NBA THE RUN news & patch notes

It’s time to RUN with the rooks!

Coming off their sizzling Summer League debuts, the top 3 picks of this year’s draft, A.J. Dybantsa of the Washington Wizards, Darryn Peterson of the Utah Jazz and Cameron Boozer of the Memphis Grizzlies, are joining NBA THE RUN in our next game update, Tuesday, July 21. Check out a short mixtape to see them in action:

• A.J. Dybantsa has the size, athleticism, and complete offensive game to score from anywhere.

  • Zone Ability - Going Off (increased offensive ratings for shots, dunks, handles, passes). 

• Darryn Peterson is cool under pressure, with effortless range and smooth handles. 

  • Zone Ability - Deep Threat (reduced distance and guard penalty when shooting) 

• Cameron Boozer has the rare combination of power, pure shooting and elite court vision.

  • Zone Ability - Dropping Dimes (increase to passes rating and speed, receiving player gets a boost to their shots rating)

You can unlock each rookie in The Shop for 5000 CRED at rank 25, so get some games in this weekend and fill up your virtual bankrolls. For a sneak peek of how these dynamic rookies play in game, join us for a special preview in our Discord, Friday, July 17 at 3:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM ET. 

We’ll also be going over some of the other changes coming in the July update, including:

• “Block Party” Ruleset - All blocks -1 from the other team’s score, will be common

• All around improved AI behavior 

• New unique animations for players, alley-oops, putback dunks and more

• Bug fixes, polish, gameplay tuning & balancing

More details to come Tuesday morning as the update drops with our patch notes. 

One last thing – we know you want to see players who have changed teams in their new fits, we’re on it, though it is not going to be ready for this update. We will share more progress on this and other things we’re working on soon.

See you in Discord on Friday, we’ll open up some servers for KO Devs for some friendly competition after we give you that sneak peek at the July update. Hope to see you there and as always, thanks for running with us!

Here are our patch notes for today’s game update, which was deployed on Steam and all other platforms earlier today. Player Specific Changes

• Improved attributes for Trae Young and DJ 

• Reduced start up animation on DJ’s jumpshot to be more in line with other players 

• Fixed issue with Zion’s dunk where the ball didn’t visually go through the hoop 

• Steph now uses correct dunk at long range

• Polished animations for Giannis, El Gigante and Wemby blocks 

• Improved LeBron idle

• Fixed bug that lists Bobbito’s ITZ ability as Ankle Breaker but in game he is assigned as Deep Threat, game and UI now match, he is Ankle Breaker

• Improved Street Legend / IP Character attributes to make them more viable players / opponents 

• Player attribute updates based on player feedback – Cade, SGA, Bam, Brunson and Wemby 

• Increased nearby defenders effect on jumpshots to make shooting in traffic more difficult 

• Tuned delays for Guard and Protect Ball abilities 

• Tuning pass on XP & CRED rewards 

• Kamikaze dunk ending no longer flips 

• Add Icon / Targeted player switching in KO Solos Defense. Uses L1 + X or O as input for intended targets. 

• Reduced stealer movement speed and increased energy cost for steal to balance based on community feedback 

• Reduced near hoop radius for block to increase chances of high skill goaltending 

• Increased odds of OTH, extended range of OTH, reduced errant OTH loose ball distance 

• Tuned rim bounce to avoid ball landing on top of the backboard 

• Added 2 Good Shot outcomes to increase variety and make the outcome less predictable 

• Hit reactions look less cartoony now

• Polished shove recoil animation set 

• Polished run animations for big / large players  

• Updating fallback meshes of the apartment walls in Tenement to fix gaps around windows 

• Fixed lighting channels on ball in Intros 

• Oop City and Dunkfest rulesets are now set to Rare 

• Pickup ruleset now set to Common 

• Fixed issue with softlocking that was being caused by players simultaneously forfeiting a match 

• Fixed issue where players could start a new ability / animation while in ankle break animation 

• Prevent button inputs during loading screen transitions 

• Fixed issue where players can move around during Intro & Outro Sequences 

• Fixed player stats system crash when party data is missing 

• Fixed map randomization crash when both team’s party data is missing

• Fix issues w/ Bobbito’s shorts in Intros to remove material overrides / visual glitches  

• Fix for tooltips in Matchmaking appearing below the 16:9 space on 16:10 monitors 

