The lights are on
2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K series hasn't always been the best baseball game on the market, and there are indications that 2K and parent company Take-Two Interactive may not renew their licensing agreement with MLB.
Take-Two's financials were released yesterday, and in them the company mentioned it expects the losses brought on by the franchise should lessen by 50 percent. Given that even Take-Two's chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick has said in the past that the license was a money loser for them, it's believed that Take-Two's buoyed outlook is not because it thinks MLB 2K12 is going to all of a sudden sell millions of copies more than the series ever has.
In fact, Kotaku says it talked to a Take-Two spokesman who said, "Our legacy Major League Baseball agreement will sunset in fiscal 2013. MLB 2K12 is our last offering under that agreement. At this time, we have no further comment."
Furthermore, MLB 2K13 was not listed among 2K's upcoming titles – something that happend to both 2K Sports' NHL and college basketball series before they were dropped.
If 2K Sports does not renew its baseball license, this would create a weird situation for the video game sport. It would leave Sony as the only creators of an MLB-licensed game (under Take-Two's agreement with the MLB, Sony is allowed to make its own MLB games because it is a first-party console manufacturer), giving the PlayStation 3 and Vita de-facto pro baseball exclusives.
The absence of the MLB 2K franchise also means that developer Visual Concepts is down to one series – NBA 2K.
Competitor EA Sports has been out of the baseball game because of Take-Two's agreement, and it's unlikely that EA Sports would put out its own MLB baseball title until the next generation of hardware – not to mention the fact that it might not even scoop up the license.
Email the author Matthew Kato, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Luckily I bought myself a PS3 so that I can still play my baseball games :D
i guess EA finally won one cause 2K basketball just shelled NBA live and you know they bought out the rights for football and college sports, but 2K baseball could never stand up against MLB the show the game looks very real and plays great but sorry for the company i wish they get back into football when EA's license runs it course.
I find this very hard to belive, they must have made enough money to want to keep this franchise going, right?
Never really liked sports Games.
I hope the do renew for the xbox player. Plus compitition is good just look at Madden.
The 2k baseball games are terrible! The Show is really good.
I would figure more people would like The Show, but since that is an PS3 exclusive, some people can't play it.
The show has beet them, out to many years in a row. smart move
about time MLB was on its way to deep downfall
I guess it's a good thing I'm not into Baseball games. Too bad though.
Just like NBA 2K ran EA out of the basketball world, now The Show is running 2K out of the baseball world.
Hasn't Sony been DESTROYING it with their baseball games lately?
Where's my $1,000,000?!?!?
Looks like Sony get to slack off a bit now that they have no competition.