History
The first four games of the series featured commentary from fictional announcers "Bob Steele" and "Rod West" (voiced by Bay Area sports radio personalities Bob Fitzgerald and Rod Brooks who works at KNBR 680 San Francisco. They also host a radio show called "Fitz and Brooks"), but since NBA 2K3 the game's announcing team has been something of a revolving door, featuring commentary from the likes of Bill Walton, Tom Tolbert, Kevin Frazier, Michele Tafoya, and Bob Fitzgerald. The color and play-by-play commentary in NBA 2K6, NBA 2K7, and NBA 2K8 is provided by Kevin Harlan and Kenny Smith, with Craig Sager providing sideline reports. Peter Barto is the PA Announcer. NBA 2K9 features commentary from Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg with Cheryl Miller as the sideline reporter on most versions of NBA 2K9 and NBA 2K10. Starting with NBA 2K11, Doris Burke replaces Miller as the sideline reporter on most versions of the game. On most versions of NBA 2K12, Steve Kerr joins Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg in the commentary booth. On the PlayStation 2 versions starting with NBA 2K9, no sideline reporter is featured in the game, while on the PlayStation 3 version of NBA 2K12, Kerr does not join Harlan and Kellogg. In 2002 Sega implemented the American television network, ESPN's brand with their Sega Sports video games. The ESPN brand was used for 3 games, with the second game even being renamed ESPN NBA Basketball, until ESPN signed a 15-year deal with EA Sports.
In 2005 Sega sold the NBA 2K series along with Visual Concepts to Take-Two Interactive. The series is currently published by 2K Sports, a publishing label of Take-Two.
The PlayStation 3 version of NBA 2K7 was the first version to support motion sensing controllers with a free throw shooting mechanic that has the player move the Sixaxis controller in a motion similar to a real free throw shot, but was discontinued for later games in the series.
The series has been present on the seventh-generation of consoles starting with the release of NBA 2K6 for the Xbox 360 in November 2005.
NBA 2K11 was the first installment in the franchise to have support for stereoscopic 3D screens, although this feature was made available via an update only for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. NBA 2K12 became the first game in the series to have "built-in" support of 3D for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, and the first to include motion controls using the PlayStation Move.
Read more about this topic: NBA 2K Series
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