NBA The Run Preview: The Spiritual Successor to NBA Street We’ve Been Waiting For?
Play by Play Studios is throwing it back to the golden age of arcade hoops with a modern, rollback netcode-powered 3v3 playground tournament.
If you grew up in the 2000s, your childhood was likely defined by one thing: hitting the blacktop in NBA Street, pulling off a devastating trick string, and triggering a Gamebreaker that completely ruined your best friend’s day. For years, EA has left that franchise on the bench. But today, a group of veteran developers called Play by Play Studios said, “Fine, we’ll do it ourselves.”
Say hello to NBA THE RUN, an all-new 3v3 arcade basketball game launching June 9, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam!
Right out of the gate, NBA THE RUN is screaming with NBA Street energy. We’re talking:
Fast, fluid, over-the-top physics.
Handcrafted, highly stylized player models.
A mix of 30+ current NBA superstars and fictional playground myths (like the newly announced legend, Spin Cycle).
Global street courts where you compete in a four-round “Run the World” knockout tournament.
But they aren’t just copy-pasting the past. Play by Play Studios is implementation rollback netcode. If you play fighting games, you know this is the gold standard for online play, meaning your online ankle-breakers are going to sync up beautifully without any sluggish input lag.
The game features three distinct ways to play at launch. You’ve got Knockout Squads for rolling deep with your friends, and Knockout Friends which lets you host massive 48-player private tournaments. But the mode we are most excited for is Knockout Solos. Unlike modern sports games where you lock onto one player, this mode lets you pilot your entire team of 3 simultaneously, bringing back that classic couch-multiplayer feel.
The game is dropping with a surprisingly consumer-friendly price tag—$29.99 for the Standard edition. But if you’re a true hoops fan, the $39.99 Deluxe Edition is a no-brainer. It comes packed with 1,000 CRED for cosmetics, taunts, and dunk animations, plus three incredible throwback rookie variants: ‘09 Steph Curry, ‘18 Luka Dončić, and yes, a Seattle Supersonics ‘07 Kevin Durant!
The team hosted a Steam playtest to let players try out the new mechanics firsthand. Everything we’ve seen so far points to a game made by people who truly love the golden era of sports video games.
Are you ready to run the court again? Let us know in the comments if you’ll be picking this up on June 9th.