2K Execs Explain in Court Docs Why NBA 2K Players Can’t Carry Over Digital Currency: “You Have No Ownership Or Other Rights

Take-Two Interactive and its NBA 2K publisher 2K have been forced to publicly justify one of the most contentious aspects of the series in newly unsealed court documents, as an ongoing lawsuit alleges the company is effectively stealing from players by refusing to let them transfer in-game digital currency between yearly releases. The revelation comes from deposition testimony and filings tied to a class action filed in California three years ago by a minor known as J.A., who, alongside his mother and legal team, argues that denying virtual currency (VC) carryover constitutes theft. In testimony recorded during a 2025 deposition, NBA 2K vice president of production management Michael O’Dwyer laid out the publisher’s reasoning, while Take-Two’s legal team leaned on the franchise’s terms of service to reinforce the company’s position that players hold no ownership over the currency they purchase.

The dispute centers on a long-standing friction between the NBA 2K community and its publisher. Each year, players spend real money on VC, the digital currency used to upgrade their player avatars and unlock cosmetic items. Yet when a new installment drops, any VC a player earned or bought in the previous year simply vanishes. The plaintiff contends this annual reset strips players of value they paid for, framing the practice as a form of theft. Take-Two, of course, denies the accusation outright, pointing instead to the contractual framework players accept when buying and playing the game.

The Terms of Service Defense

According to the court documents seen by GameFile, Take-Two’s legal team directed attention to the terms of service that accompany the game. Buried within thousands of words—described elsewhere in the filings as “overly harsh, unduly oppressive, and unfairly one-sided”—is a clause classifying VC as a “virtual item.” Under the game’s terms of service as written in 2024, players “agree that you have no ownership or other rights in or to any Virtual Items or your Account.” This contractual language forms the backbone of the publisher’s defense, positioning the currency not as property but as a licensed, non-transferable digital asset.

“First and foremost, there is no technical solution in existence.”

Michael O’Dwyer, NBA 2K Vice President of Production Management

Beyond the legal argument, O’Dwyer offered what he called a “very important primary reason” for maintaining the reset: a desire for competitive fairness. “We want every new game that we release to be a completely fresh start where every user, regardless of whether they’ve been in a prior game or they’re entering our franchise and seeing this current game for the very first time, that they all come in with an exactly equal opportunity,” he said. In NBA 2K, players can earn VC organically through gameplay, though purchasing it accelerates progress and unlocks premium content. While it would be technically feasible to split a player’s VC into earned and paid categories, Take-Two has no interest in pursuing such a change.

A Reluctance to Redesign

O’Dwyer acknowledged that implementing a currency-splitting system would be a “massive undertaking,” one that would divert development time and resources from other priorities. “Not to mention we don’t even think the player benefit is there, so we don’t want to do it,” he stated. When pressed on whether 2K could build a new mechanism to separate the two types of VC, the executive replied that the company “has never actually tried to make this change or been desired to make this change.” He added that any such overhaul would require “a complete redesign of a very complex game.”

The publisher’s stance has drawn sharp criticism from the community, who see the refusal to recognize player investment as emblematic of a broader problem in the digital age. As the documents make clear, according to publishers, you don’t own the games you buy digitally—and now, according to the same logic, you don’t even own the currency you spend inside them. This reality has fueled growing frustration across the industry, with players increasingly questioning the fundamental rights they hold over digital purchases. The debate over virtual ownership has become a flashpoint, with critics pointing to the current state of digital game rights as a reason for mounting backlash against platforms and publishers alike.

Looking Ahead

Despite the publisher’s detailed explanations, the lawsuit continues to move forward, with the court having already signaled interest in expanding its investigation. Take-Two has asked the court to subpoena a trove of records from Microsoft and Discord as it hunts for the individual behind an unprecedented wave of leaks, signaling that the company’s legal battles are far from over. Whether the NBA 2K community’s demands for currency carryover will ever be met remains uncertain, but the unsealed testimony has only deepened the conversation around what players truly own when they spend money in a digital game.

As the case proceeds, the core question endures: when a player buys VC, are they purchasing a right, or merely renting access to a system they never actually control? For now, Take-Two maintains its position, and the franchise’s yearly reset stands intact.