NBA 2K22 official gameplay trailer revealed

Publisher 2K has revealed the official gameplay trailer for NBA 2K22. This year’s entry into the NBA 2K series will be the biggest and best yet, not least because it takes full advantage of the additional processing power in the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

NBA 2K22 launches for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch on September 10, 2021. The game won’t look as good on Switch as it does on PS5, or even PS4, but the developers have definitely pushed the lower-powered system as far as they can.

What’s very clear to see in this trailer is the polish that has been achieved in this latest title. NBA 2K21 was a good-looking game, but with this entry, the developers have taken things to the next level. Facial animations are better, and even the nuance in how each player moves makes the game feel more realistic. It will be hard to distinguish the game from real basketball games for the uninitiated.

One of the more interesting details is the crowd side of things in the trailer. One player seems to launch the ball back onto the court before falling out and bumping into another player on the bench. Traditionally, an invisible wall would prevent players from doing this, but it seems like that sort of mistake is now fully enabled.

Furthermore, one player ends up almost crashing into the team keeping score at one point. This is because their momentum was so great while pursuing the ball that they didn’t have enough space to slow down, and so had to use the structure ahead of them to stop themselves from barreling into the crowd.

Finally, players in the crowd are reacting to the events on the court better than ever before. We see one player on the bench performing a victory move, something that you’d only have seen on-court players doing in past games. While all these changes might seem trivial, they really are the aspects of this title that take it into the realms of being a next-gen game.