• Fix for French / German text in the locker 

• Hide ready checkmarks in the Front End for AI / Bots 

• Clear baller portrait highlights when showing the carousel to prevent multiple highlights being shown 

• Fill Teammates option no longer enabled if switching from KO Friends

• Removed outdated unblock button

• Fixed issue where players were getting PBP-004 error during the matchmaking carousel after queuing into KO Friends with fill with previous crewmates 

• Fix case clicking off a button on PC with mouse once selected breaking navigation with cursor keys 

• Fixed issue where Fill Teammates was enabled in Solos, game now checks state for Fill Teammates in all modes 

• Hide Crew invite notification if the invite has been responded to in the Social Hub

• Several fixes to Social Hub scroll bar and issues around the mouse cursor interfering with other controls 

• Disable actions in home screen until loading completes

• Prevent character changes occurring visually when in the Profile Screen

• Fixed issue where Ready status wasn’t updating when switching Game Modes

• Refresh the KO Friends code when returning from a Match 

• Corrected stat calculation for most played character time

• Time played now reflected in HH:MM:SS rather than seconds to make Time Played more clear in Profile Menu

• Treat blocked dunks / alley oops the same as failed dunks / alley oops, and don’t score them as dunks / alley oops

• Credit steal / intercept only if the play results in a turnover 

• Putbacks no longer count as Alley Oops 

• Don’t increment rebound stat for throw-in pick up

• Removed the logic for ShotMade UI sounds from the HypeMeter widget and moving it to when scores occur to allow for for Dunk specific UI sounds

• Far shots and non-dunk shots now trigger the respective UI sfx events

• The existing “Dunk_Success” (called already in the Dunk + AlleyOop ability) audio has the UI sounds in that event now

• New Dunk fades happen in BP_AudioSetup, taping into Dunk Start and Dunk End events

• New audio created and implemented for style / dribble moves 

• Bigger dunk sounds, will duck music + other sfx for it

• Updated shot made UI sounds to have built in delays (removing it from the animations in order to use data on which type of shot)

• Style moves and Dunk UI sounds

• Music slowdown event for Alley Oop 

• Added Bobbito VO hooks for time running out as the game clock winds down 

• Reduced controller vibration on XBOX

It’s been two weeks since the launch of NBA THE RUN and we just want to say – THANK YOU. To everyone who’s played a match, dropped some feedback, clipped a highlight, or told a friend about NBA THE RUN – we see you, and it means a lot to our team.  

We’ve got a lot to get to today, but if you don’t have time – here are the highlights: 

• June 25th: Game Patch w/ a bunch of fixes & gameplay tuning updates.

• July: Game Update w/ new content & new players… Is it feeling drafty in here? 

• August: Time to kick off Seasons, starting with Summer Heat. New players, new features, new content and more. It will be Legendary. 

• Fall: We’ll be continuing to drop new content and Seasons every 2-3 months.

• 2027: The big one… You want a campaign mode?! We’re giving you one… Game Time! 

We’re committed to making a legendary game and evolving NBA THE RUN over time – we’ve said this from the jump. While we can’t share specifics about every last thing we’re working on, here’s a run down of what’s coming this week, next month, in August with the launch of our first season, and beyond. 

Week 3 Patch 

We’re deploying a patch later today that addresses bugs, makes improvements to gameplay, and continues tuning and balancing of gameplay and player ratings. 

• Identified and addressed an issue where stats reporting caused crashing

• Fixed soft lock issues tied to players forfeiting simultaneously

• General gameplay improvements and bug fixes

• Improvements to KO Solos & targeted player switching added

• General front end & UI improvements

• Audio gameplay polish

• Tuning and balance changes

• Adjusted rarity of rulesets to drive more variety

We will release full patch notes along with the patch deployment later today.

Pre-Heat Game Update

In July we will be releasing a game update – with 3 new NBA players and some additional updates. 

Summer Heat Season Starts in August

In August, we’ll be launching our first season – Summer Heat, and it will last into September. We’ve gathered up a lot of community feedback and we’re tackling as much as we can for this Season – we want to make this big.

Here’s a high level of what you can expect: 

• New Players – Let’s just say August is looking to be Legendary. 

• Drive Camera – We’re adding a new camera angle to the game, shooting down the court to provide a more modern in-game feel. We’ve heard you’ve been asking for this one. 

• The Championship Belt – It’s time to chase the belt! The Summer Heat Championship Belt will evolve over the season so you can truly flex and show off your status. 

