'NBA 2K17' release date news 2016: Face-scanning companion app 'MyNBA2K17' coming in September

"MyNBA2K17," a free companion mobile app to the upcoming basketball simulation video game "NBA 2K17," will be released in September just before "NBA 2K17" comes out.

The app will allow "NBA 2K17" players to scan their faces for inclusion in the popular game. While the "NBA 2K" franchise has previously allowed players to put their own faces on their created players, the results have been hit or miss.

"NBA 2K15," the first installment in the franchise to have the face-scanning feature, allowed players to use the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One Kinect camera to scan their faces. "NBA 2K16," its successor, also allowed players to add their faces to the game.

In a press release, "NBA 2K17" publisher 2K Sports said that the "all-new face simulation technology" also lets players pick and win mini-games to leverage live NBA game stats, earn Virtual Currency every day, shop for gear and console items from an expanded MyPLAYER Store, watch 2KTV anytime and anywhere, and buy and sell cards at the Auction House.

The NBA Rookie of the Year, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves, was announced to be the cover athlete for the mobile app.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Aug. 24, Towns wrote, "I'm very excited to announce that I'm your cover athlete for the #MyNBA2K17 mobile companion app!"

Meanwhile, 2K Sports seems to have finally figured out how to translate the unprecedented skills of the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry into the virtual court, skills that were so good they threatened how basketball was played in "NBA 2K16."

According to the studio, "NBA 2K17" gives players more control on the court. In an interview with Polygon, Visual Concepts senior producer Rob Jones said that the upcoming game is designed with a "significant drop-off" in shooting accuracy beyond a particular distance after the 3-point arc.

"Steph and [the Warriors] started doing all that crazy stuff, and we weren't really ready for it," he said. "So we didn't want people to be able to shoot those shots. That's obviously something that [we] thought about and fixed for this year."

The "MyNBA2K17" app will be available for iOS and Android for free on Sept. 8 while "NBA 2K17" will be out on Sept. 20.