Hot Summer, Great Fans, Hot Update.
The new content update for NBA Playgrounds is here.

Thanks for continuous feedback and support. You Rock!

See you at the Playgrounds.

New Features:

• Added: New players join the roster
  
  • The following players were added: Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Rick Barry, Tim Duncan, Brandon Jennings, Brandon Knight, Deron Williams, Derrick Favors, Gerald Green, Iman Shumpert, Jeff Green, Josh Richardson, Kenneth Faried, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Khris Middleton, Michael Carter-Williams, Mike Miller, Timofey Mozgov, Trevor Ariza, Tristan Thompson, Tyson Chandler, Bob Pettit, Jerry Lucas, Lenny Wilkens, J.R. Smith, Danny Green, J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler, Alex Len, Dario Saric and Baron Davis
    
  • The following players can now be played on a second team, in which they played during their career: Chris Paul (New Orleans Pelicans), Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets), Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks), Ray Allen (Boston Celtics), Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls), Dennis Rodman (Chicago Bulls), Tim Hardaway (Golden State Warriors), Scottie Pippen (Houston Rockets), Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic), Goran Dragic (Phoenix Suns), Shawn Marion (Phoenix Suns), Jason Kidd (Phoenix Suns), Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns), LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Blazers), DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings), Wilt Chamberlain (San Francisco Warriors) and Vince Carter (Toronto Raptors)
    
  • The following Playgrounders join the Playgrounders team: Ian Eagle, EJ “The Mayor” Johnson, Agent 00, Shake4ndBake and HipHopGamer
• Added: Friends’ invitation system
  
• Added: 1 vs. 1 Unranked matches (in all game modes), using the matchmaking algorithm, but players don’t risk losing any ranking points or changing their ELO
  
• Added: 3-Point Contest
  
  • A new way to compete online. Challenge your opponent to find out who can hit the most 3-Pointers
• Added: A short steal and push protection when changing characters was added for the Client player in an online match to reduce the Host advantage

Notable Changes:

• Adjusted: Pushes are no longer effective once the shot attempt is made and the player jumped.
  
• Changed: The difficulty of the tournaments was reduced
  
• Changed: The lightning ball can now be blocked by a player just like any other shot
  
• Changed: The experience gain during the tournaments was increased and slightly decreased for online matches.
  
• Improved: The rebound system was reworked and improved to better reflect the intended game style and to make it understandable

Notable Fixes:

• Fixed: Several issues that caused Desyncs during Online Game Sessions
  
• Fixed: An issue that could prevent a player from joining an Online Match after aborting a former matchmaking search right after it succeeded
  
• Fixed: Height and Weight stats of the Playgrounders in the metric system
  
• Fixed: An issue that could freeze the game, after winning the Tokyo tournament

With this update we release a fixes for a few technical issues we saw after the latest patch release.

Notable Fixes

• Fixed: An issue that prevented some users in rare cases from progressing through the tournaments
  
• Fixed: An issue where one player jumped out of the court and the match could not be continued
  
• Fixed: An issue where a user with too many unopened packs could end in an endless loading screen

If you're experience any technical issues, please send us an email describing your problem to support@nbaplaygrounds.game

Welcome to the Playground, welcome to Chicago and Madrid.

With this patch not only do 35 new NBA players join the roster, but also 5 Youtubers are gearing up to enter the playground. Along with the new players, we have also added two new playgrounds and four new tournaments.

In addition, we continue to improve the game and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the playgrounds.

You rock!


New Features:

• Added: 35 new players join the roster
  
  • The following players were added: Ben Wallace, Bernard King, Earl Monroe, Elvin Hayes, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, John Havlicek, Julius Erving, Kevin McHale, Manute Bol, Muggsy Bogues, Steve Nash, Yao Ming, Joakim Noah, Joe Johnson, Andre Iguodala, Bismack Biyombo, D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Justise Winslow, Kyle Korver, Manu Ginobili, Nick Young, Robin Lopez, Serge Ibaka, Tyler Johnson, Adrian Dantley, Arvydas Sabonis, Bob Cousy, David Thompson, Larry Nance, Mark Price, Detlef Schrempf, Wes Unseld, Lou Williams
    
  • The following players can now be played on a second team, in which they played during their career: Lebron James (Miami Heat), Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat), James Harden (Oklahoma City), Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City), Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls), Gary Payton (Seattle Sonics), Shawn Kemp (Seattle Sonics), Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics), Alex English (Dallas Mavericks), Walt Frazier (Cleveland Cavaliers), Clyde Drexler (Houston Rockets), Alonzo Mourning (Charlotte Hornets), Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets)
• Added: The Seattle SuperSonics and Playgrounders were added to the team selection
  
