PGA Tour 2K23 - Answering OS Community Questions

I reached out to the OS community on the forums last week since I knew I would be playing PGA Tour 2K23 in the near future. I asked the community what their biggest questions were and said I would do my best to get as many of them as I could answered because I also knew I would have the chance to chat with some of the developers of the game at the preview event. Below you will find the fruits of that Q&A, so thanks again go out to the developers for being open about as much as possible, and to the OS community for asking a lot of great questions.

PGA Tour 2K23 OS Community Q&A

MrArlingtonBeach: Is the schedule customizable…can created courses be swapped in non-official events?

I talked about this a bit in the preview, but I will reiterate that basically what was said to me is that any “unofficial” events that aren’t at real courses can be swapped out for new courses. There is flexibility here where you can swap them season to season, and you’re not beholden to lock in all the courses right when you start up career mode or whatever. You should have the ability to load in a new course if you see some cool new course pop up in the community.

That said, as with almost all these answers I’ll give in this article, this is based on what I heard from the devs. I didn’t see most of this stuff with my own eyes, and I’m sure it’s possible something got lost in translation once or twice in terms of the question I asked and the answer I was given.

TheBleedingRed21: Is the leaderboard glitch fixed?

For those who don’t know, the leaderboard glitch has a couple different instances of how it plays out, but basically what happens sometimes is you can play out a round, and then all the sudden when you start a new round the leaderboard will be different. So X player maybe was in the lead by two strokes after the second round, but then you’ll start the third round and all of the sudden X player is no longer in first — or sometimes not even on the leaderboard anymore.

If you want a concern, when I asked two developers about this, neither really understood what I was asking about. After explaining it, they said they don’t see that happening when they’re playing, but since they didn’t really know that it was a bug, it’s hard to know what to make of whether it will be fixed or not. I remain in a holding pattern as it relates to this issue.

MrArlingtonBeach: What changes have been made to the swing? In particular, are the chip and splash shots still automatic hole outs an unrealistic percentage of the time?

Beyond the 3-click addition, I called out in the preview how it’s more the tempo at the top of your swing into your downswing that will matter more this year for fade/draw than the entirety of the swing (and of course it still matters how straight you nail the motion as well). The splash shot was changed so now it’s only in the bunkers, and the shot types overall have all been re-balanced to provide a little more strengths/weaknesses to them.

MrArlingtonBeach: Have new assets and objects been added?

Yes, but I do think the focus was more on making the tools easier to use than blowing out the designer with tons and tons of new objects and themes and such.

MrArlingtonBeach: Will next gen courses cross over to last gen systems, and vice versa? Will 2K21 courses be able to be ported from the old game to the new one, even if you’re going from, let’s say, PS4 to PS5?

I don’t think there are any crazy restrictions here. Perhaps going between platforms (that is between Xbox and PlayStation) will be an issue — I didn’t clarify on that specific point so I’m speculating — but because the games are sharing the same general engine between all platforms, I think most things are in the clear here. Certain objects might not port perfectly so you might have to do some editing to fix certain aspects of a course, but you should not have to start from scratch in most instances.

MrArlingtonBeach: What new licensed courses/events are in the game?

While I do believe I know the answer to this, I am not allowed to share at this point. We do know general numbers though that at launch there are 20 courses and 15 pros.

MrArlingtonBeach: What kind of DLC will there be? Will it be Clubhouse Passes again, will more courses be added for free?

There will be a lot more DLC this time around, and yes we know we’re getting tiered Clubhouse Passes. It’s a fair question about what will be added for free or not, but they’re not ready to share that sort of stuff as of now. The same goes for all the new brands etc. in the game.

MrArlingtonBeach: Will gear have specific attributes as they did in the past?

Yes. This system in general will take on more importance now that ratings are a thing and fittings/gear will play into your character’s attributes/archetype.

scagwi: Is it the same graphical engine as 2K21? If so, has anything been done to make it stand out on current gen (formerly next gen) systems beyond how things were in 2K21?

Again, I don’t believe any massive engine changes happened here — at least none were explicitly called out. That doesn’t mean they did nothing with the graphics, but it’s just not something they’re championing. Like, it’s still more or less the same engine, and it’s the part of the game I am “down” on the most. I think the game will run amazing in terms of frame rate and all the more technical stuff, but in terms of being a raw powerhouse, it’s not going to line up with some of the other heavy hitters out there.

lionden_56: What skills are a part of the MyPlayer skill and how easy is it to improve them without buying coins/whatever the currency is?

