If you were one of those kids who spent an incalculable amount of time playing classic streetball video games like NBA Jam and NBA Street growing up, you have a reason to be excited about the latest development on the sports gaming front.
Independent gaming outfit Play By Play Studios unveiled what they are calling the “spiritual successor” to those generational hoops titles on Wednesday, releasing the first trailer for an officially-licensed 3v3, PvP streetball game in partnership with the NBA and NBPA, featuring all the league’s biggest stars.
Founded by CEO Scott Probst in 2021, Play By Play Studios’ creative team is anchored by longtime sports gaming developer Michael Young, who spent over twenty years with EA Sports working on games like NBA Jam, NBA Street, and even Madden.
Young’s history makes him the perfect person to lead a revival of the streetball gaming genre. Still, he insists that while NBA The Run is certainly a spiritual successor, it’s also its own entity and not merely a remake of a nostalgic game from the past.
“We definitely didn’t set out to make a remake,” Young said. “We looked at modern games, and one thing we thought was missing was the fun, fast-to-play, easy to pick up, non-intimidating sports titles.”
“You look back at games like Jam and Street, but And-1 largely influenced Street at the time. I think a lot of the gameplay we have on NBA The Run, it is over the top. It is about showmanship, but it’s also about step-backs, logo threes, alley-oops, and dunks. Basketball has evolved a lot since 2007.”
A Familiar Setting
In an era of sports gaming where major studios have all but driven niche ideas into the ground in favor of their major simulation titles, Young likened his experience working on The Run with Play By Play Studios to the experience that he had making those classic streetball games with EA over twenty years ago.
“With us being such a small team, it felt a lot like my days on NBA Street,” Young said. “Where no one’s necessarily paying attention to you and you’re just making a game that you love, and the team’s super passionate. A lot of the magic on NBA Street was the fact that everyone on the team was playing the game for fun, every single day.
“On some of the bigger games, it was tough to get 100+ people who all love the sport and are playing the game every day for fun. That’s what we have. We have multiple play tests a week, where Scott (Probst) sometimes has to go, ‘Yep, well, we need to go back to work.’ People will ping each other on the weekend because we’re having fun playing the game.”
Advantages of Independence
One particular advantage to creating this game with an independent studio, as Probst pointed out, was the increased creative freedom that comes with being a company that’s still working to prove itself. Probst knows Play By Play is filling some big shoes with this release, but he believes some of that pressure is alleviated by the fact that they are an independent studio.
“We don’t have a pre-existing franchise or set of rules that we have to adhere to,” Probst said. “For us, I think what’s really cool is we can take a lot of creative risk, given that if we work on a big franchise, there’s a whole lot of built-in expectations about what the game should be, what it has to be to certain players. It’s very difficult.”
“We know we’ve got really big shoes to fill. We don’t take that lightly at all, but it’s about how we can take that and think about modern games, bring that forward, and really embrace the creative risks we can take to offer the best possible game for players across the world.”
Creating the game in an independent studio also lets the team streamline ideas without going through a formal board or a series of meetings, so additions and changes can be made and worked out as soon as they are noticed during playtests.
“Ideas come up, and we can turn them around really fast because we don’t need to get seven executives’ approval to make a change,” Young said. “We can just try something, check it in, play it on the weekend, and go, ‘Yeah, we love this.’”
A Dream Partnership
One instance of a decision that needed to be streamlined was on the morning of July 24, 2024, one day after Play By Play initially revealed its plans to revive the streetball gaming genre with an unlicensed game called The Run: Got Next on July 23. Probst woke up to a LinkedIn message from an NBA representative that changed the entire trajectory of the project.
“We originally announced a 3v3, PvP, street-focused basketball game in July of 2024,” Probst said. “We had been building that game for, I don’t know, two plus years. At that point, for us, it was always about delivering this really cool 3v3 pick up and play, street-style game that felt authentic and real to the world of street hoops.”