• Comms Wheel – Providing players with a quick way to interact & celebrate using emojis, after you’ve completed your Run. 

• Practice Mode – This new Game Mode will allow you to Practice on any given court or ruleset of your choice, in Solos or Squads. You wanna build strategies for Triple Threat with your Crew? This is the place to do it. 

• New Rulesets – We will bring two new rulesets into the rotation – “Block Party” (every Block will take away one point from your opponent) and “All the Fire” (any fire shot gets a +1 score); in addition we’ll be tuning some of the existing rulesets.

• New Courts – In honor of the champs, we’re bringing another NYC court into THE RUN – with both daytime and tournament variations.

• New Shop Items – More jerseys, new taunts, new dunks, banners, badges and more.

• Leaderboards – This is a stretch goal for this season, but we’re pushing to make it happen. You want to see how you stack up against your Friends or the GOAT’s of The Run? Check the Leaderboards. 

In addition, we will be improving AI, making changes to the HUD, and continuing to tune players and balancing the game.

Beyond

After Summer Heat, the roadmap gets a little less specific, but you can expect new seasons that will bring new players, new features, new modes, new rulesets, continued improvements and more. We’ll be sure to keep you updated over time.

Here is a topline overview of three things we’ve heard you ask a lot about:

• Ranked / Ladders – We know there’s a demand for this, we want to make sure we launch it in the right way. It’s on our roadmap for later this year.

• Voice Chat – Similarly, we know you want some way to better communicate with your teammates, and to maybe even talk a little trash to the competition. 

• Campaign – We’re working on a concept for a campaign mode that can be played solo or with friends (locally or online). Full disclosure, to do this right, it’s going to take time – we’re looking at Spring 2027. More to come. 

Hopefully you’re as excited as we are for what’s in store for Year One of NBA THE RUN. We may be a small team, but we’ve got a ton of passion for this game and community. We’re scouring your feedback and using it to help prioritize the work that will keep going into the game. 

We’ll be opening up some discussions with you on these topics in the coming weeks as things are being built. Next week, we’ll be hosting a friendly (or is it?) KO Devs tournament where members of the community can take on the dev team. Head over to our Discord for more info – we’re ready to take on all comers. 

One more time, from all of us – THANK YOU. We’re fortunate to have a community that’s passionate, that’s (mostly) patient, and wants to build on and keep improving the game with us.  

Let’s RUN!

What a week! Over 2.5M+ matches played already and millions more to come. To everyone who's been winning 'chips, sharing highlights, showing off their squads and of course hitting us up with feedback for NBA THE RUN -- THANK YOU. Much love from our whole team -- the 18 devs at the studio, our partners. We're going to keep grinding to make the game better every day. More news on what's coming next week.

This RUN never stops.

It’s been a busy 72 hours – we’re seeing some impressive win totals, (unconfirmed) reports of players who have already won 70+ chips and some quadruple alley-oops out in the wild! Yesterday, we deployed a small patch to address some minor issues we had identified right BEFORE launch:

Fixed Quick Resume bug on Xbox & PS5 Added unlockable dunk into The Shop Improved VFX for Advanced Dunks & Tricks Improved Audio balance on the Tournament / Trophy Win screen Updated in-game Audio VO for Enhanced Blocks and Zonebreaker Ruleset Revised boot sequence w/ balanced audio Updated tooltips in Matchmaking Screen Added a Bot icon over gamertags to display when a Bot / AI is playing Updated PS5 Home Icon w/ Key Art

Needless to say, we’re reading through all of the other feedback since launch right now – we’ll have more to talk about in terms of some of the things you’re asking about in the coming weeks (if not sooner) – more features, tuning and balancing, etc. In fact, we spent some time playing w/ the crew at Kinda Funny yesterday, talking about how launch has been going, what's to come and helping them get that 'chip!

Thanks again for joining us on the journey! Come RUN with us! (And don't be shy, we haven't seen too much flexing out there -- use those taunts and advanced dunks!)

Launch Day…. We’re here. We did it. I can’t believe it. Today, on June 9th 2026 we launch NBA THE RUN on PS5 | Xbox | PC at 11:00 AM (PST). 

