The ads weren't present in MyCareer

On Saturday, Stevivor revealed that an advertisement for MT 2K22 Oculus rode before the usual "episode" of NBA 2KTV which begins prior to the loading of a game in any of NBA 2K21's multiple modes. The option to change lineups as the game loads will not appear until after the advertisement concludes, meaning that users have no choice but to view the whole thing to the very end.

Monday morning Polygon employed the Xbox One game to search for the unskippable ads. The ads weren't present in MyCareer, MyTeam or any of the Play Now matchups. It's possible that this is an issue for a short time that only affects specific regions or games, or 2K Sports may have already removed ads from Play Now matches in the chaos of the weekend. We've asked a 2K representative for clarification.

Stevivor said that the ads were present on NBA 2K21's PC version and PlayStation 4 version. In the year before Halloween, NBA 2K20 started featuring non-skippable advertisements. NBA 2K19 tried ads in the summer after its release, about the time it was put on sale at a 95 percent discount. Both games caused backlashes, which quickly faded away.

It is not new to have ads during games and it's not just fake billboards or actual sponsors. Madden NFL 10 began with it on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. There were also pre-game bumper advertisements for Snickers a decade ago.

EA Sports introduced unskippable advertisements into UFC 4 (and 2018's UFC 3), in September. The UFC 4 launch was on August 4th, on Xbox One and Windows PC. EA Sports later apologized to Buy 2K22 MT UFC 4's users and disabled all ads.