“We announced that game July 23. On July 24, I woke up and had a message in my LinkedIn inbox from somebody at the NBA saying, ‘Hey, you know, like, would you guys be interested in potentially taking this game to the next level and partnering up with the NBA?’, which dreams come true as a massive fan of the NBA and a massive fan of hoops games. It’s like, minds blown.”
According to Probst, every NBA team and active player is licensed to appear in the game.
Bobbito is Back!
While NBA The Run isn’t directly in the lineage of the NBA Street series, the new game will bring back one of the most iconic parts of the classic. Featured on commentary of a streetball video game for the first time in two decades is the legendary Bobbito Garcia, one half of the iconic Stretch and Bobbito Radio Show in New York City and one of the figures at the forefront of streetball history.
“I was fortunate early in my career to get to be part of a really tight-knit team on NBA Street Volumes 2 and 3, so I got to work with Bob a little bit back then,” Young said. “We didn’t want this game to feel like a remake. We wanted it to feel fresh. But honestly, when you think about it, Bobbito hasn’t really appeared in a console game like this since 2005 on NBA Street Home Court.”
“It was just exciting to think that there’s going to be people who are going to love it from a nostalgic perspective, but there’s a whole new generation. I think the enthusiasm and the fun he brings to the game will resonate with the kind of audience we’re going after, which is younger than some people like us.”
Garcia also narrated the trailer, which was a welcome sight — or sound — for streetball fans across social media.
“He just brings so much to our team,” Young added. “He’s so easy to work with. The enthusiasm, the energy, the slang. You feel his passion in the game, and I think you feel it in the trailer too.”
New Worlds
NBA The Run also features some of the most iconic streetball environments in the world, some of which Garcia suggested himself. Gamers will be able to transport themselves to iconic environments like Venice Beach in California, Lynn Park in Chicago, or even The Tenement in the Philippines.
“Having been part of picking all the courts in the past Street games, we’d go all to all the courts and take photos and spend time there, play hoops there. I played in Venice Beach, I’ve played Dykeman and played all over the place. I’m not good, by the way, but it’s just a cool experience. Seeing courts like The Tenement, with the famous LeBron James mural that put it on the map.
“We wanted to represent courts from all over the world. Research, I would say, is much easier to do on courts today than it was back then, because we would have to read books and travel. Now there’s Instagram. When I made the Street games, Dongdan wasn’t even talked about, but now it’s considered one of the most famous courts in the world.”
NBA THE RUN
The new 3v3 streetball video game for PS4 & 5. The voice of the game will be Bobbito Garcia! pic.twitter.com/QOAwnSZ3VD— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 29, 2025
NBA The Run: More Details
Play By Play hasn’t committed to a price point or a release date for the upcoming game, though Probst was willing to say that the game wouldn’t be sold at a “Triple-A premium” price. Probst was also adamant that NBA The Run wouldn’t just be a one-time release, and that Play By Play was committed to building on its partnership with the NBA and NBPA.
“It’s definitely not a one-time thing,” Probst said. “I think we see this as something that can evolve over time and become something that’s much bigger, that can engage fans on all kinds of different levels than what we see in the market of basketball today.”
“I think there’s a great opportunity to continue to expand there. There are all different kinds of directions that we can explore. So, we don’t see this as kind of a one-off. We see this as a long-standing partnership with the NBA, the NBPA, and I think we could really build a pretty compelling world that players can play in for a long time to come.”
One Free Throw
Probst and Play By Play’s desire to present the best game possible when it’s time to release in 2026 is also why they haven’t committed to a set release date yet, as Probst wants to make sure the company makes a great first impression in the sports gaming world.
“We feel like we’ve got one free throw, and we want to make the free throw,” Probst said. “We want to make sure we deliver a really awesome game. It’s about being patient with the process. Making sure this game plays, looks, and feels as good as possible.
“There’s a particular feel that’s hard to put into words, the way we want this game to feel when you touch it and interact with it and play with it. I think we just have to take our time to really get to that place, where we’re so excited that we kind of have to put it out there and hopefully see the same level of excitement from players.”
