Within five seconds of introducing himself to YouTube as MrPurple0, the guy is off on a nonstop, highly personal tirade condemning 2K Sports and NBA 2K12. Were it transcribed, it is hard to imagine a period between any of the sentences.

"The servers are garbage, the servers are trash," he says, frustrated by day-of-release problems disconnecting thousands of ranked basketball games in the first quarter. "You're not doing nothing, you're sitting in that little room and you're counting your bread, and it's not fair to the people that paid their hard earned money."

2K Sports titles have been known to have online glitches and connection issues on the day of release, including in NBA 2K, the label's flagship product and one of the most acclaimed sports series in history. Despite even better review scores this year than for last year's transcendental hit, NBA 2K's diehard community turned on the game and those who made it—hard—excoriating both in forums, YouTube videos and over Twitter. They've accused 2K Sports of going cheap on its online features and support, holding back on both to save money in a lockout year that's expected to damage sales.

Not true, says the man ultimately responsible for building the game. If anything, he insists, they spent more on online development this year than ever before.More »