Will NBA 2K21 have a free next-gen version upgrade?

If you buy NBA 2K21 on Xbox One or PS4, can you get the next-gen version for free?

A common practice we are seeing for games releasing this holiday season on both the current and next generation of consoles is having the customer buy the game once, and if they upgrade to the newer console, they will get the game’s more powerful port on their new console for no extra charge. Every Xbox Game Studios game will do this, as will Cyberpunk 2077, Madden NFL 21, and more. Among the most anticipated games, this holiday season will be the annual installment of the NBA 2K franchise. Will this beloved basketball series follow the trend the industry is going on?

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2K Games is taking an odd approach to the next-generation version of NBA 2K21. We found out that the next-gen version will cost $70 as opposed to the standard $60 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which could potentially be the norm for upcoming games. We also found out that anyone who buys the lesser version will need to have purchased the $100 Mamba Forever version being released to honor Kobe Bryant after he died earlier this year in a helicopter crash.

This means that NBA 2K21 is not supporting Xbox Series X’s Smart Delivery system or any kind of service that PlayStation 5 may roll out. As of the time of this writing, if you buy the standard $59.99 version on Xbox One, you will need to pay $69.99 for the same game on Xbox Series X.

Related: Kobe Bryant named final NBA 2K21 cover athlete

If you find that you do want to buy the Mamba Forever version, you will get the following along with the free upgrade to the next-gen version when it releases.

  • 100,000 Virtual Currency
  • 10,000 MyTEAM Points
  • 10 MyTEAM Tokens
  • 60 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
  • 30 Gatorade Boosts
  • 40 MyTEAM Promo Packs (10 at launch, then 3 per week)
  • Sapphire Damian Lillard and Zion Williamson MyTEAM cards
  • MyPLAYER Shoe Collection
  • MyPLAYER backpack
  • Kobe Bryant Digital Collection
  • 5 MyPLAYER Shoes
  • 3 MyPLAYER Jerseys
  • Black Mamba MyPLAYER Uniform
  • Rookie Lakers MyTEAM Jerseys
  • Black Mamba custom MyTEAM Jerseys
  • Sapphire Kobe MyTEAM Card (Evos to Ruby)
  • 5 MyTEAM Shoes (Incl. 1 Diamond)

The following are only pre-order incentives for current-gen:

  • Damian Lillard Digital Collection
  • Lillard MyTEAM Free Agent Card
  • Custom Lillard MyPLAYER T-shirt
  • Tissot Chrono XL NBA Watch for MyPLAYER

And finally, pre-order incentives for next-gen:

  • Zion Williamson Digital Collection
  • Zion MyTEAM Free Agent Card
  • Zion New Orleans Pelicans MyPLAYER Jersey
  • Zion MyPLAYER Dunk Animation Package

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John Hansen
John Hansen is a Full-time Staff Writer for Gamepur as well as a host for the YouTube channel Pixel Street Videos where he co-hosts a weekly gaming podcast and more. His favorite games include Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild, Left 4 Dead 2, and Overwatch. He covers Overwatch 2 and other FPS titles, Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Legend of Zelda, and whatever zombie games are placed in front of him.