As rumoured last week, the best video game in basketball will feature the best-ever basketball player. Michael Jordan will be the cover athlete for NBA 2K11, which is due to be released on 5 October. Darren Rovell of CNBC confirmed the news with the VP of Marketing for 2K Sports today.
“We’ve made a lot of progress over the past 10 years, but we know we have the best NBA video game ever made here,” Argent said. “So we thought to ourselves how can we embody that and there was only one person on that list who we wanted to have and that was Michael Jordan. Actually getting this done is the most ridiculous win of all-time.”
“Michael’s last appearance in a video game was in 2004 and over that time the video game industry had continued to grow,” said Estee Portnoy, Jordan’s business manager. “We had been hearing that there was demand from the gamers to have him in the game and this came along and made a lot of sense.”
The guys at 2K Sports are implying that some interesting and “exciting” developments will be coming with this iteration of the video game franchise and that it will be the “best ever” NBA video game — so its release will be much anticipated.
“It’s an honor to be featured on the cover of NBA 2K11,” Jordan said, in a statement. “I have no doubt that NBA 2K11 will be a big hit with gamers and basketball fans alike. I’m looking forward to getting back out on the court, virtually.”
It’s great to see MJ back on the video game screens, with his last appearance in NBA Street Volume 2 in 2003 being far too long ago. He traditionally has appeared in only a small number of games due to licensing issues, with his scarcity only increasing fans’ demand to see his digital image.
