People who play a whole lot of NBA 2K oftentimes find themselves balling out in The Neighborhood, the virtual basketball community in which gamers can play streetball, 5-on-5 games, and customize their character with various clothes, tattoos, and hair styles. This game mode is going to make its way into NBA 2K21 on next generation consoles, and as we learned on Wednesday, it won’t be known as The Neighborhood.
2K Sports announced that this mode will be known as The City, an incredibly expansive version of its already-existing virtual basketball community. The news was announced via a trailer that showed off a number of elements that will exist in The City and a new twist called Affiliations, which will ask gamers to join with one of four rival groups: the North Side Knights, the South City Vipers, the Beasts of the East, or the Western Wildcats.
Here is what Erick Boenisch, the Executive Producer at Visual Concepts for NBA 2K, wrote in a blog post:
Here is The City at a quick glance: Imagine a map that is many, many times larger than previous Neighborhoods. A design that resembles a modern metropolis, complete with towering skyscrapers, sprawling plazas, and a city center. Oh, and it houses four distinct boroughs that are controlled by four rival Affiliations. And with that, I’m incredibly proud to announce that Affiliations are BACK! I’ll go into more details on Affiliations a little further below. For now, let’s keep painting the picture of what The City truly is.
The City is our most ambitious execution of a virtual basketball community…ever. The sheer amount and variety of buildings and basketball courts that we were able to create and fit into the map still amazes me to this day!
NBA 2K21 is slated to drop on Xbox Series X on Nov. 10, with the PlayStation 5 drop scheduled for two days later.