Not Content With NBA 2K's Dominance, 2K Will Now Publish Another Basketball Game

NBA Playgrounds 2 is getting a new publisher with a slight tweak to the title to match. 2K announced today it will publish Saber Interactive's arcade basketball game, shifting the name to NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The two-on-two basketball game will hit PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this fall.

The announcement suggests that the partnership will infuse Playgrounds 2 with "NBA 2K flair," but was short on details of how resources may be shared. In any event, it's a more casual approach to complement its annual NBA 2K series, which has enjoyed generally better critical buzz than EA's NBA Live series.

"The original NBA Playgrounds was a fantastic throwback to the glory days of arcade-action sports," said Visual Concepts president Greg Thomas, in the announcement. "The new NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 will step up this energy and attitude big time--with a bit of added NBA 2K flair--giving fans of both franchises an exciting new way to game with friends around the world."

The original NBA Playgrounds was published by Mad Dog Games, and received a middling reception. In GameSpot's NBA Playgrounds review, Blake Hester enjoyed the cartoon aesthetic and satisfying challenge, but found the audio repetitive and suggested its single game mode offered too little variety.