The suspension of the NBA season shortly after the confirmation that one player tested positive for the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has also affected NBA 2K20‘s MyLeague mode.
In MyLeague mode, NBA 2K20 players take full control over an NBA team, including managing basketball operations. One of the game mode’s options is NBA Today, which allows players to start their play-through based on their selected team’s current standings and stats in the real-world NBA.
However, players who attempt to start MyLeague with this option will cause NBA 2K20 to crash, sending them back to their console’s dashboard. This is because NBA 2K20 will attempt to simulate the current day’s games, but with the NBA season suspended, there are no games on the schedule. NBA 2K20 does not know what to do when previously scheduled games have gone missing, leading to the crash.
In the ResetEra forums, where the NBA 2K20 crash was first revealed, players have compared the issue with what happened in WWE 2K20. The wresting game was crashing when the calendar shifted to 2020, though this one was clearly an oversight from 2K Sports as a new year was something that they should have seen coming. The NBA’s suspension, meanwhile, was an unexpected development, and there was no way the developers may have prepared for something like this to happen.
Coronavirus halts traditional sports leagues
The NBA suspended the 2019-2020 season for a minimum of 30 days after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus, right before the team was set to play against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, two other players have also tested positive, namely Utah Jazz swingman Donovan Mitchell and Detroit Pistons center Christian Wood, who matched up against Gobert in a game held the week before the suspension.
NBA 2K20‘s crashing issue is just one of the many effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as the outbreak continues to disrupt the tech industry. Meanwhile, as traditional sports leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and MLS suspend their seasons, e-sports leagues may still continue after making certain adjustments, including shifting matches from live events to online play.