NBA 2K17 to feature league expansion

The latest installment in the popular NBA 2K video game franchise will see league expansion as an option for the first time this year in NBA 2K17.

When you start a new MyGM or MyLeague mode, the game will allow you to create up to six new teams or create an entirely new league. There are ten pre-made expansion teams built into the game, complete with logos, uniforms, arenas, and announcers. Just a few of them include:

• Nashville Stars
• Louisville Liberty
• San Diego Surf
• Kansas City Knights
• Virginia Storm

It’s unclear at this time if the Seattle SuperSonics are a pre-made expansion option, however you do have the option to use a “classic team” in your expansion league. If past games are any indication, this will include the 1996 Sonics team that went to the NBA Finals. If you don’t want to create an entirely new league but do want to add the Sonics, you will have the option to download custom team packs from the NBA 2K servers, or you can design the team yourself from top to bottom.

Even if you select not to expand from the beginning, it’s possible the league could decide to do it organically in MyGM and MyLeague modes. While I certainly wouldn’t expect the real NBA to expand to 36 teams, a little life imitating art would be nice to see here. This is, after all, an officially licensed product. I’m not insinuating that this is some kind of indicator that the league will be expanding, but it’s clearly something they can see people are interested in. It’ll be interesting to see if there is an increase in sales of 2K17 over previous titles, especially in Seattle.

The game will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows on September 20, 2016.