'NBA 2K19' Devs Talk MyCareer, Preludes, VC & Park As a Social Service

NBA 2K19 is just days away from release, and the game's developers at Visual Concepts are primed to deliver one of the most feature-rich additions in the franchise to date. To break down a vision described as "five or six games in one," we spoke with studio VP Jeff Thomas. This year's refocused Career mode alongside an evolving MyPark experience online aim to redefine this industry-leading series.

An Emphasis on Humble Beginnings

While enhanced features like improved blow-bys and tweaked layup accuracy are in many ways an iteration on the series' fluid basketball mechanics, NBA 2K19 also features a bevy of modes. Central to the package is MyCareer, which lets players create their own baller and take him from the minors to the NBA.

"The biggest story with Career this year is the new narrative that we've done," Thomas told Newsweek. "We put a lot of effort into our Prelude, which is the part before you get to the NBA." The Prelude, which can be downloaded now as a free demo on Xbox One and PS4, focuses its attention on the early years of your MyCareer to offer a level of authenticity typically applied to the full NBA suite that comes after it.

Your player begins his journey in the Chinese League, and Visual Concepts spared no expense making that international environment feel real. "We drop you into an entire Chinese experience with a full Chinese environment and commentary set," Thomas said. "Each game is actually called in Chinese, which really sucks you into that feeling of being there."

After making waves in China your player gets a call from Los Angeles, but your hopes of a tryout with the Lakers are quickly dashed when you're immediately pushed down to the South Bay Lakers. That same day, the Lakers trade you to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, a G League team with a cast of unique characters. Maintaining authenticity, your games with the Mad Ants also have their own G League commentary. Outside of gameplay, you attend state fairs and ultimately come to respect Indiana's hometown approach.

"This year we put a lot of effort into building that pre-pro environment around you," Thomas said. "It sets the stage for an unbelievable Career mode that comes after that."

An Evolved Neighborhood

Once you progress past the Prelude, your true NBA 2K19 career begins in a live communal space called the Neighborhood. The Neighborhood made its debut in last year's game, but feedback from fans drastically changed this year's iteration.

"It was a huge challenge putting everyone together in one place last year," Thomas admitted when asked about the Neighborhood's development. "We created a social environment, but there wasn't a lot of social things to do there. This year one of our biggest focuses was giving people a lot of fun things to do in the Neighborhood."

One of those new activities is the Under Armour Cages, a fresh gameplay opportunity Thomas couldn't contain his excitement about. "It's a park located on one side of the square that has cages for actual trampoline basketball. It's like a Park game in that it's three-on-three or two-on-two, but now there are trampolines on the court," Thomas said. "With trampolines you can get height, spring off the walls, do crazy alley oops and block shots from under the rim." He further described it as "a living highlight reel."

Basketball is central to 2K19's Neighborhood experience, but trampoline cages merely scratch the surface of what the team Visual Concepts has promised. By adopting a new town square-inspired lobby design, social interactions are far more common than before. Players can take to the streets in scooters and bikes, and even engage in limited live events like dodgeball battle royale.

By bringing players closer together, the goal with 2K19's Neighborhood was to make a lobby system that felt alive. That mission is capped off with the addition of real-time day-night cycles that operate on a four-hour schedule. "At night the lights come on in all the surrounding businesses and courts, and you can keep playing till you see the sunrise again," Thomas described. With major additions and small acountrements like these, the Neighborhood intends to be a fun destination inside and outside of traditional game modes.

MyPark As a Service

For those who prefer standard modes like MyPark, there's still a ton to do in 2K19. Coming off of 2K18, which was widely panned by fans and critics for its reliance on VC-focused microtransactions, the upcoming iteration offers constant rewards for constant engagement with presumably less emphasis on extra fees. "We're giving people the opportunity to earn a whole lot more VC this year," Thomas assured.

A major showcase of that commitment is a new event framework called 2K Compete, which Thomas described as "non-stop different graphics packages and gameplay to give you something new to participate in." Under the 2K Compete banner, Visual concepts has already designed nearly three dozen unique events to keep players active all year long. One of these, called Court Conqueror, envelopes the entire park in a medieval aesthetic complete with castle walls. Beat the six all-star teams inside the park, and you'll get a purse of VC, an exclusive jersey and other rare goodies.

Beyond these large-scale celebrations, 2K19 MyPark also features smaller community-based tasks where players are required to perform a certain amount of assists, dunks or blocks in a limited amount of time. As long as the challenge is completed, all players, again, get VC and exclusive rewards. For Thomas and his team, this gameplay-first MyPark approach was a means of "giving back to the community" during a turbulent 2K18 season.

When NBA 2K19 releases Sept. 11, MyPark and MyCareer are just two large pieces of a larger package that also includes a collection-focused MyTeam mode and franchise-heavy MyGM suite. All of this in mind, Thomas ended our chat by saying, "the amount of stuff we add to this game every year just dwarves what I see the other sports games doing." Based on our short conversation, it sounds like Thomas may be right about that.

NBA 2K19 comes to Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC Sept. 11.

Are you excited to see what NBA 2K19's MyPark and MyCareer are about? Tell us in the comments section!