2K Releases “Apology” and Details on Unskippable Ads Going Forward

In a Tweet yesterday, 2K Games kind of apologized for the unskippable ads they have running in-between matches while everything loads.

It’s about as much of an apology as you’d sort of expect from 2K Games, who are well established for caring very little for their players, often times only to the extent that it takes for those same players to open their wallets for something in-game.

The Tweet reads, “As many are aware, in recent years ads have been integrated into 2KTV segments. Yesterday’s 2KTV ad placement impacted our players’ experience in a way we didn’t intend, as these ads are not meant to run as part of the pre-game introduction. This will be fixed in future episodes. Thanks for your continued feedback.”

It’s worth pointing out that 2K didn’t actually apologize for the ad in anyway, rather apologizing for its placement since it didn’t play when it was supposed to, pointing at the ads they’ve placed in their games in the past.

Call me crazy, but I don’t buy it.

This is a developer that’s been putting these ads out reliably within their games for a few years now, and this hasn’t been an issue until now. It seems to me like the ads played exactly when and where they were supposed to, and 2K was expecting their players to just deal with it, as opposed to protesting it. Claiming it wasn’t supposed to play when it did sounds like the cover story someone came up with after fans and websites started talking about the practice to buy the studio time to figure out what to do.

If you’re re-reading the Tweet because something seems to be missing, or that there’s something off with their “apology” it’s the fact that they don’t mention whether the current ads will be removed, replaced, or fixed so they play at the proper time that they were supposed to.

They say this issue will be fixed in “future episodes” but that’s about it. What this sounds like it means for players right now is that they’ll have to wait for the next episode for these ads to go away and that current players will either have to deal with the ads or stop playing the game.

What’s more, the Tweet doesn’t mention if the ads will be removed permanently following public outcry, but if anyone’s keeping score at home, I highly doubt we’ll see the ads go away. 2K started this trend with at least 2K19, but since no one made a big enough deal about it, these ads are the new normal for the franchise.

2K Games is making money off of each of these ads that plays, and coupled with the microtransactions the game offers, as well as the game itself, I’d be very surprised if 2K did away with them. Money talks in the business world, and 2K have seemingly found a perfect strategy to keep making more: by releasing a new title each year with minor to non-existent improvements, microtransactions everywhere, and now, unskippable ads.