Did the last PS2 game just get released?

[bangtango]

PS2 and PS3 really have no similarities. The "shortcut" here would be re-using assets from the previous year's PS2 game -- which they do to varying degrees anyway. It will likely be little more than a roster update. For maximum cheapness, they could make it literally just a roster update.

2K's PS2 releases over the past few years have been as autopilot as you can get. This coming from someone who kept on buying their basketball and baseball games right through this year.

New games do feature incoming rookies but since there is no way to cut and paste those player models from previous games (since they didn't exist in prior editions), they all look generic. They do nothing more than get the right skin color and basic body type for "new" players from that year. The free agents list for the recent NBA 2K and MLB 2K games on PS2 are chock full of people who haven't played in their respective sports for years (such as Shawn Kemp or Penny Hardaway) but keep on showing up as free agents in the 2011-2012 games because they were already there in 2K7-2K10 and it is just easier to keep them in there than remove them.

Some of the teams in the newer 2K games still have coaches and managers (i.e. Eric Wedge with Cleveland) who were fired or resigned a couple years prior.