• Added: 5 Playgrounders, this time famous YouTubers, join the roster as “The Playgrounders” in red card packs
  
  • iMAV3RIQ, iPodKingCarter, QJB, Troydan, and DenkOps
• Added: The playgrounds Madrid and Chicago are now available
  
• Added: You can now play tournaments in Venice Beach, Seattle, Madrid and Chicago
  
• Added: New Dunk, Crossover and Finger Roll animations were added
  
• Added: New Ball styles can be unlocked in the tournaments

Notable Changes:

• Adjusted: Now when the time of the match reaches zero and the ball is still in the air the match won't end until the shot is resolved (either by scoring or failing).
  
• Adjusted: the penalization received from disconnecting from matches has been increased. Now the user loses more ELO points and the progression grows faster.
  
• Changed: Actions from teammates count now towards finishing the tournament challenges
  
• Improved: The patch system for Steam to support smaller patches
  
• Improved: The execution time for throws was reduced
  
• Reduced: The probability of receiving duplicates in card packages

Notable Fixes:

• Fixed: The visual effect when leveling up was corrected
  
• Fixed: Some miscalculations in shot attempts with long animations regarding their success chance were corrected
  
• Fixed: Some issues in the matchmaking were fixed which caused that players were unable to join the matchmaking when a former online session was not closed properly
  
• Fixed: An issue that prevents the user from canceling a match made via Challenge Code by using the ESC key
  
• Fixed: An issue that froze the input, when the application focus was changed with Alt+Tab while the exit message from the game was shown
  
• Fixed: An issue that prevented the user from using a controller to modify the challenge code
  
• Fixed: Some issues related to the random selection of players and the rule that prevents the picking of the same players twice for the same team.
  
• Fixed: Some Legendary and Epic players didn’t have the correct background.
  
• Fixed: The loading screens with the control scheme and the explanation of the shot meter were not rotating as intended
  
• Fixed: Some commentator lines were triggered at the wrong moment
  
• Fixed: Some issues related to the audience and its appearance were addressed

Thanks for all your feedback regarding the last patch. We really appreciated and we´re releasing this patch for the weekend with some improvements we made based on your feedback.

We know that the patches are quite big at this point due to some technical limitations. We´re working on a solution to create smaller patches in the future.

Thanks again for all your great feedback. See you on the playground.

Notable Changes:

• Added: A loading screen with the explanation of the new Shot Meter and how player stats define the success ratios for the scoring action.
  
• Added: 5 new dunks were added to the current set.
  
• Adjusted: The steal action has been re-balanced based on your feedback to better fit the intended gameplay. Overall, succeeding with a steal action became harder.
  
• Adjusted: The 3 pointers were adjusted so that players with good stat have an increased chance to score whereas the chance to score for players with low stats was lowered.
  
• Changed: The card background of Epic and Legendary cards are now silver for Epic cards and golden for Legendary ones.
  
• Changed: The number of steals needed for the Las Vegas challenge Nr. 2 was reduced to 6 (was 10).
  
• Changed: The number of steals needed for the Shanghai challenge Nr. 3 was reduced to 4 (was 7).
  
• Changed: A team can only include each player once; it is no longer possible to have a team with the same players
  
• Changed: Shaquille O´Neal chance to score a 3-pointer was drastically reduced

Notable Fixes:

• Fixed: An issue that allowed multiple options to be selected at the same time in the Options Menu was fixed.

We're releasing this patch to address some of the issues we saw following the release of patch 1.1.0. We also added the option to hide the shot meter as it was requested by many of you.

Notable Fixes:

• Added a percentage of success to the shooting attempts according to the stats of the player
  
  • The Shot Meter now has a gradient color to indicate the chance of success based on the various factors that influence the attempt (such as distant and stat of the chosen player)
• Added the option to toggle on or off the Shot Meter in the Options Menu
  
• Balancing and general improvements
  
• Localization fixes

Thanks for your support.

Many thanks for the continued support! We have the best players in the world and we are privileged to serve you.

Update 1.1.0 for PC/Steam brings the heat! Challenge your friends, enemies and other players online. Game on! Friends matchmaking is here. With the new Challenge feature, you’ll be able to directly challenge another player to a game on the Playgrounds. All you have to do is agree on a code, open the online mode, switch to Challenges, enter that code and face each other.

Other additions include a new connection manager, which monitors the connection of players during ranked matches and penalizes disconnections from games that are made to avoid losing. Quitters never prosper on the Playground.

