For NBA 2K23, the 2K City will feature some of the most unique architecture the NBA 2K franchise has ever seen while also making the City feel smaller. The 4 Boroughs of the NBA 2K City will have 4 unique designs that represent each Borough's mascot.
With a similar structure in mind, NBA 2K developers have made each Borough feel distinctive. The Western Wildcats' courts are hidden away in a canyon, the Beast of the East is in a caldera surrounded by lava vents, the courts of South City Vipers are surrounded by a jungle habitat, and the North Side Knights is a castle courtyard. NBA 2K's social hub world has been a main feature in the series since NBA 2K21 and every year the NBA 2K developers have to find new ways to innovate and improve upon each year's iteration. The effort to make each of the Burroughs feel special pursues that ambition to innovate.
The City in NBA 2K23 will bring back the subway fast travel feature that has not been in the game for some time. Fast travel stations will be littered across the City's most frequented areas like the mall, near each team's courts, and places like The Rec, Ante Up, the mall, and others. From the trailer, the City will also have a streamlined function that will let the player go from the City to their MyCareer games in their respective team's NBA locker room. The Player's Only Entrance will emulate some of the pre-game fashion walk-ins like their real-life counterparts.
The City also has condensed some landmarks from previous titles and centralized them into The Block. Themed 3v3 and 5v5 courts still litter the 2K City like the Pro-Am and The REC for matchmaking games. The Warehouse courts that were scattered across the City before have been replaced with The Theater that will serve the same function and will rotate special rule sets 5v5 games weekly. The Jordan Challenge building, where players will step into the time machine and re-live games from Michael Jordan's iconic career for special rewards is only found in this area. The Dreamville Studio, J. Cole's music label, will play a key role in the player's MyCareer storyline, is also a highlighted location in the 2K blog post.
This City experience is exclusive to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. The PS4 and Xbox One consoles get the G.O.A.T Boat which was featured in another 2K Blog post previously. One of the known community grievances for NBA 2K22 was that for as large of a sandbox as it was, it took a lot of time at a slow sprint, skateboard, jetpack flight, or whatever quirky mode of transportation made available from seasonal events. Though NBA 2K23 is sure to have many of those items returning, the 2K developers also say that this year's 2K City will be 30 percent smaller than last year.
NBA 2K23 will release on September 9 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: 2K Games