CSF Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 From Gamespot.com: Publisher will have exclusive third-party pro baseball rights beginning in 2006; deal still allows for first-party MLB games. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Take-Two was in talks with the Major League Baseball's Players Association to ink an exclusivity deal similar to EA's pact with the NFL. Today, the athletic union issued a carefully worded announcement that it had struck just such an agreement with Take-Two--sort of. "The Major League Baseball Players Association ('MLBPA') today announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to grant sweeping rights to Take-Two Interactive, Inc., to develop and publish a broad portfolio of products that are expected to drive the baseball video game business to unprecedented heights," read the statement. Currently, Take-Two copublishes the ESPN Major League Baseball 2K series with Sega. The game is developed by Kush Games, a subdivision of Sega's internal sports studio, Visual Concepts, which Take-Two has acquired the option to buy. Initially, the vague wording of MLBPA's statement made it unclear if Take-Two had exclusive MLB rights after all. However, further along, the exact terms of the deal are spelled out. Starting in 2006, "Take-Two will have exclusive rights among third-party publishers to develop and market simulation, arcade and manager-style baseball video games on the current and next-generation PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, personal computer and hand-held video game systems," read the statement. (Emphasis added.) Said third-party exclusivity will last for seven years, until 2012. Presumably, this means that Electronic Arts' pro baseball series will not return after MVP 2005 launches in March. But an EA spokesperson would not say the agreement marked the end of EA Sports baseball games. "We will launch MVP Baseball 2005 this spring, and we're exploring our long term options. This proves that there's plenty of competition in sports games," said the rep. However, the Take-Two/MLBPA deal is not totally exclusive, as the EA/NFL agreement was. "At the same time, manufacturers of video game systems will have the opportunity to develop and publish baseball simulation games for their own platforms," read the statement. That caveat is significant since one of the most popular baseball series, MLB, is published by Sony and internally developed at its 989 Sports studio. When contacted, Take-Two corporate reps declined comment. "We have nothing to add at the moment," said one. But that didn't stop John Olshan, the MLBPA's director for interactive games, from heaping praise on Take-Two. "The baseball video game business has been underdeveloped for years," he said. "The upcoming change in technology makes this the perfect time for us to implement our plan for growing the business, and we have no doubt that Take-Two's proven creativity and innovation, combined with their incredible distribution strength and powerful commitment to baseball, will add real excitement and depth to the video game marketplace. Baseball fans will be the big winners." GameSpot will have more on this developing story as further details emerge. By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scwible Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 well crap. I love MVP baseball. At least we'll have it for this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldmember Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 never played it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 F Sega! How did the Dreamcast work out? Just go bankrupt and go away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeandMirrors Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 While this is very upsetting (especially for people that buy MVP for the Gamecube or PC), it doesn't mean that MVP Baseball is gone forever. It looks that way, but the deal only stops third party baseball games. So, if EA were to strike a deal with either Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft, EA would still be able to make MVP, but only for one of the consoles and possibly PC. Also, this is Take Two Interactive's doing. Sega is officially out of the sports genre. If you look through gamespot's news they had the story up yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 QUOTE(Brian @ Jan 26, 2005 -> 10:16 AM) F Sega! How did the Dreamcast work out? Just go bankrupt and go away! Actually they started doing well again when they got out of the game console market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamTell Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 I've always liked Sega, but I still want to play MVP for years to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelasDaddy0427 Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Jan 26, 2005 -> 12:42 PM) I've always liked Sega, but I still want to play MVP for years to come. