NBA 2K18 Update 1.09 Released Without Patch Notes: Here’s What It Does

NBA 2K18 update 1.09 is being deployed across most platforms, and it arrives without patch notes. According to a post on the game’s official Twitter account, players shouldn't expect too many gameplay changes this time around.

“Today’s NBA 2K18 Patch Update 1.09 is exclusively support for the upcoming NBA2KLeague Combine,” the brief message reads. In other words, 2K has essentially released a patch almost none of its players can use.

For those who missed the boat on this reveal, the NBA2KLeague Combine takes place Feb. 2 through Feb. 21 as an online competition. It’s essentially the second major NBA 2K18 tournament of the year to whittle down the world’s best players in time for the real-world NBA playoffs. In order to participate in this round of 102 contestants, eligible players had to have won 50 games during the League Qualifier held earlier this month. Gameplay restrictions mandate six-minute quarters with standard Pro-Am rules.

Some light UI and menu-based revisions had to be added to NBA 2K18 to accomodate these intense matches. There’s likely a special tournament interface these players can access that wasn’t in the previous version of the game. Update 1.09 isn’t exciting at all in terms of its features, but it will probably be appreciated by the competitors who need it.

Despite receiving eight critical patches since launch in mid-September, NBA 2K18 hasn’t been realistically updated since the end of December. After suffering from balance issues, problems with t-shirts and Pro-Am bugs, it would seem the team at Visual Concepts is finally satisfied with the gameplay balance it’s struck. Especially now that esports is factored into the equation, we imagine there might be fewer significant patches moving forward.

Since smaller patches like these generally don’t receive much coverage, we figured this tiny bit of info may be helpful to those scouring the 2K Facebook page for a complete list of changes. Unless you’re one of the select few competing in the Combine, you might as well forget Patch 9 exists.

NBA 2K18 is available across PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch and PC. Because this update is meant for esports, it may not be released on every single platform.

How do you feel about the current gameplay balance of NBA 2K18? Were you expecting update 1.09 to offer something more? Tell us in the comments section!