"As the world of competitive gaming continues to evolve, NBA 2K is a natural fit to join the growing landscape," said Alfie Brody, VP of Marketing for NBA 2K. "Our series has long inspired rivalry among gamers, and we're looking forward to encouraging our fans to enjoy the thrill of competition on a larger scale."
Road to the Finals tips off on February 15 in North America with a series of unique, NBA 2K16 in-game events scheduled through May 8. Teams can participate in any of the 16 qualifying events where they will need to win at least four games in order to qualify. Those four games will be scored based on the team's performance and then ranked on the event leaderboard. The top score of each qualifying event day will be deemed the winner and will move on to the tournament.
On May 21, the 16 winners on both the PlayStation®4 and Xbox One will go head-to-head in a single elimination tournament. The console winners will then face off for the $250,000 championship in June while the NBA Finals are taking place.
"The NBA 2K development team has aspired to join the exciting world of eSports for years," said Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts. "Road to the Finals is our first step, and we can't wait to add even more excitement and competitive action to our franchise."
Last fall's release of NBA 2K16 set a franchise record, selling-in over four million units worldwide within the first week of release. This year's iteration also has achieved several incredible year-over-year milestones since launch, including doubling sales through digital download and nearly tripling the number of games played online.
