EA Sports, whose beloved MVP Baseball series went into exile when 2K Sports won an exclusive contract back in 2005, is working on a Major League Baseball-licensed property, according to ESPN’s Jon Robinson. Before you get all giddy, a close reading of contracts leaves the impression this will be another Facebook game.
Robinson points out that the exclusive deal between 2K and MLB covers “simulation, arcade and manager-style games,” on consoles, the PC and handhelds (as a third-party publisher. Sony’s MLB The Show is allowed, as it is made by the console maker itself). It doesn’t say squat about online games playable through a web browser, which is how Sega’s MLB Manager Online, which launched this month, does bidness as a free-to-play online strategy sim (and also Quick Hit Football, licensed by the NFL despite its all-platform exclusive with Madden NFL).
https://kotaku.com/major-league-baseball-management-sim-goes-live-in-march-5714415
EA Sports and Playfish, the Facebook games developer bought by Electronic Arts, brought us Madden NFL Superstars and FIFA Superstars last year, and EA Sports’ On-Demand division delivered PGA Tour Golf Challenge on Facebook earlier this year. There’s tremendous appetite for this within EA Sports, and as baseball is a no-brainer for a card-style management sim, that’s probably what this is.
https://kotaku.com/madden-nfl-superstars-launches-on-facebook-5626677
That said, next year is the last in the deal between 2K and MLB, and the CEO of 2K parent Take-Two Interactive has rather publicly bemoaned the unprofitability of that deal. Major League Baseball itself may find no takers for an exclusive third-party license in an economy much worse than what publishers faced in 2005. I’d say it’s a matter of when, not if, that EA Sports gets back in the batter’s box.
