NBA 2K is the king of the court but with EA’s NBA Live series making a strong push this year, what does 2K have in store to counter EA’s surge? We sat in on a conference call with 2K Sports’ Erick Boenisch (Lead Feature Designer on NBA 2K9) and Rob Jones (Gameplay Director) to get the latest before the game ships tomorrow.

The call was fairly standard with the usual platitudes about this being a better game in every way – pretty common PR stuff. When sitting in on these calls the devil is in the details. One interesting tidbit is that 2K is trying to capture a “new” audience by releasing the game on the PC this year at a bargain price of $20.

Then it got interesting. One area that was striking was the blatant contempt for EA Sports and what the company is doing with NBA Live 09. That game’s new Dynamic DNA system was a hot topic—several times “the competition” was brought up and not once was EA given any credit for its new feature – Jones and Boenisch contend that the new DNA system in Live will cost $20.

This is really a half truth.

NBA Live’s DNA feature is free if you buy the game new – if you rent or buy a used copy you’ll need to pony up 20 bucks to unlock the Dynamic DNA which is admittedly a slick feature and one that we’ve been messing with a lot lately. 2K9’s Living Rosters is a novel idea (new data and animations will be available during the season and players can share created players with one another) but EA’s Dynamic DNA is a shockingly detailed system that is loaded with tendencies and data. While it’s fair to criticize EA for charging $20 to use this feature for used games, it should be noted that it’s not an additional $20 fee across the board. Still, it went so far as to indirectly call Live’s DNA feature “fluff.” No punches were pulled.

Anyway, back to 2K9.

NBA 2K9 will not only come with a better tutorial system (the advanced game can be a bit daunting) but a better paper manual will be provided along with a detailed supplemental manual online at 2K’s website.

Other features include adaptive AI that will supposedly adjust to your tendencies and “learn” how you play the game and counter your moves. The new Shot Stick Extreme (a terrible name) allows more control over shots and also allows you to pass out of the lay-up animation.