Take-Two and 2K Games have claimed that in-game currencies are "fictions created by game publishers" during a rebuttal of a lawsuit.
As Axios first reported last year, Take-Two and 2K Games, which develop and publish the NBA 2K series in tandem, were sued last year. The lawsuit accused the companies of effectively stealing Virtual Currency (NBA 2K's in-game currency) from players when servers of a game are turned off forever. When any game servers are turned off, any unspent in-game currencies vanish forever.
Now, as reported by Game File, Take-Two and 2K Games have responded to the lawsuit. The pair claim that "VC is not a plaintiff's property," and that "in-game VC are fictions created by game publishers, subject to the publishers' terms of service and user agreements." The company's lawyers are now petitioning a court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.
Backing up its argument, the companies have pointed to in-game End User License Agreements, which state that in-game aspects like Virtual Currency are services that the publisher can suspend at its discretion. These EULA agreements are found in basically every video game with in-game currency on the face of the Earth, including the NBA 2K series.
Right now, it's unclear how this argument will effect the outcome of the case against Take-Two and 2K Games. The company's lawyers originally filed the request for complete dismissal of the lawsuit last week, but we'll apparently have to wait until next month in March for the full response of the court.
Back when NBA 2K24 launched last year, it rapidly became the second-worst rated game on Steam, trailing only Overwatch 2 for negative user reviews and ratings. Reviews called out the aggressive monetization of NBA 2K24 in particular, in just the latest iteration of a long-standing criticism of the series.
Head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look over how the rest of the year's releases are going to shake out.
