As the NBA enters the back-half of the 2020-2021 season, Take-Two Interactive is preparing to start the fourth official season of the NBA 2K League in May on NBA 2K21. But before the season can get underway, Take-Two and the NBA said there is a big change coming to the league as it makes the jump to next-gen consoles through a new partnership with Sony making the PlayStation 5 the official console of the NBA 2K League.
The NBA 2K League began in May 2017 as a venture between the National Basketball Association and Take-Two Interactive. It consists of 138 players split between 23 teams affiliated with 23 of the 30 teams currently making up the NBA. Teams include the Warriors Gaming Squad (Golden State Warriors), Knicks Gaming (New York Knicks), Hornets Venom GT (Charlotte Hornets), and Wizards District Gaming (Washington Wizards).
Sony Interactive Entertainment Vice President of Global Competitive Gaming Steven Roberts talked about the new partnership in an official PlayStation Blog post. Roberts said the new "multi-year" partnership with the NBA 2K League to bring all league action to the PS5 starting with fan tournaments in April. League action will then tip-off in May on PS5 while various other official events are being planned for the rest of the year for PS5 owners to watch and take part in.
The first fan tournament will take place in April for PS5 and NBA 2K21 owners in the United States. NBA 2K 2021 players will compete in an online qualifier tournament, dubbed the "Three for All Showdown Qualifier," taking place on April 5 and 6. The winner will then play alongside NBA 2K influencers Daniel "Troydan" Warren-Biers and PoorBoySin in the official "Three For All Showdown" tournament for a share of the $25,000 prize pool.
While Roberts did not provide further details, he teased there was more to come as part of the partnership and a new "exclusive custom content series" to run alongside official NBA 2K League games.
Sony's partnership with the NBA 2K League is the latest move by PlayStation to expand its footprint in the eSports space following its purchase of Evolution Championship Series, or EVO, in March 2021. The purchase followed a rough 2020 between the coronavirus pandemic and accusations of sexual misconduct against EVO co-founder Joey Cuellar resulting in the cancellation of EVO's 2020 tournament.
NBA 2K21 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, with an Apple Arcade version available as well.
Source: PlayStation Blog