NBA Playgrounds delivers a hot update
NBA Playgrounds might be the only basketball game right now on Switch, but the team at Sabre and not coasting on that and they have announced another update to the game that delivers some new content as well as improvements to the game.
Of the 33 new players coming to the game, people will get to enjoy current stars such as J.R. Smith and Chris Paul, dominators from recent eras like Baron Davis and Tim Duncan, old-school legends Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, and even some modern-day sports gaming YouTubers like Agent 00 and Shake4ndBake.
“NBA Playgrounds has been a labor of love for us at Saber, so it’s hugely gratifying to see the game strike a chord. Its success has paved the way for us to consider creating other arcade-style sports titles,” said Saber’s CEO, Matt Karch. “We’ve worked tirelessly since release to refine the game and deliver the free content we promised, and we’re going to keep supporting it. I want to thank the community for their ongoing feedback, specifically players on Switch, who had to wait so long for the full experience they deserve.”
The update will arrive on other platforms first, but Switch gamers will get it soon after, though currently we have an end of Winter release window for the others, so take that how you will.
“I want to thank the community for their ongoing feedback, specifically players on Switch, who had to wait so long for the full experience they deserve.””
And Switch users will apparently remain waiting any time new content is released, because current evidence points to Switch users always getting new content delayed. Appreciating the customers because they had to wait, and then following that up with a “you will be waiting again next time we release new content” isn’t really something that makes me feel fond of the company if I was a Switch user.
It’s great that they’re slowly fixing the game mechanic-by-mechanic but when the fixes are by introducing UI to help understand how the game works it’s obvious you’ve made a game that’s unintuitive. Take a look at NBA Jam for instance, there’s no UI around taking shots or rebounding there yet everyone can do it no worries.
I don’t this can ever be anything but a janky, broken game. Let’s hope they don’t repeat this performance with these other sports games they’re thinking about.