Facing Theft Lawsuit, 2K Exec Argues Against Virtual Currency Transfers

Key insights

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The claim

A 2023 class-action lawsuit alleges Take-Two steals from players.

The litigation was initiated by a minor and his mother.

Server shutdown. The lawsuit alleges servers shut down approximately 2.5 years after release.

2.5 years

Approximate time after release when servers shut down

Technical barrier

Take-Two claims no technical solution exists for currency migration.

Michael O’Dwyer, VP of product management, cited this as a primary reason for the lack of transferability. He stated no technical solution currently exists to facilitate the migration of currency across different game titles.

No solution. O’Dwyer testified that there is no technical solution to enable the transfer of virtual currency between annual game editions.

Tracking

Take-Two tracks granular, day-by-day player behavior and spending.

The company maintains granular, day-by-day tracking of individual player behavior. This includes session duration, specific game modes played, and total spending habits.

Granular tracking. Take-Two tracks granular player data, including daily activity logs, specific game modes played, session duration, and individual spending habits.

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Summary

Unsealed court filings from a 2023 California class action against Take-Two Interactive offer a rare look at how the NBA 2K publisher justifies its virtual currency policies. The suit was brought by a minor identified as J.A. and his mother. It alleges that Take-Two effectively steals from players when it shuts down servers for older NBA 2K editions, typically about two and a half years after release. Players lose any unspent virtual currency (VC) bought with real money, with no reimbursement and no option to move the balance to a newer edition. Take-Two's defense is that players do not own virtual currency in the first place.

The central testimony comes from Michael O'Dwyer, vice president of product management on NBA 2K. In a deposition taken about a year ago and unsealed only last month, after a judge ruled on Take-Two's redaction requests, he gave several reasons for barring cross-year transfers. His first was technical: he said no solution exists to enable transfers between NBA 2K games. His second was design philosophy. Each new release is meant to be a fresh start in which veterans and newcomers begin with exactly equal opportunity. VC is widely used to buy cosmetics and ability boosts in the series' key competitive modes, so carryover could create advantages.

O'Dwyer also identified a sticking point in separating VC purchased with real money from VC earned through gameplay. NBA 2K does not display any such distinction, and he suggested that splitting the two would not benefit players.

The filings also reveal how much player data Take-Two tracks. A spreadsheet shows the company knows when each player played, which modes, how many times, for how long, and how much they spent, broken down day by day. The article, published by Game File in September 2026, is paywalled, so only the opening portion of the analysis is available.