One. More. Day. We're making some last minute preparations on our side to get ready for tomorrow when we hit the big green button for our servers to go live on June 9, 2026 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM PT. In the meantime, we invite you to check join our Discord for an event today at 3 PM PT where we'll be showing you a few things you haven't seen yet -- The Shop, talk player ratings and more. Also, we just released a new video of our beloved emcee, and playable street legend, Bobbito Garcia, in his recording booth with some of our favorite calls from the game. Check that out if you got a minute!

We're so excited to RUN with you tomorrow and beyond. Wishlist NOW!

With the clock ticking down, our team at Play by Play are locked in and focused on getting everything set for the global launch of NBA THE RUN on Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 11:00 AM PT / 2:00 PM ET. No matter where you are going to be running from in the world – the game will be available to download and our servers will go live at 11:00 AM PT. 

For those of you who joined us in the Open Beta – thank you. We gained a lot of valuable insights playing with and watching a group at a scale that was exponentially higher than we had ever had before. Seeing our game climb to #1 trending spot in the PlayStation Store that weekend was truly humbling and exciting. We didn’t necessarily need the motivation, but we’d be lying if it didn’t give us some extra juice in this final home stretch to launch.

Like all playtests before, there was a ton to learn from the Open Beta. Here’s a quick rundown of the differences you can expect on June 9th:

• 9 all new dribble / style move animations 

• Tuned down ability to goaltend around the hoop 

• Decreased blocking reach range for the best blockers in the game (guess who??) 

• Fixed issue with Rank & XP not being displayed properly 

• Resolved stats swapping issue 

• Resolved MVP swapping issue 

• Tuned Player Ratings 

• Rebalanced Rulesets for more round to round variety 

• Lowered AI shoving rates overall 

• Changed some Player ITZ abilities

• Increased ability to receive self Off the Backboard Alley Oops

• Lowered speed of ball off the rim & increased friction to improve rebounds 

• Jumpshot, dive and general gameplay animation polish 

• Revised & polished audio for all dribble moves 

• Fixed end of game crash tied to stats / reporting 

Thanks again for running with us in the Open Beta. There’s more of the game to discover when we launch. For a sneak peek, join us on our Discord on Monday, June 8th where our creative Director Mike Young will be talking about our approach to ratings, some of the changes we’ve made from the Open Beta and take you for a spin around some of the areas you haven’t been able to check out yet – like The Shop. 

NBA THE RUN is launching June 9, 2026 at 11 AM PT on PlayStation 5, XBOX and Steam on PC for $29.99. The NBA THE RUN Deluxe Edition, which includes unlocks of three Rookie Variants – Stephen Curry ‘09 Warriors, Kevin Durant ‘07 SuperSonics and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ‘18 Clippers – and 1000 CRED you can spend immediately in The Shop to unlock alt jerseys, advanced dunks, taunts, and more, will be available for $39.99.

The open beta for NBA THE RUN will be releasing this Saturday, May 30, 2026 from 10 AM PT - 6 PM PT. Come one, come all, no codes required for entry, and we will be live on all platforms – PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S and Steam on PC, fully cross-play enabled.

Here’s everything that’s going to be included in this weekend’s test:

• Game Modes: Knockout Squads, Knockout Solos

• NBA Players: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Scottie Barnes, LaMelo Ball, Jalen Brunson, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Luka Dončić , Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, Cooper Flagg, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Ja Morant and Victor Wembanyama

• Street Legends: Destiny “DJ” Jackson

• Last, but not least, you’ll also get to see and feel the initial implementation of style moves in the game – including crossovers, Shammgods, Slip ‘N Slides, and a couple more things we’ve been cooking up. 

For a list of all the gameplay changes we’ve been making recently, check out this blog from last week for a list of things we’ve been tweaking based on player feedback. 

Whether you’ve been following along our journey since 2024, or you’ve just joined us lately, now’s a great time to join our Discord, where you’ll get all the latest news, and sign up for our e-mails to get the latest news about the game delivered straight to your inbox.

You can also follow us on X, Instagram and TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube for the latest videos, including a recent video about our launch roster’s player ratings. 

NBA THE RUN is releasing on June 9th, 2026 on PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S and Steam on PC. 

We got next! NBA THE RUN will release on digital storefronts on June 9th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam via PC for $29.99. Additionally, we’re also unveiling today the NBA THE RUN - Deluxe Edition, which will include the following additions for $39.99: 

• Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors ‘09 Rookie Variant

• Luka Dončić Dallas Mavericks ‘18 Rookie Variant

• Kevin Durant Seattle Supersonics ‘07 Rookie Variant

• 1000 CRED

CRED is our in game currency, earned by playing any match. You can use that CRED to purchase items in the Shop, including new alternate jerseys for a specific player, advanced dunk animations, taunts, badges, banners and more. Shop purchases are simple – you get what you want, no packs to rip here. 

