The situation occurs at least in the United States, on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.
NBA 2K1 is inserting non-skippable banner ads during game load times. This has been alerted by some North American users and media, who find that both on Xbox One and on Playstation 4 there is advertising that, until the player cannot press the continue button, they cannot skip it. It should be noted that Stevivor, who has given birth to this information, explains that they find the same situation on PC, although in that case they have not recorded it.
The ad they have captured is linked to Oculus Quest 2, it jumps automatically during the loading time and this is somewhat longer than usual, even on PC where they use an SSD hard drive. Some of the criticism that is being made on social networks and publications is precisely about putting ads in a game that has a full price and not in the case of being a free to play game, as it happens on mobile devices.
It is not the first time that the insertion of advertising in sports video games has come to the fore. It happened recently with UFC 4 and its replays, where EA Sports was showing commercials to players. Following complaints from users, the company explained the following: “After the abundant and clear feedback received for integrating ads into replays and seeing that it is an unwelcome experience, we have disabled them and we apologize for how this may hinder the experience”.
Waiting for an official response
At the moment there is no official answer on whether it is something specific from the developer company, whether it depends on each country or is a practice that will be established concurrently in the saga from now on. NBA 2K21 is out now on PC, Xbox One and PS4. Here you can read our Reviews and soon the game will be launched on the new generation of consoles, where it promises a first-rate technical leap that you can see in this trailer.
