA before shuffling off to the Xbox where they stayed so they don't count. 989's lone GameDay port was short lived. High Heat started on the PC but once 3DO took over totally and tried to force it onto the consoles it died along with the company. (And Microsoft bought the trademark only to never use it again.) I think Powerplay had bailed. Nobody else but EA ever attempted PC ports and they were worse than what 2K has put up after Live 2001. In 2000, the "glory days" we had Inside Drive, which never appeared again, and the Fox Sports game that was the developers trying to recoup costs and Fox trying to buy in easily to the market, which failed blatantly.

2002, what PC games in the big four were there? Madden, NHL, Triple Play, High Heat and...

EA bailed long ago, EA bailed in 2006. That's five years ago. 2K was smart, they saw a wide open market, placed themselves in it at the right price point. But they (the entire company to be fair, look at Bully or GTA IV) still don't entirely get the market, and there is no way you can justify them lying about the patch situation.

Nobody criticized you or anyone else happy with the product. Not one single rational person has bemoaned anyone for enjoying the game, the bile has come from 2K once again not understanding how to run a company where people will trust your product instead of assuming that you're just once again going to fuck over a bunch of customers. I'm fairly happy with the product, I just wish I could play My Player mode and get 200+ hours out of it and that Ronald2K would after two years stop bullshitting me and everyone else and just say they done fucked up instead of making up excuse after contradictory excuse. Maybe try to put up a legitimate time table instead of saying its finished but you're holding it back for a fake reason that makes no sense.

Here's what's not interesting. You said whining on forums is meaningless, and I agree to an extent, more on this below, but at the same time you felt it was such an affront you needed to make not just one post whining about the so-called whiners who expect a simple patch to make its way from the consoles to the superior platform but also came back to make a second borderline nonsensical one that you felt actually had some point to it.

But what is interesting? 2K10 got such a bad rap, including on forums where it was declared an outright fraud since it didn't even work properly, that 2K spent massive amounts of capital on securing Jordan, making changes, improving the PR and pushing out a detailed console patch much faster than the 2K9 -> 2K10 cycle because of so-called forum whining.

Just because you live in a monopoly is no reason to say, welp, I live in a monopoly, might as well accept what they offer me at any price. Lots of people here can validate that I've said that if 2K pushed up to $30 (which I figured online would cause) and actually properly supported online and patched the PC version I'd stay on board. If 2K bumps the price up next year again, I'm not staying on board and I bet large swaths of people won't either since they can't even us give us fixes to get rid of the bugs, I don't even give a shit about the online and PC specific stuff at this point. Put out the damn gameplay and feature patch within a sensible time table of the consoles, that's unrelated to platform. There is zero reason to delay it to try and make one big singular patch. This isn't fucking 1998 anymore. We aren't on 56k, and the sane ones of us have instant update services.

You can let them just demand to cum in your ass over and over and be happy that at least they still "love" you, but the rest of us still reserve the right to say if they want it they can put a ring on it.

[fjccommish]

Hey, kids read this message board.

[BrotherJRB]

Ah....you're right. I am wrong.