An upcoming patch for NBA 2K19 will be addressing one of the game’s biggest issues, an easily exploitable “pushing” mechanic, according to NBA 2K Director of Brand Marketing Ronnie Singh.
Singh announced that the patch would be coming soon in a tweet.
Per dev team, #NBA2K19 patch that includes gameplay fix for pushing is going to be submitted in coming days.
— Ronnie 2K 2K20 (@Ronnie2K) March 11, 2019
Singh did not give a specific release date for the patch, and later noted in another tweet that it has only been submitted and will therefore take more time for it be approved and released.
The pushing exploit has been plaguing NBA 2K19 for months now and is a game-breaking issue seen most often in two areas of the game.
First is on defense, where the exploit becomes painfully obvious. It allows a defender chuck an offensive player who doesn’t have the ball, thus letting skilled players cause errant passes during inbounds plays.
On offense, low-post players can sometimes shove a defender out of the way when they have the Pure Post Scorer badge as well as Takeover mode on. While this mechanic was originally added to accentuate a low-post player’s dominance in the paint once they get in the zone, it was too easy to enable and doesn’t even give defenders much of a chance to do anything about it.
Moreover, the exploit creates a visual that shouldn’t be happening in basketball in real life.
The update is a long time coming, although it seems like the upcoming NBA 2K League season is what prompted its submission. There’s no telling how the impending update can affect post play and defense in the NBA 2K League, but one can hope that it would at least ensure better balance for both professional and casual players.