NBA 2K21’s The City Won’t Be Open To WNBA Players

New information about NBA 2K21‘s social space known as The City seems to indicate that it will not support custom female characters or any WNBA content. Fans of the women’s basketball league only got the opportunity to play with WNBA teams in last year’s edition of NBA 2K, and the options were rather limited. Gameplay was limited to exhibition games and taking a favorite team through a season. In a game so full of modes, it was unfortunate that the WNBA support was so restricted, and that is being fixed somewhat in this year’s game.

In the version of NBA 2K21 coming out for next-gen consoles next week, WNBA play will expand to three new modes. In The W, players can create their own custom female characters and take them through a career mode. Players can also take those characters into online three on three matches played on a court custom-made for WNBA competition. Finally, in MyWNBA, players can customize their own league, take their favorite team all the way to the championship, or switch a few settings and play as a GM instead. All of this is in addition to the WNBA options from last year’s game, but custom characters competing in the WNBA are locked out of one of NBA 2K21‘s most interesting new modes.

Introduced earlier this week as a new way for players to enjoy NBA 2K21 online, The City is described as the ultimate destination for created characters, but that doesn’t stretch to WNBA competitors. This was confirmed in an interview between Visual Concepts executive producer Erick Boenisch and PowerUp Gaming. When asked if female custom characters would be able to train, purchase cosmetics and play online in The City, Boenisch pointed to the other new modes for WNBA play in the game. When pressed further, the producer confirmed that the only online available would be the 3v3 matchups, and The City was indeed only for male MyPlayer characters.

Not only is The City a place to easily match into online games, but it also serves as a place to grow and improve custom characters. Because of this limitation, female MyPlayers can’t train their stats as efficiently in The City’s gym facilities, they can’t shop for new cosmetic items, and they can’t participate in the rather complicated political system in place that features everything from battles between districts to mayoral elections.

While it is possible that there is some technical hurdle in NBA 2K21 keeping custom characters from NBA and WNBA modes separate, the fact that what is essentially an online lobby system can’t support both male and female characters is a massive flaw that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s a situation reminiscent of the time Ubisoft declared that creating female playable characters in Assassin’s Creed was too difficulty, only to turn around and make it work in the following game. If Ubisoft can do it, Visual Concepts and 2K can as well, and there’s no reason why those who want to play WNBA characters can’t have the same shiny next-gen online features as those playing NBA equivalents.

Source: PowerUp Gaming

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