Hvert år kjøper spillere digital valuta i det nyeste NBA 2K spillet. Og deretter, hvert påfølgende år, kjøper de neste spillet i serien, og all VC (den virtuelle valutaen i spillet) de har tjent eller kjøpt ligger igjen. Denne problemstillingen står i kjernen av en pågående rettssak fra 2023 mot utgiveren 2K, der saksøket hevder at dette er tyveri. Og i rettsdokumenter som nylig ble offentliggjort, kan vi lese noen selskapets ledere forklare hvorfor de ikke lar spillere overføre denne valutaen samtidig som de minner folk om at de faktisk ikke eier valutaen i det hele tatt.
As reported by GameFile, 2K and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, are currently dealing with a lawsuit filed in California three years ago by a minor known as J.A., with the help of his mother and lawyer. The class action suit claims Take-Two is stealing from players every year it denies them the chance to roll over VC from one NBA 2K to the next. Take-Two, of course, denies this. In an unsealed deposition that happened in 2025, as covered in court docs seen by GameFile, NBA 2K vice president of production management Michael O’Dwyer explained why.
“There‘s a lot of reasons for that,” said the exec. “First and foremost, there is no technical solution in existence.”
Take-Two lawyers also pointed to the terms of service, which players agree to when buying and playing the game. In there—buried in thousands of words that J.A.’s lawyer, elsewhere in the docs, labeled as “overly harsh, unduly oppressive, and unfairly one-sided”—is the explanation that VC is considered a “virtual item.” And according to the game’s terms of service in 2024, “you agree that you have no ownership or other rights in or to any Virtual Items or your Account.”
O’Dwyer also shared another “very important primary reason” for why VC can’t be transferred.
“We want every new game that we release to be a completely fresh start where every user, regardless of whether they’ve been in a prior game or they’re entering our franchise and seeing this current game for the very first time, that they all come in with an exactly equal opportunity,” said the exec.
O’Dwyer further explained that to let players roll over purchased but unused VC, it would need to “separate what’s earned versus paid.” In NBA 2K, players can earn VC just by playing the game, though it is much faster to buy VC, which lets you upgrade your player and buy new cosmetic items. It has become a very big (and controversial) part of the game. And while it would technically be possible for the devs to split up your VC between owned and earned, Take-Two doesn’t want to. “T hat’s not something we philosophically want do.”
“We know it‘s a massive undertaking which would come at the direct cost of many other things we want to invest our dev, time, and resources in,” said O’Dwyer. “Not to mention we don’t even think the player benefit is there, so we don’t want to do it.” And when asked if 2K could develop a new system to split up VC, the exec replied, “We’ve never actually tried to make this change or been desired to make this change.” He also added that it would take a “complete redesign of a very complex game.”
Så for å oppsummere litt: Ifølge utgivere eier du ikke spillene du kjøper digitalt. Og du eier ikke engang valutaen du kjøper i disse spillene. Det er ikke vanskelig å forstå hvorfor så mange roper til Sony over døden til fysiske spill når dette er den nåværende tilstanden for digitale spillrettigheter i 2026. Når det gjelder denne rettssaken, fortsetter den å gå videre.
