With NBA 2K21’s September 4 release fast approaching, fans have been clamouring for any and all information related to the game’s demo, including when it will be released.
The game is unsurprisingly set to hit Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows, with next-gen releases planned closer to the console launches.
In a year hit hard by global circumstances, blockbuster games are frequently being delayed, with Halo Infinite the latest causality: previously an Xbox Series X launch game, it’s now been pushed into 2021, making the prospect of a day-one console launch far less appealing.
Thankfully, 2K Sports is still playing ball with NBA 2K21, and it’s all systems go for the best (and, now, only) basketball sim on the market.
So the big question: when can we finally get our hands on the big one? NBA 2K games have for a few years now launched with a demo, and NBA 2K21 appears to be no different: we can expect the demo very soon.
Going on past year releases, NBA 2K21’s demo should release around August 21-24. That gives us roughly 12 days to wait before finally getting to play the game.
It’s not official as yet, and 2K has always been one to wait right until the very day to announce a demo’s release, but the murmurs lingering around online point to it being fairly definitively a late-August release for the demo.
That would give gamers two weeks before the full console release of NBA 2K21 to test their wares.
Now, as for it being a full-fledged demo or a Prelude as we’ve received in past years, we should probably assume and expect it to be the latter.
The Prelude focuses on the NBA 2K’s series’ MyCAREER mode, given it is the most popular mode and stands to be the most talked about mode ahead of every year’s iteration.
Players will be able to kickstart their career by creating their own playing and diving into some core features of the mode ahead of release, and so it’s quite literally a nice little “prelude” before jumping into the full thing.
There’s a lot of debate floating around at the moment as to whether or not people should wait for the next-gen version of the game or just take the plunge with the current version.
If you purchase the pricey Mamba Forever Edition – a version of the game crafted in honour of the late Kobe Bryant – you’ll land both the next-gen and current-gen versions of the game, alongside the expected additional content and in-game currency.
However, without purchasing that version of the game, you’ll need to fork out twice for NBA 2K21 should you wish to own it on both platforms. So the choice is yours: invest early and high with the Mamba Forever Edition, or buy the standard edition early and then potentially have to buy it again on next-gen console.
NBA 2K21 is set for release on September 4 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows. Next-gen console release will come later in 2020.