Everyone seems to be getting involved in esports lately. EA Sports has made major moves within the esports section with the Madden NFL series, especially with the Collegiate Star League. Now Take-Two Interactive and the NBA are now joining forces to try to jump on the esports gravy train.
Starting next season, the NBA 2K series will be featured in its own esports league known as NBA 2K eLeague as a partnership between the two companies. Not only is this a big move, it is historic as this is the first professional esports league operated by a US professional sports league.
The league will actually function similar to an actual basketball league, in a five on five format. Each team will be ran by a team within the NBA. It is not clear, however, whether every team will have a team in the eLeague initially. NBA commissioner Adam Silver does indeed allude that 30 teams in the league will be an eventuality.
NBA and Take-Two Interactive believe that the return on the league will be substantial. There are no reports on who owns majority in the league at this point.
Another point to be made is that the league will not feature NBA players in-game, and will instead consist of user-created characters based on each player’s preferences.
This is a huge and bold move from the two companies. You can be sure that Take-Two Interactive is in a staring contest with EA Sports over the return of NBA Live on Xbox One. This partnership with the NBA most certainly takes great strides in cementing the game as the premier basketball game on the market.