In response to great feedback, we’ve also tweaked the entire shooting system from jump shots, to threes, to dunks, layups, and everything in-between. We’ve redone the timing, added a meter, and clarified the entire system. Keep those comments coming!

As a big thank you to our rabid fans, we’ve also added 15 new players, including Isaiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman! Those two all-stars and 13 others can be unlocked regularly through player packs, earned during the tournament or when leveling up your profile.

Thanks again for all your great feedback and support. Update 1.1.0 is the beginning. We’re only days from launch and we’re already making the game better thanks to your feedback. You rock!

New Features:

• Added: The Challenge Mode feature, which allows you to challenge other players to online matches
  
  • You can now switch between unranked challenges and ranked games in the online mode
    
  • To challenge another player, you must switch to the challenge mode in the online menu and define a challenge code. By default, your challenge code is your nickname, but you can change it to your own, personal code. The person you are challenging must enter your code.
    
  • If you have been challenged, please enter your challenger’s code and press “Accept”.
    
  • All challenges are unranked and your ranking/ELO will be unaffected by the results of the challenge.
• Added: Toxicity system/Disconnection Manager, which penalizes players who abandon matches in any other way than surrendering
  
• Added: 5 new versions of Shaquille O´Neal in various teams from his career (Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic)
  
• Added: 15 new players join the roster
  
  • The following players were added: Dennis Rodman, Isaiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Giannis Antetokoumnpo, Kenny Smith, Gary Payton, Klay Thompson, Devin Booker, Tony Parker, Kemba Walker, Seth Curry, Tiny Archibald, John Starks, Tracy McGrady, Pete Maravich
• Added: A shot-meter was added to help finding the perfect timing for shots, dunks etc.
  
• Added: Steam Cloud Save support
  
• Added: Steam Big Picture keyboard management

Notable Changes:

• Adjusted: Shots were adjusted to make the system more accessible and unified throughout all variations
  
• Adjusted: The steal action was adjusted further to better fit the intended gameplay
  
  • It is now possible to perform a steal action when behind an opponent
• Changed: 3 pointers no longer fill lottery pick bar
  
• Increased: The difficulty of 3 pointers was increased
  
• Reduced: The number of steals required for the Las Vegas Challenge #2 was reduced to 10 (was 15)
  
• Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the Paris Challenge #4 was reduced to 6 (was 7)
  
• Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the London Challenge #1 was reduced to 6 (was 10)
  
• Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the Las Vegas Challenge #3 was reduced to 8 (was 12)
  
• Reduced: The inbound time was reduced to adjust it to the overall style of the game

Notable Fixes:

• Fixed: Issues related to the strength of the force feedback effects were addressed

We are so thankful for all the support we’ve received at launch. Even though we only released earlier this week, we made a commitment to support NBA Playgrounds aggressively post-launch, patching as often and as meaningfully as we could. With this first patch we are proud to kickoff the continuous improvement of our game. Even though this first patch is comparatively small and may not address everyone’s comments, know that a much more comprehensive update is already in the works.

Thanks again for all your great feedback and support. You rock!

Notable Improvements:

• Added ‘International English’ with metric units as a default language in case none of the supported languages is the user’s system language
  
• Adjusted timing for layups and 2-pointers from under the hoop. Layups are now easier to perform, and players with low stats for 2-pointers are slightly better than before
  
• Adjusted the steal action to better fit intended gameplay
  
• Changed the Stars Lottery Pick so that it can only be awarded, if a team is at least 6 points behind
  
• Improved the frequency of catching a ball while in mid-air
  
• Improved the online matchmaking algorithm
  
• Increased the duration of the 3 points x2 Lottery Pick
  
• Reduced the duration of the Stars Lottery Pick

Notable Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that prevented settings from being saved when leaving the options menu. (This includes fixing an issue that prevented audio settings from being saved)
  
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the ‘Lighting Ball Lottery Pick’ not to score from longer distances
  
• Fixed a misspelling of a player's name
  
• Fixed several localization related items and enabled Steam’s language panel in the game’s properties to change the game’s language. The languages available are: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented users from seeing off-screen markers sometimes
  
• Fixed UI resizing issues in 1280x720 resolution
  
• Fixed issues related to key bindings in the Options Menu
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented the ‘Q’ key from showing the Challenges of each Tournament Round
  
• Fixed several desynch issues in bad network connection scenarios
  
• Fixed a problem where a dunk could score after the match ended
  
• Fixed a problem where certain menus could be skipped on PC without user input
  
• Fixed several problems that made the ball getting stuck on the top of the backboard
  
• Fixed a problem that prevented the ball from spinning after scoring
  
• Fixed a problem in which failed dunks could score if the teammate was performing an alley oop