The NBA 2K18 Prelude was free, but it was still largely underwhelming. There are three games to play there before your player is invited to a tryout for the NBA team you named as your favorite. After two scrimmages with an NBA team, you're prompted to pre-order the game. If you compare The Prelude to the NBA Live 18 demo, the number of options and depth are vastly different. The Prelude should have given 2K more momentum leading up to release date, but instead, it seems to have had the opposite affect.

Source: Forbes September 11, 2017 06:00 UTC