Always at the forefront of innovation and at the service of athletes everywhere, NIKE has taken the elite athlete experience a step further with it’s integration into NBA 2K13. Building on the successful partnership in last year’s smash hit NBA 2K12, this year NIKE takes it a few steps further.
Highlights include:
This year’s NIKEiD experience breaks new ground as players will now have the opportunity to purchase their customized shoe that they have created for their team. Once you have chosen your design you can choose to have an email sent to you allowing you to buy the exact version create in the game for your players and teams.
On the day they launch, Nike Basketball’s signature shoes will be available and highlighted in the game blurring the lines between the virtual and real life product experience. Starting with the LEBRON X+, which launched in London earlier this summer, and continuing with the KOBE VIII and the KD V. Each shoe will also give any athlete wearing them an exclusive in-game boost benefiting the player with improved performance. For example any player wearing the LEBRON X+ will get a boost for their ‘dunk’ attribute.
Also included is one of NIKE’s latest technological innovations, Nike+ Basketball. If you’re athlete is wearing a Nike+ enabled shoe you will be in for a treat when you view replays of your dunks. As in Nike+ Basketball’s Showcase Mode, which allows you to overlay videos with Nike+ information such as jump height, each reply will show you how high your player made it off the ground before putting it home.
Nike Basketball and Brand Jordan are an integral part of the player’s story in NBA2K13. Once you’ve been drafted and impressed in some games in ‘My Career’ mode you will be presented with the opportunity to sign with Nike or Brand Jordan. From that point on your growth story will include correspondence with your chosen brand. Billboards, TV commercials and even signature shoes are things a player can look forward to as their career develops.
And in probably the most exciting development in this year’s integration is revealed for those who reach the top and are crowned league MVP. At this point the player will be brought into a virtual recreation of Nike’s legendary Innovation Kitchen – the top secret ‘lab’ where some of the basketball world’s greatest innovations have been born. Like in real life, entry to this space is earned not given. Within the virtual ‘Kitchen’ the user will be able to create their signature shoe, with the help of Tinker Hatfield, learning about some of Nike’s latest performance technology including Nike Flywire and Lunarlon. As a sign of this shoe’s superiority over others the athlete will be given significant attribute boosts to give the user an advantage over the opposition.
Shortly after the shoe is created an in-game media campaign begins supporting the release of the shoe by way of featuring the player and shoe on in-game magazine covers, billboards and commercials as well as in game commentary.
