Steam Users Wrecked NBA 2K23 in Reviews
NBA 2K23 has been received disastrously by PC gamers. They complain about the outdated engine and limited gameplay changes.
NBA 2K23, the latest installment of the popular basketball series by Visual Concepts has debuted on the market. The title was released simultaneously on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, XONE, PS5 and XSX/S. We'll still have to wait a little longer for industry media reviews (when they appear, we'll update this post), but players' first impressions are dismal. Mainly when it comes to the PC version.
- On Steam, only 28% of user reviews are positive, which is categorized as a "mostly negative" reception.
- Player reviews issued a few hours after the release should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, but they are a good illustration of the community's frustration.
- What upsets gamers the most is that once again, the PC version of the game is outdated and is based on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 releases, rather than the much better next-gen editions made for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
- Players complain that this approach results in the fact that the development of the series on PC has practically stopped. The graphics and gameplay haven't changed much since the 2020 edition, and the updated team rosers aren't worth the high price the publisher has asked for this year's installment.
- Trouble with NBA 2K23 doesn't just apply to the PC release, by the way. Both PC and console gamers are reporting connection problems, making it impossible to log in to the publisher's servers. Exactly the same inconveniences appeared last year with the release of NBA 2K22. At that time they were fixed after a few hours, so we can only hope that this time it will be similar.
- In fairness, it should be added that not all players are exclusively critial about the game. Among those playing on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, there is no shortage of positive feedback, including improvements to the matchmaking, MyCareer mode and player editor.
The problems of the PC version do not prevent it from selling well. At the time of writing this news, the game is in second place on the Steam's list of global bestsellers and is only surpassed by Steam Deck.
The game is also achieving good activity results. The current record is more than 11,000 concurrent users and the number is steadily growing. Here, however, it can be seen that some players were deterred by the problems of this year's installment, because at the moment NBA 2K22 on Steam is being played almost twice as many people than the latest part of the series.
