As sports games evolve in new directions, the decades-long mainstay franchise mode is often superseded when it comes to development resources in favor of shiny new possibilities like moneymaking Ultimate Teams, new draft modes, competitive play, and even simply playing along with a team through the regular season. The neglect of this mode is sometimes attributed to a shift in player interests, but from where I'm sitting a well-executed franchise mode offers more engagement, depth, and long-term replayability than any contending mode.

Visual Concepts senior producer Erick Boensich agrees, which is why each year he and his team push hard for the resources to build forward-thinking new features into the NBA 2K games. This year is no different. In fact, Visual Concepts staffed up with more engineers this year so the franchise mode team responsible for building MyGM and MyLeague in NBA 2K16 could think big. Here are their bold plans for continuing to raise the bar of franchise modes:

TEAM RELOCATION

• The banner feature for the two NBA 2K16 franchise modes is team relocation. Whether you are in MyLeague or MyPlayer, you can right the wrongs of NBA owners and put teams back where they belong (looking at you, Seattle SuperSonics) or chart a new future for an NBA team in a new North American city as far flung as Anchorage, Alaska. -Each of the more than 60 cities available for relocation presents a unique opportunity with different market data. GMs can look over market size, median income, number of homes with TVs, each of which plays a role in your potential success in that location. -You can try to double or even triple up on major metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles, though rival owners in those locations won't be supportive of your move. -At any time in your tenure in MyGM mode you can approach the owner and indicate you think the team should move. Depending on your location, the owner contribution to the costs can fluctuate. You can also throw your own hard-earned money that you earn from completing owner goals behind the move. -After you choose the city you move onto the team branding. You can carry over your team name, logo, and colors, or start from scratch. Users can choose from several 2K-made logos or upload their own via NBA2K.com. The play-by-play commentators know a small collection of generic team names, but if they aren't familiar with your team name they will simply refer to your city during broadcasts. -Once your team branding is in place, you can design your arena. The options here are incredibly robust. You can choose from 13 arena templates of varying shapes and capacities and customize nearly everything in the arena, including the jumbotron, the animation packages that play on the jumbotron, the center court logo, seatback colors, basket colors, the scoring table style, and every line, pattern, text, or color on the floor. You can even upload graphics to use on the floor and in the advertisement areas via NBA2K.com. -You can choose moment-specific arena sounds that play when a team scores a game-tying basket or misses a free-throw, for instance. These must be chosen from the hundreds that 2K has included in the game; you cannot upload your own audio this year. -You can name your new stadium, but you cannot sell the naming rights for money. -After you build your arena, you can purchase amenities for your facility including bigger parking garages, different levels of luxury suites, concessions, restaurants, or even a train or bus terminal that eases transportation to your location. -The final step to customizing your team is tweaking your jerseys. 2K offers several different jersey styles, accents, and fonts for you to mix and match, but you can also upload your own images to use as a pattern. -If you'd rather borrow someone else's hard work you can search for other images by user and download them to your game. -You can rebrand even if you don't plan to move the team. -Completing a relocation is as simple as selecting your new city in MyLeague, but you'll need at least 16 of the 30 owner votes to complete your move in MyGM. -Before submitting your move pitch, you can converse with other owners to see what you could do to sway their votes in your favor. Many are chiefly concerned with the economic impact of the move; as long as money is coming in and you aren't hurting their bottom line they may sign on. Some may have simple requests, like switching your location from a suburban area to the urban center or upping the number of luxury suites. Others may oppose your move no matter what. -Once your pitch is submitted, the vote takes place in the offseason. If your vote doesn't pass you can return to your proposal and make the adjustments you need to get approval. -If the owners approve your team's move, then the league will determine whether or not relocation is necessary in the offseason. If you move the Knicks to the West Coast, for instance, they will be moved into the Pacific division and other changes will be made to balance the Atlantic. Visual Concepts spent a ton of time on this algorithm to make sure it works in a believable way.