2K Games, the sports oriented division of the Take Two publishing structure, has announced that the servers for its basketball simulation NBA 2K11 will be kept on line until the month of April 2012, after reports suggested that the company was ready to take them down before November 31.
It's not clear whether 2K Games has taken the decision because of pressure from the player base, which is still engaged with some of the online modes, or whether it has decided to allow an alternative for the multiplayer side of NBA 2K12, which has been having connectivity issues since it was released.
2K has begun implementing a policy which aims to close down the online component of old games when a new iteration is released, probably thinking that this will force long time fans to move to the newest version of the game, which will result in extra revenue for the publisher.
More and more publishers are switching off online support for older titles citing financial concerns as the main reason.
NBA 2K12 was launched during October and can be played on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and focuses on a new Greatest mode, which allows gamers to play with well known stars from the past of the NBA and create match-ups that could not take place in real life.
Despite the NBA contract disputes between players and club owners, which have resulted in a lockout, the game has seen good sales and was cited by
Take Two as one of the main drivers for revenue for the quarter that will end on December 31 of the year.
Both NBA 2K11 and 2K12 have benefited from the fact that Electronic Arts, the other big player in the sports simulation business, has scrapped the renamed NBA Elite 11 because of quality issues and then decided to focus on the development of the arcade focused NBA Jam series.
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