It isn’t easy being king. NBA 2K19 is in a tricky position most other games would kill to be in – NBA 2K18 was the series’ most successful game ever, and yet, it was also criticized by many fans for playing it safe on the court and going overboard with the in-game purchases. Personally, I thought NBA 2K18 was a solid effort, but far from the series’ best. Of course, long-running sports franchises can weather the occasional so-so season, but fans will jump ship if too many off years are strung together.

And thus, the challenge facing NBA 2K19 – what do you do when the last entry in your series sold 10 million copies, but has a 1.6 user score on Metacritic? Can developer Visuals Concepts up their game and shift public perception without breaking the well-oiled money-making machine they built with NBA 2K18? Or is this franchise headed for a slump?