2K has revealed that NBA 2K21's 'Legend Edition' will be replaced by the 'Mamba Forever' Edition in tribute to Kobe Bryant, who passed away this year at the age of 41. This edition will be available in current and next-gen variants showing a painted image of Bryant at two different points in his illustrious career.
NBA 2K21's other cover variants will feature Damian Lillard on current-gen consoles and Zion Williamson on next-gen systems PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Here's the PR:
For NBA 2K21, Legend Edition is replaced by the Mamba Forever Edition, celebrating Kobe Bryant’s lifelong pursuit of victory and legacy in the sport of basketball. For many fans, Kobe’s achievements on the court and love for the game had tremendous impact around the world and his list of awards and accolades is intensive: five-time NBA champion, 18-time NBA All-Star, two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, 2008 NBA MVP, 11-time All-NBA First Team, 9-time NBA All-Defensive First Team, two-time NBA Scoring Champion, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist, the all-time leading scorer for the Los Angeles Lakers and much more. Kobe was the cover athlete for NBA 2K10, the Legend Edition of NBA 2K17 and is immortalized in the NBA 2K21 Mamba Forever Edition with unique custom covers for both current generation and next-generation versions of the game that honor the span of his career, from his days wearing No. 8 and scoring 81 points to scoring 60 points wearing No. 24 the night of his final NBA game.
The standard current-gen versions will retail for $59.99, while the PS5 and Series X ones will cost $69.99. The Mamba Forever Edition will cost $99.99 and will come with special MyTeam and MyPlayers bonuses, as well as extras such as the Damian Lillard Digital Collection and Kobe Bryant Digital Collection.
NBA 2K21 launches later this year.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 33
Beautiful paintings. Looking forward to that next gen sweat lol!!
Still cant believe he's gone
Still feels weird to see "the late Kobe Bryant." I'm not even an NBA fan.
They are also going to charge $10 more standard too for next gen versions, so expect to pay a lot more for games from 2K. That brings the game to $103.48 where I live, no thank you 2K
Hell yeah. I'm all over this. so sad that he's still gone. : (
That’s a damn shame they choose to hike the price on this edition. People will buy it because a legend passed away, which will allow 2k to permanently justify the price.
Love Kobe, but I hope people boycott this and it flops
These legendary editions of sports games are becoming a yearly rip off from both 2K and EA paying for content you won't be using in 12 months time and then stuff that will become useless a few months after that when servers shut down. I get digital bundles for games that have incredibly long server life and that will go onto the next generation of systems or are even cross platform accounts so you can enjoy your purchases for a potentially infinite amount of time but not for games with such a short lifespan.
@Zenszulu these games use the same game engine year after year and add basically nothing. They could quite easily have a yearly dlc patch that costs a fraction of a new game but they know they can continue rinsing people.
It seems a bit “shameful” but I would imagine that Vanessa signed off on it. So it is not entirely ghoulish to have this.
My first question is, are they donating any of the profits from the (thanks @PrincessAzunyan) "grotesque cash-in" edition to his family or any foundations that he was involved in?
Otherwise it looks horribly like they're using people mourning a star to generate sales.
I understand that some people will see this as a tribute to the man, and no doubt many people involved with it will feel this is their way of honouring him.
But at the end of the day, the Beancounters will have had to sign off on it, and they won't do so unless they can attach a monetary value to it. So it would be nice for the publisher to make it clear that they're going to honour Bryant's passing by handing some of the money they use his untimely death to procure for causes that he believed in.
@DevlinMandrake I doubt they'll do that. And even if they did it will be fractions of a penny in donations. This will be milked so dry to generate sales on his unfortunate passing.
@RustedHero
I'd call you a cynic. But obviously you're just a pragmatic realist.
Just like me.
There should be a code to play as a Colorado hotel maid
I mean, I think it's a great idea to commemorate someone who passed away by putting them on the cover a of videogame that people will continue to play for years. However, the fact that this is only for a higher priced variant is practically disgusting, as they are literally cashing in on a famous person's death to make higher profit than they already do from their yearly rehashes.
I'm personally indifferent to this. But I'm still saddened and shocked that his daughter died with him in the accident. As a father, it hits a nerve even though I'm not into sports nor share the romantic view people have for Kobe.
We should gave known 2020 was going to be a $#!+ year once we lost Kobe (and his daughter and company) in like the first week of the year. I sorta feel obligated to pick up this version in honor of his memory...
@KillerBOB
Low brow attempt at humour and entirely unnecessary. You clearly did it to get a response, so here it is now move on please.
I guess they couldn't do a Kobe mode like Jordan mode from NBA 2k11. It would have been great to be able to play in the 1998 All Star Game, 2000 Finals, etc. Huge missed opportunity by 2K. And that price is a joke.
And couldn't Nintendo have brought back Courtside with Kobe to switch?
Yikes, $70 for next gen?? 😖 Not surprised, I expect most next gen games to be priced similarly. All this talk about terflops, Ray tracing, buzzword, buzzword. I was expecting there to be a catch with all of the talk Sony and MS have been doing, all that stuff definitely isn't cheap
Anyway, cool to see Bryant get the spotlight in a game. The courtside games on 64 and Cube were quite fun, and I'm not even a basketball fan.
