NBA 2K24 Interview with Mike Wang - Gameplay Improvements, Badges & More

The PlayStation Blog has posted an interview with NBA 2K gameplay director Mike Wang as they discuss some of the NBA 2K24 gameplay improvements, the badge game and more. Additional information is coming soon but Mike mentions badges, among other things, are very nuanced this year.

Let’s put it this way, the way you play on the court is going to reflect how your badges get shaped, and how your player looks at the end of the day. So when you do something over and over again, let’s say you like to do spin jumpers, you’re going to see your abilities as a spin jumper player improve steadily over time. And so you’re going to find that just the way you play the game, what you like to do on the court is going to improve, you’re going to kind of build your player in that aspect. So I’m excited about that. 

Much of the discussion has been previously revealed in the latest gameplay trailer, Courtside Report and Mike’s Twitter (X) account. However, there are additional points covered in the interview including paint defense, player movement, play-calling and more so be sure to give it a read.

I’m excited that we have a new feature in the game where you can mold your player on the fly as you play games. Going to be really interesting to see how that turns out. Another nuanced thing, a very nuanced thing, is probably the play-calling stuff. Because that’s something that is really deep in our game. It’s something that a lot of people are kind of intimidated by, because you’re seeing real NBA playbooks, and a lot of people just don’t even understand what these coaches are running, what these actions even mean. So we simplified a lot of it this year. We have a new feature called Favorite Plays, where if you just press left on the d-pad, you’ll see you can choose from up to 16 of the most common plays in basketball, from give-and-gos to quick ISOs and floppies. Also, we have a feature that we brought back called 2K SmartPlay. If you enable that feature, basically, as you come up the court every single time and every possession, a little overlay is going to pop up to tell you basically who the best player is and what the best action is to run for that player at this point in the game. So it’s a nice entry level way to kind of understand more nuances of not just NBA 2K but of NBA basketball.

NBA 2K24 releases on September 8 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.