NBA The Run's first big update lands free - but the small print matters
Play by Play Studios' 3v3 streetball game gets its first seasonal drop, and yes, it's free - just don't expect it everywhere yet.
NBA The Run, the 3v3 streetball game from Play by Play Studios, has received its first seasonal update since launching in June. Called Wave One – 2000s Legends, it’s free, it’s live now, and Xbox Wire is calling it the biggest update the game has had so far. That last bit is easy to believe for a title that’s barely three months old - the bar isn’t exactly sky-high.
What’s actually in it
The confirmed additions are reasonably concrete. Five historic NBA players join the roster, though the Xbox Wire announcement doesn’t name a single one of them - so anyone hoping for a specific 2000s icon will need to fire up the game and check for themselves. Alongside the roster bump, there are two new camera angles (Drive Cam and Drive Flip Cam), a Championship Belts system to show off your wins, licensed music, a Practice Mode, Custom Match options, new courts, plus fresh dunks, taunts and alternate jerseys.
Beyond that, the post gestures vaguely at “a host of community-requested gameplay additions and improvements” without listing what they are. That’s marketing shorthand rather than a patch note, and it’s worth flagging as such - readers wanting the granular changelog will need to wait for Play by Play Studios to publish one, if they do.
Who this actually affects
Here’s the catch that matters most: this update is confirmed for Xbox Series X|S only, based on what’s stated in the source. There’s no mention of PC, PlayStation, Switch or mobile versions receiving the same update - or indeed of the game existing on those platforms at all right now. If you’re not on Xbox’s current-gen console, none of this is confirmed to apply to you yet.
It’s also worth being clear about what “free” means here. This is a content update to a game you’d already need to own or access (NBA The Run’s own pricing and Game Pass status aren’t detailed in this announcement), not a free trial or giveaway of the base game itself. Nothing in the source indicates any of the new content sits behind a separate purchase, which is the reassuring part - but it’s a seasonal update to an existing product, not a new release.
The bigger picture
NBA The Run pitches itself as street basketball built around a mix of current NBA stars and top rookies, an approach that leans on the same “authentic roster, arcade action” formula plenty of licensed sports games chase. A first seasonal update three months post-launch is a fairly standard live-service cadence - it signals the developers are actively supporting the game rather than abandoning it, which is a reasonable thing to note without treating it as some huge industry event.
What to do about it
If you’re already playing NBA The Run on Xbox Series X|S, the update should simply be there waiting for you - no action needed beyond letting the console patch as normal. If you’re on another platform, there’s nothing here confirming you’re getting anything today, so don’t go looking for it. And if the “five historic legends” detail matters to you, treat it as unconfirmed until you actually load up the roster screen, since Xbox Wire’s own post doesn’t say who they are.
In short: a real, free, Xbox-confirmed update with some concrete new features and a fair amount of unspecified padding around them. Worth a look if you’re already in the game - not a reason to buy in if you weren’t already interested.