Pro Basketball Manager 2022 Review

Definitely not a game for me personally, but the amount of depth, customization options, number of included players and teams, and more is extremely impressive. This is a must-buy for any fan of the management, strategy, and tactics side of professional basketball.

Note: I received a free Steam key for review purposes from the developer(s)/publisher(s). Many thanks to the developer for providing the key!

Prior to my teenage years, I loved watching basketball and tracking statistics. I would often create my versions of the NBA or NCAA and play them out via whatever means available, either outside on the small basketball court I had growing up or by playing whatever video games I happened to have access to at any given period. Tecmo NBA Basketball was one of the more impressive console titles of the period, given it had lots of real players and statistics tracking. NBA Live ’95 improved even further upon this by allowing trading (at least with starting lineup players) and significant improvement to gameplay.

Prior to receiving my first computer, I had the idea of programming my own basketball game that would include “all of the teams”, but by the time I actually started learning how to program, I was no longer interested in the sport. I still enjoy the occasional basketball title, especially retro classics of the 90s and early 00s, but I’ve never really delved into the world of basketball management sims. I understand how the sport works from a general business point-of-view and the rules-of-play but I’m far from an expert on the topic. I guess you could call me a “somewhat informed, yet inexperienced casual” when it comes to this genre of games.

Background Information

Pro Basketball Manager (PBM) 2022 is a Unity engine release by Umix Studios, a French indie studio founded by 2 basketball fans. The series began as a school project that evolved into a released game: Basketball Pro Management 2012. The series continued with annual releases under this title through 2015, with the 2016 edition adopting the title Pro Basketball Manager, which continues on to the most recent release: 2022.

Reviews for previous editions are mixed, with an “8 out of 10” by a user on IndieDB for the 2012 edition and a wide range of scores for the 2014 to present versions available on Steam, with the scores trending upward with each new edition’s release. Here’s a list of the scores for each version as of December 29th, 2021 (with all reviews considered in parentheses):

• 2014: 11% of 36 reviews are positive (19% of 52 reviews)
• 2015: 18% of 44 (39% of 62)
• 2016: 40% of 59 (48% of 75)
• 2017: 40% of 40 (45% of 47)
• 2019: 46% of 64 (46% of 69)
• 2021: 45% of 97 (50% of 119–1 more positive review than negative)
• 2022: 82% of 28 (80% of 42)

Based on the typical progression of reviews for the titles, it appears that the 2022 edition offers significant improvements over the 2021 edition, and the user reviews from those who have played both reflect this. The numerous bugs and lack of optimization from previous versions appear to have been addressed adequately.

My Experience & Feedback

I am not the target demographic for this game. I have experience working in management (not in athletics, admittedly), and this game feels very analogous to someone taking aspects of management work I’ve done and tried to make a simulation experience out of it. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the specific market that will find this game entertaining is a very niche one. As a fan of sandbox MMORPGs and roleplay-heavy multiplayer games, I’m all for indie developers attempting to fulfill the needs of niche markets.

There are tons of options and a fairly intuitive (from a tech savvy individual with a Computer Science degree, graduate education in Information Technology, and experience with multiple operating systems, at least) data editor makes modding quite easy. There’s a mod available that attempts to fill out the game with correct teams, players, and other data. I definitely recommend Thomas T’s Real Names Database available at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2655554811.

The graphics for the simulated games are outdated and rather poor, but for a management game — they are more than sufficient. You won’t confuse this for a televised game but you’ll be able to tell what’s going on. You are able to design plays with a fair degree of freedom and have a fair amount of control over what your players do. The coaching portion of this game seems sufficient, although a seasoned veteran of sports management titles will likely find something potentially problematic with the game.

The office management portion of the game appears to be the strength, with so many options and areas to address and lots of data points. You’ll always have something that could be done better and will likely do something correctly even if by accident. It’s quite a challenge to find correct players if you opt to manage an obscure, foreign team though. Some of the individual league rules are incorrect by default as well.

One last thing to note: there is no NBA or NCAA license. There are some licenses in the game including certain French league(s) but this indie likely can’t afford an NBA license for team names, stadiums, etc as well as the players association license.

Verdict

This game isn’t for me. If I wasn’t reviewing it, I wouldn’t have bought it unless it was on a deep discount (i.e. under $5) and would have only bought it as a curiosity. That’s not anything against the game itself, only personal preference. However, the game appears to have tons of features for those into sports management games and a comprehensive, easy-to-use data editor for modding the experience. I can tell that a lot of passion went into the development of this title as well.

If you love sports management games and basketball, this game is an easy recommend, but as with previous editions, it has much room for improvement!