2K Games Shutting Down 2023 Game for Good in 48 Hours

The folks over at 2K Games are shutting down a 2023 game for good in roughly the next 48 hours. 2K is a publisher known for series like Borderlands, BioShock, Mafia, XCOM, and Civilization. More than perhaps any of these, though, it is known for its sports games. Sports games have always been very popular since their inception, but they have also largely been annualized, making them steady cash cows. No one milks this more than EA, but 2K comes close, and its biggest milker is no doubt the NBA 2K series.

The problem with annualization is that games don’t have very long shelf lives because they are quickly replaced. More than this, they use licensing that expires quickly, and then is never extended because there’s always been more than one new installment released since, making the game redundant and leaving it not making any money. All of this accumulates and leads to sports games being delisted in record time. To this end, NBA 2K24 just came out back in 2023, yet two years later, it is shutting down. More specifically, on December 31, all online features will become inaccessible because servers are being turned off.

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No Longer Available to Purchase Either

While the servers are still online for another 48 hours, roughly, the game isn’t currently available to purchase, and hasn’t been for a bit now, as it was delisted from all digital platforms since October. Retail copies remain accessible, though; however, this will change over time as printing of copies stopped even longer ago.

As fans may remember, NBA 2K24 was not the greatest release in the series, as our official review of it notes. In fact, and in particular, the microtransactions became quite egregious in NBA 2K24 compared to previous installments, and they haven’t improved much since then. To this end, many remember it as one of the worst games in the series this generation.

2K Games Not the Only Company Shutting Down Games Soon

Joining 2K Games in shutting down servers is EA, which is set to shut down the servers of three different games next month, including a BioWare game. These two companies have been at the forefront of server shutdowns the last few years, largely because of the collection of sports games both make.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.