You can see a general screen here for the skills, and then you’ll have ratings like power, timing, shaping, etc. The archetype will also matter for how high certain ratings can go. You earn points whenever you play, so it’s not really gated to specific modes or anything. It’s not “pay to win” so I don’t even know if you can “buy” currency to speed up the process. I guess I would not be shocked if it’s there somewhere, but this isn’t NBA 2K MyPlayer or something like that in terms of the amount of money you can pour into making your player insanely good without working for it a bit.

lionden_56: Is offline society coming back?

Nope, not this time. That said, they are aware it used to be a thing and are not against it returning or anything like that. It just was not a top priority this time.

lionden_56: Also, this is kind of a gimme but confirmation the game will be on PC as well.

Yes, the game is on PC, and I would assume it ends up looking the best there since the specs can technically beat out a PlayStation or Xbox in that department.

RIFRIG: Many bugs and glaring basic gameplay issues still exist in 2K21, as a developer are you going to support 2K23 post release or will it be another case ignoring the community that have supported you from the inception of The Golf Club?

Firm but fair was what I think the OS community said as a response when they noticed this question on the forums. I can’t see the future here, but I will say that this dev team is generally aware of what people are saying and has every intention to be more supportive of the game post-launch. If you want to take the pessimistic route, will that still mean mostly PR and such showing up only when talking about a new Clubhouse Pass? Maybe. But, at the same time, this team likes the two-year schedule and does believe in post-launch support and “live service” as a concept for how golf games maybe should end up being. A big part of “live service” beyond making money is you then need to continue to update gameplay, fix bugs, and generally add that “value” that keeps people coming back. If they want to continue down that road, then post-launch support is going to mean doing a better job of fixing known gameplay issues and such rather than just waiting for the next game to come out.

jbd345: Was any mo cap used on the pros? Crossing fingers they learned from last game they don’t use the same generic swing.

Some of the pros did motion capture. I talked with Collin Morikawa at the event, and he was absolutely in that suit. I didn’t find out if every pro did mo-cap, and the devs are still not ready to share everything that relates to the mo-cap now, but there’s certainly some unique animations and stuff in the game.

ODogg: Can my wife and I play a game of golf together on the same system from our home and both of us use our created golfers?

You cannot. You can each use a different real pro. You can also create a new CAP for that session, but it’s not going to save once you close out the game. They do know about this and are aware it’s a thing couch folks want.

Krebstar: Will 2K21 courses automatically port over, or will it be up to course creators to move them over manually?

I don’t believe it’s automatic, and I’m not sure I’d want it to be. There is a lot of, well, terrible courses in there, so I would hope people only transfer over their best stuff.

lowpaiddonkey10: Pot bunkers?

Pot bunkers are at the official Renaissance Club course, but they’re not ready to be added to the designer yet. I’ll save the whole technical explanation, but they’re a bit of a pain in the butt to put into the designer because of all the ways they can just, well, break a lot of stuff.

lowpaiddonkey10: Caddies and opponents visible while playing?

I could be wrong here, but I noticed caddies and such during cutscenes, but when I’m actually hitting my shots it was usually just me from what I could tell.

lowpaiddonkey10: Zombie crowds?

I was not quite sure what was meant by this, but the crowds don’t move out of the way of shots hit at them. There does seem to be more density to the crowds, but I don’t think they’ve been majorly updated. If you’re talking about audio and such, I could not hear much of anything during the event — as in, the TVs were turned down in general.

OnlookerDelay: Has the swing mechanic been changed such that swing path determines hook/slice and tempo determines push/pull? 

I did ask about this, but there’s no “more hardcore” version of the analog swing that is going to make it so you’re controlling the entirety of the swing to this degree. I would be for it, but I just think they were happy to first do the 3-click swing first to broaden the base a bit first.

Bondsfan: Will this run on the Steam Deck? I can’t imagine how awesome it will be having a great portable golf game, so I’m hoping against hope the PC version can be optimized to run on my steam deck.

I didn’t ask specifically about this, but I have a hard time figuring out why it would not at some point end up there.

UpTheIrons: Will penalty drops be more realistic? Include yellow stakes? A lateral drop? 

The drops system is the same.

UpTheIrons: Will weather and wind be more variable? Perhaps offering different weather during a round?

I don’t think anything wild was done here in terms of changing the systems in place for weather/wind.

UpTheIrons: Balls landing in divots during tournaments? Plugged lies in bunkers?

No, but they do like these sorts of things and would for sure like to add more variety to courses at some point. For example, if you’re teeing up late in the day, you might be more likely to end up having a ball land in a divot etc.

UpTheIrons: Punch shots as a clickable option? 

Yes, punch shots are in the game now.