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> YES!!!! Take that EA! This is so great. Now we have a company that will work hard to improve the games. Not just get to a point where their alright and then not improve the games anymore or make them worse (I.E. Madden, NBA Live) I hate EA and one less game from them the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeandMirrors Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Geez, don't get too excited now, Jeckle. Did EA steal your lunch money or something? Also, to say that Take Two will work hard to improve their sport games is a bit of a dream. Now I'm not saying this because I hate their games, not even close, but if you look at all sport games you'll realize that they hardly have any improvements from year to year. Take ESPN Baseball this year, what are the improvements? Polished graphics, some tweaks to the pitching and batting, roster upgrade, and some new animations. Also I'm sure the franchise mode will also get some new stuff added as well. Now, look at MVP baseball, they've added ownership mode (no surprise, since they've been adding it to every EA sports game), improved the minor leagues (another improvement that was some what expected), and have also tweaked the pitching and batting, along with adding some new animations. This is the same for most sport games, it's not limited to baseball. And it's certainly not limited to just EA. And to once again bring up the point of Take Two making improvements to their sport games, what makes you so sure that they will? Because they own the rights to the MLBPA? Well, all I can say is don't be too sure about it, this means that they don't have any competition to put pressure on them to put in a bunch of awe inspiring improvements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelasDaddy0427 Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 I just can't stand the fact that Madden has been a sub standard game for the last three years and rather then improve it they just bought the deal and put the superior game out of business... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeandMirrors Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 I agree that Madden hasn't really had a big improvement in a couple years, but again ESPN hasn't had that many big ones either. We'll just have to see how this will all play out next year I suppose. I honestly hope that EA will put a lot of work into Madden next year to make it appealing to everyone and I hope that Take Two will do the same with their baseball game. In the long run though I've got this feeling that these deals will only hurt the sport genre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodAsGould Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 ill say this for madden i currently own 2003, and playing the game in 2004 is a lot better than it was in 2003. Although i wasnt impressed by the change from 2004 to 2005 i didnt notice much difference there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBlackSox8 Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Video Games are in a way developing Monopolies.... :headshake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 There already was a video game called monopoly. For the Sega master system no less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBlackSox8 Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 QUOTE(winodj @ Jan 26, 2005 -> 03:54 PM) There already was a video game called monopoly. For the Sega master system no less. sega eh......i had one for the original Nintendo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Pinball was awesome for the NES. Bases Loaded too. Way better than the overrated RBI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHarris1 Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Jeckle stfu. Take your crappy games covered up with good logos and graphics and go sit in a corner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkeyKongerko Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 This sucks, the only game with real MLB players in it now will be Take Two's?? And it won't have ESPN in it either. I really think the players associations should not grant exclusive rights to gaming companies because it really hurts competition in sports gaming. New features will develop more slowly now that Take Two will be making the only baseball game that anyone will buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T R U Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 EA games f***in PWN and if you dont agree with me I will fight you.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkeyKongerko Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 QUOTE(Man Of Steel @ Jan 27, 2005 -> 12:35 PM) EA games f***in PWN and if you dont agree with me I will fight you.. ...while the EA games continued to suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T R U Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 27, 2005 -> 12:44 PM) Lol, lets go. HAHAH, Man of Steel, Obviously we disagree, because ESPN OWNS every sports game EXCEPT MVP, which IMO is the greatest sports game out. Football Basketball(pro and NCAA) Hockey Espn is better than anything EA has. dude, you are so wrong.. EA owns.. Baseball (Jury is out, havent played ESPN baseball in a long time) Football College Basketball ESPN owns.. NBA Basketball Hockey ESPN games lose some credit with me because I dont like the way they keep their stats and how they run their extra stuff.. Like on ESPN Hockey (I really did like the game) You could only look at certain stats, and it was basically just goals, assists, points, and +/- I dont like that, on the EA games you can look at way more, and it is presented better.. I also dont like on ESPN NFL how you have to like tap turbo and the players look square ish I liked the whole Chris Berman halftime Idea and Mel Kiper draft, but all they did was show the same things just with a diff players name.. plus the draft and those terrible generated faces, blah.. I really liked ESPN College Hoops and ESPN NBA, both great games.. NBA was better than Live, but I liked March Madness better than I did College Hoops although I still like College Hoops.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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