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NBA 2K9 fouls PC players

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Oct 21, 2008 3:33 pm PT

[UPDATE]: Customers of Take-Two's latest hoops sim say their games are arriving without the Steam activation codes needed to play them; publisher promises a fix in the next 24 hours.

For the NBA 2K series debut on the PC, Take-Two Interactive teamed with Valve Software's downloadable game service Steam to put an antipiracy measure in place. Unfortunately, with the game on store shelves now, pirates aren't the only ones being thwarted.

As seen on the game's official forums, a number of gamers who purchased NBA 2K9 in stores have found their copies of the title did not include the necessary activation code to play the game. Part of 2K Games' end user license stipulates that anyone wishing to play the PC version of the game must use Steam to activate the product.

With the forum thread 13 pages long and packed full with angry comments, 2K representatives have yet to weigh in. A handful of the posters offered their own suggestions to gamers, several of which included pirating a cracked version of the game.

Despite the silence in its own community, 2K knows there is a problem. The official NBA 2K9 Web site did post a brief update about the situation earlier today.

"If you recently purchased the NBA 2K9 PC title in North America, 2K Sports is aware of the issues with the Product Keys and is working hard on a solution," the notice said. "Check back here for answers by end of day today. We appreciate your patience."

As of this writing, those answers had not arrived, and 2K Sports representatives had neither addressed the community directly in the forum thread nor returned GameSpot's request for comment on the issue.

[UPDATE]:2K Sports updated its NBA 2K9 page with news of a fix. According to the site, "a solution is forthcoming within the next 24 hours--likely much sooner--to alleviate any installation issues involving a Product Key. This solution will be downloaded automatically and seamlessly when you install your product."

69 Comments

  • runstalker

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 9:13 pm PT

    Isolated error, easily fixed.
    Damn steal at $19.99 - basically the 360 version playable at higher resolutions.

  • nyranasaurus

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 11:36 am PT

    Wow , and you also didnt realise how much clearer this game is on the pc did you. PC's always own consoles forever. Its a shame about the release of this amazing game being held back because of mistakes, but i hope it does really well on pc. Because it deserves it. Its nice having the competition over EA, especially this kind of competition.

  • coreyq

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 3:51 pm PT

    XanderZane actually I play my pc games on a 47inch tv. You didnt know that you can play pc games with a 360 controller and on a screen bigger than 19inches? WOW

  • guyver23

    Posted Oct 23, 2008 3:52 pm PT

    ilike the look of kyle foremans mrs

  • Ed1923

    Posted Oct 23, 2008 3:19 am PT

    Well steam is always a better way instead of all the nasty drm rubbish. It will be sorted out soon anyway.

  • XanderZane

    Posted Oct 23, 2008 12:19 am PT

    Got it for the XBox 360 on launch day and it plays just fine. No "STEAM" needed. LOL!! Don't know how anyone could play this game on a 19in monitor on their PC. Sports games like this should be played on a game console, just like games like Spore and Starcraft 2 should be played on the PC. Anyway, the game is awesome and I haven't even had to change the sliders so far this year. The balance is pretty good, but the players still don't shoot their averages line in the real NBA game.

  • kyleforeman

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 9:45 pm PT

    Just bought the game for an incredible price at $19.99. Popped it in, agreed to steam and off the installation went. No Problems at all. This is a steal at $19.99 if you have the system to run it on.

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 7:46 pm PT

    "DRM doesnt discourage piracy rather it encourages it. Though 2k screwed up I feel their pain to introduce DRM. Just imagine game developers spending years, money and time to make a game. Game get released and tada it gets pirated and they(the game developers) cannot enjoy the fruits of their labour."

    sure the secure rom does but steam is so hard to crack its very good at reducing piracy. orange box games are have yet to be cracked, even games like crysis warhead on steam are much harder than the retail version to crack.

  • DarkDamo

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 6:36 pm PT

    duhNeighbour: It is not Steam/VALVe's fault that 2K forgot to include cd-keys with the game. At least VALVe was able to make it so that you could play the game without the CD-key anyway (as long as you had the DVD). The news item needs to be updated with the solution.

  • prioritymail

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 5:09 pm PT

    I was unaware NBA 2k came out on PCs... It just doesn't even sound right to me

  • duhNeighbour

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 5:08 pm PT

    2K tried the new nasty SecuROM with BioShock, people hated it. Now they try Steam and screws up on day one...

  • Toro_Nev

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 4:32 pm PT

    wow, that must suck, but hopefully they resolve it really soon

  • alik360

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 3:39 pm PT

    That's why I have a console now, avoiding activation headache... but I'm still a PC gamer

  • earlthecannibal posted Oct 22, 2008 3:06 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    earlthecannibal

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 3:06 pm PT (hide)

    Who cares!? ..who really wants a crappy sports game on the Pc anyway. Someday consoles will stop infecting Pc gamers ...hopefully this happens VERY soon =)

  • ocdog45

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 1:38 pm PT

    113 pages of forums isn't that long. but still a big problem. this is jsut stupid on 2k.

  • Syntax82

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 10:50 am PT

    F pirates get a damn job

  • aaddron

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 9:53 am PT

    "If you've had issues installing NBA 2K9 for the PC, please know that a solution is now in place. This solution will be downloaded automatically and seamlessly when you install your game, and no Product Key is required. If you try to re-install the game and are still having trouble, please contact 2K Sports Customer Service at 415-507-7750 or customerservice@2ksports.com.

    Thank you for your patience, and 2K Sports apologizes for any inconvenience."

    Found that on there website: http://2ksports.com/news/nba2k9/249

  • firehawk998

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 9:40 am PT

    DRM doesnt discourage piracy rather it encourages it. Though 2k screwed up I feel their pain to introduce DRM. Just imagine game developers spending years, money and time to make a game. Game get released and tada it gets pirated and they(the game developers) cannot enjoy the fruits of their labour.

  • jazzyrider

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 8:06 am PT

    glad i didn't buy this game. maybe i might consider it for the ps3 but if there's a pc issue, this game is much lower on my want list.

  • phatman12

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 5:58 am PT

    Thankfully sometime last night Steam posted an update that allows you to bypass the activation code

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