The items available to you in the shop will depend on your Profile Rank. Winning tournaments, and doing it with style, will help you raise your rank faster, getting you closer and closer to the most coveted items in the Shop. You’ll also earn unlocks as you rank up, including the 5 street legends we’ll have in the game at launch.

As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re going to build this brick by brick alongside the community. We’ll continue to evolve the game through launch with new content, Shop updates as well as gameplay refinements that keep the game fresh, fair and exciting for all. 

The game is only going to get better with your help and continued support. 

RUN it back with us this weekend on Saturday, May 16 from 10:00am - 2:00pm PST and try out street legend Spin Cycle, known for his overzealous swag and unbelievable handles, in addition to trying out new players and Knockout Solos, our mode where each player controls their whole team of 3. 

We’ve been taking in all the feedback coming out of our first playtest 10 days ago, and we’re already implementing changes you’ll see this week.

Please, keep it coming and let’s RUN!

The past few weeks have been exciting for us at Play by Play and have marked a lot of firsts for us – our first gameplay trailer, first time we’ve been able to talk about a firmer launch window and capped off by our first public playtest where you all got to see the game in action for the first time (and hopefully play for yourselves).

Here’s a quick summary that might help answer some of your questions and helpful links if you’re just joining us now..

Game Modes

We are launching with three core game modes at launch, in addition to something we just recently added based on some early feedback:

• Knockout Squads - The mode that was available in the beta, play on a Squad of 3. You control 1 player on the Squad, fill out your team with friends / other players and find the competition.

• Knockout Solos - Build your own Team of 3. You control your Team of 3 and go head to head against other players and their Team(s) of 3.

• Knockout Friends - Your own Private Tournament. Play alone against the AI, crew up w/ friends against the AI, or go head to head against anyone you want to invite in (up to 48 players at Launch).

We've also added Shootaround, a place to warm up, practice and to get comfortable with each player before hopping into tournaments. Get a sense of their jump shot timing, stamina, speed and more. 

Launch Roster

After the recent additions of Kawhi Leonard and Damian Lillard, we’ll be launching with 32 NBA stars and 5 Street Legends including El Gigante, who players were able to try out during our last playtest.

To watch all player reveal videos, head to a YouTube playlist of our player reveals.

In addition to these players, we will be launching with Rookie Variants for five NBA stars, including Stephen Curry ‘09, Luka Dončić ‘18, Kevin Durant ‘07, LeBron James ‘03, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ‘18. Each variant looks different, plays different, and can be played alongside their modern versions in your squad. You’ll earn them by playing the game and earning CRED (our in game currency).

Our plan is to continue to add more players after we launch – in fact our community recently voted on Kyrie Irving being the first and we’re hard at work modeling him right now.

Playtest #1 Has Concluded

Our first Closed Beta on Steam wrapped last week. To everyone who got in and played, thank you so much! There were so many nailbiters and some RUNs that lasted for multiple tournaments in a row! The streetball energy was at peak vibes and the support blew us away.

We know not everyone could make the timing. So rest assured we’re going to make the next playtest bigger with more players invited and more time. News on the next one will be shared on our Discord, social channels (@NBATHERUN), and here, so stay tuned for that. 

We’ll let you know when it’s time to RUN it back with Playtest #2. And please keep providing feedback – we’re already working on tuning and tweaking parts of the game based on what we read and saw from last Friday. 

Keep the feedback coming and stay tuned for more news soon.

Get ready to RUN!

This Friday, May 1, we’ll be hosting our first Closed Beta Playtest for NBA THE RUN, right here on Steam.

This playtest will focus on Knockout Squads (3 players vs. 3 players), and will feature a limited number of NBA stars, as well as one of our original Street Legends, El Gigante. 

If you’ve already signed up for playtesting and e-mails via our web site, you should have received an email from us last Friday to complete a one-question survey on the platforms you can test NBA THE RUN on. Please note: as this is our first playtest, access will be limited. 

And if you haven’t signed up yet, well what are you waiting for? This is your chance to play the game early and give us some valuable feedback.

And if you’ve already signed up, tell some friends you want to Crew up with. Let’s RUN!