The final sprint has begun for the 2K Sports teams. After the development phase of NBA 2K25it's time for promotion, just under a month before the game's worldwide release. The iconic gameplay director Mike Wang was the first to come out of the woodwork to reveal the main new features regarding the gameplay, one of the elements that most interests the general public, to accompany the release of the special “Gameplay” trailer.
Like every summer, Mike Wang's team arrives with a ton of announcements, riding the wave of “ProPlay” technology. Used for the first time on NBA 2K24 on “New-Gen” consoles, it allows you to directly capture match images to reproduce them directly in the game. Gone are the hundreds of sensors and endless sessions of “capturing” movements in the studio. Each movement is now analyzed directly from the matches broadcast on TV.
9,000 new animations to fit each player as closely as possible
This is an opportunity for 2K Sports to stock up on “signature” moves and, above all, to reproduce them as best as possible. Each superstar has their own moves, their own identity, and each of them will be copied identically in the game. On NBA 2K25, 9,000 new ProPLAY animations have been added, with 1,500 dribbling animations, 1,100 custom shooting animations for most players registered for the 2023/24 season, and more than 1,300 new non-possession animations, including 150 new custom movement styles.
In the same spirit, ProPlay technology allows for the first time to completely revise the dribbling engine. It now generates movements from sequences taken from real NBA matches.
“This is one of the most remarkable improvements we've made to our engine, probably in 15 years. So this is a new dribbling engine that starts from the ground up, taking all of the ProPlay animations out of the 1,500 that we have, and dynamically creating all of the movements and transitions that you need to make the dribble look exactly the way you want it to,” Mike Wang said.
Attack and defense refined
The quality of player control is intended to be more refined year after year, in attack as in defense. In attack, the emphasis has been placed on creativity, customization, freedom and accessibility. The functionality Pro Stick Rhythm Shooting acts more on the firing timing profiles, more personalized.
There is also a new function, the shot cancellation which allows you to interrupt an advanced shot at any time to follow up with another movement, and deceive the defense. It is the counterpart of the famous “square-cross” on the best existing football simulation… The ” Dribble Breakdowns“, also released last year, are announced to be more advanced in order to perform dribble combos to follow up with a shot.
What about the defense? We'll still have to have the game in hand to realize its evolution. In any case, we are promised a new defensive withdrawal system, more dynamic changes of direction and of course a shot contesting system once again revised.
In its first part on the gameplay, 2K Sports also slipped a word on the evolution of the AI gameplay, which will be more fluid, less stereotypical, on both sides of the field. Finally, we will be able to enjoy a new “2K Tutorial” mode, to learn to master all the features, from the simplest to the most elaborate. A little extra that may seem classic but is intended to be fun, with mini-games and exercises and other training scenarios that will help to familiarize yourself with the game by learning the basics correctly, and more if you like…