@Coach_A
I guess if Weinstein was good at basketball, then he would get a pass too 😟
He deserves every form of homage. A very sad loss.
Pay them to pay tribute. 2K really have no shame on cashing in on this. How about a mamba forever edition to everyone and no copy without Kobe on the cover. If you are going to cash in on someone's death at least try to show you care about the fans buying it. They can charge for their dlc and extras like they always do but don't try to bundle micros with your tribute.
How am I supposed to feel about this? I miss Kobe, but these people are just profiting off of his death. At that point, why not just put him on all of the box art.
This is really disappointing to see a huge company profiting off not just player's death (he died from a flight crash if you didn't know) but also his kid's in association, since she and some others also died in that plane crash.
I don't recommend giving this company any money with this special edition, unless some of the shares are donated to a foundation [one example is Avicii Inventor, with is donating to a foundation preventing suicide, how the artist "Avicii" passed away] and if you want to pay respects to him, do something else like a BBQ honoring him {I have no ideas rn, but you get the point} and 2K should be disappointed.
I'm never buying any of their sports games after this. I'm not going to force anybody to join me how ever.
@KillerBOB what is wrong with you, this is a dead person you're talking about, and there isn't even much evidence going for this r#pe thing. Shame on you.
@Mrnotultra
There's actually a lot of evidence 😂 You can even read Kobe's own words in his police interview transcripts.
But he was good at basketball so let's pretend it never happened 🤫
@KillerBOB You realized that evidence can be faked, right? And ok, maybe he did do it, ok then you're right, you win. I don't even care if he's good at basketball. But that won't make it ok to use a literal dead person to make money.
Also, many black greats have done something wrong. MLK lead the equal rights movement, but also cheated on his wife. Malcolm X commited burglaries. Michael Jordan gambled. The list goes on. The thing is, everyone is a human and humans make mistakes. Humans try to work hard and make the world a better place. I don't care what you say, all humans are human. Black, White, Asian, etc. Humans do dumb things. And when we are talking about a young(ish) dead black man, you just have to bring up one mistake and make him look like Satan. And you wanna know the dang difference between Weinstein and Byrant? Weinstein kept on r#pping. R Kelly kept on having sexual relationships with underage girls. Bill Cosby kept on drugging women. And what about Kobe? Once. He only did it once. Kobe noticed what he did wrong, and didn't do it again, make up for it, make the world a better place. But unfortunately, people like you ruin the mourning of a dead person and is like "oH gUyS DiDn'T hE r$Pe soMEOne oNcE?" Can you just shut your mouth, these people probably know about the possible r&ping, but they are remembering him for the great things he did, not the one mistake he made all the way back in 2003!!! You don't see people talking about how MLK cheated on his wife, you see them remembering him for starting the civil rights movement. You wouldn't like it if we remembered you for doing a singular bad thing.
If he kept on r@ping, that's a different story, but just because he made one mistake doesn't mean you can dance on his grave. The fact that you're not even respecting anybody else in the crash, including his daughter, disgusts me. You're words digust me.
@KillerBOB
The fact that you're even comparing Kobe Byrant to Weinstein is gross and digusting. Go take a shower because you stink.
It's a good idea but slimy at the same time just bring up the price. Will it also need a 30gb download as well?
@Mrnotultra
I didn't read that but I commend you for defending a man who committed a sexual assault so vigorously 👏
@KillerBOB I'm not defending him; I'm trying to show that he's a changed man and that the difference between him and someone like Weinstein. Kobe learned his lesson and only did it once (some articles even say that he stopped the r#pe after the woman begged), while Weinstein did it multiple times without learning his lesson.
I'm not saying that it's ok to r'pe someone. I would even say he deserved some jail time. But he learned his lesson and tried to do many good things after. He helped built homes, basketball courts, stocked food pantries, and was the spokesman for a charity.
@KillerBOB People are trying to celebrate all the good things he had done. But you had to bring up one of his low points. I'm not saying he's innocent. I'm not saying he's right. I'm saying he's human.
Humans do stupid things for stupid reasons, but it's only a huge problem if you keep repeating that mistake.
Bill Cosby kept drugging women. He didn't stop, so he should have no mercy. He might have done great things, but because he keeps making awful mistakes, I don't care about him.
Kobe had mercy/felt bad.
@KillerBOB Also, you need to know that his daughter died from that crash, which is awful. You can think about Kobe in any way, but his daughter didn't deserve it.
I apologise for sounding aggressive in the first comments, I just wanted people to celebrate his legacy. You can still see him as a bad person, but as bad as Weinstein? no.
Side Note
@KillerBOB I will no longer continue in this conversation. Hopefully we'll be in better terms in other Nintendo Life Discussions.
On a final note, if you still think this way about Kobe, that's ok. I do not think he's innocent. I'm only asking you to respect his daughter and other people who died in the crash.
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