Though I wish I could say I was smart enough to think up this ruse in advance, I really did forget my backpack somewhere inside EA Sportsâ Tiburon studio during a recent visit. This became an opportunity to roam all of its upper four floors of development, though not unescorted.
Madden has its own section, Tiger Woods PGA Tour has its own section, NCAA Football has its own, and so on. âWhich floor is the one where youâre secretly building MVP Baseball?â I asked my contact. He chuckled, but not in a way that suggested anything.
Maybe I should have lost my backpack in British Columbia; before it was closed down by 2K Sportsâ infamous exclusive contract with Major League Baseball in 2005, MVP Baseball was built at EA Canada. But who knows. Itâs not like I was making an unannounced visit, and EA Sports has shown it is capable of keeping things secret even from others who work in the same building
I mean, letâs be real: Even a year is not a lot of time to make a simulation-quality video game. Yes, EA Sports has already done a lot of work that can be useful to a new video game, but since the last MVP Baseball five new stadiums have opened, and rendering them in a game is an immense undertaking, much more complex than in other team sports because of how irregular playing dimensions influence balls in play. (Sonyâs MLB the Show designers say a single stadium requires four months of work). I canât imagine Major League Baseball or 2K Sports allowing any preparatory surveying to happen during an exclusive license between both. 2K Sportsâ exclusive license with MLB is why EA Sportsâ NHL series couldnât feature the Winter Classic until it moved to an NFL stadium, and why the Pinstripe Bowl or the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, which are played in baseball parks, donât appear in NCAA Football.
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All the other stadiums would have to be re-rendered in high definition, too. And while MVP has retained a very loyal coreâparticularly on the PC, where they are known for âtotal conversion modsâ that keep the game freshâyouâre still talking about last-gen animations, interactions and even gameplay mechanics. I think about everything that has to go into building a current-generation simulation baseball title, and the gap between current expectations and MVP 2005âeven if it did win Operation Sportsâ recent greatest-game-ever bracket tournamentâis stark.
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Honestly? Itâs hard to think that EA Sports is in the game.
Weâre almost 10 months from the traditional release of Major League Baseballâs simulation video game, with no news on who will be the licensee for baseball video games on the Xbox 360, which is currently 2K Sports. Its exclusive deal with Major League Baseball was announced in January of 2005, a full year before it kicked in. I have no idea what day 2Kâs deal with Major League Baseball expires. It was never specified in the original announcement, only said to expire in 2012.
Though 2K Sports is definitely behaving like the license owner with its aggressive marketing of MLB 2K12, and a million-dollar contest promotion now in its third year, thatâs to be expected. Longer term, 2K Sports is seen as a mortal lock to not be involved in a future deal. The one Take-Two cut in January 2005 under previous (and scandal-ridden) leadership, at a price some estimated at $200 million at the time, has been a consistent money-loser. Analyst Michael Pachter estimates it as a $30 million thud every year. Any company with the interest and the ballsack to sign a $200 million deal is likely publicly traded, and that makes the precedent of a $30 million loss, even if you can blame it on someone elseâs bad video game, a huge no-go for investors and the board of directors.
Strauss Zelnick, the Take Two honcho and 2K Sports uber-boss who has repeatedly badmouthed the deal, recently said the companyâs approach since his management team took over âis 100 percent-owned intellectual property.â And a look at the sports titles canceled since ZelnickMedia took over Take Two in 2007âNHL 2K, College Hoops 2Kâcertainly bears that out. There is nothing in this companyâs current corporate character that shows team sports titles, and the enormous licensing costs they carry, are a priority. Only NBA 2Kâs consistent excellence (which the Zelnick regime inherited more than it cultivated), and EA Sportsâ two-year absence in that space, keeps Take-Two and 2K Games in the sports discussion.
But EA Sports, similarly, hasnât given any indication itâs the next bridegroom rushing to catch the garter. Every time I have asked, Iâve gotten a poker-faced, noncommittal reply. Conversely, the label was excited to share news that NBA Live was returning, and with good reasonâthereâs actual work being done on that.
If not EA Sports, then who? THQ and Sega (which publishes an online, licensed baseball management simulation) are both hurting. Activision has the cash but it would have to do everything from the ground up, and itâs making too much money off the better bets it has made in Call of Duty and through Blizzard to fool with something it doesnât fully own. Konami would also have to start from scratch, just with less capital and wherewithal. And Ubisoft? If a French company was making a video game for the National Pastime, there would be a congressional inquiry.
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I suppose Take-Two could be letting MLB figure out that it has zero suitors, and then come back, hat-in-hand, on terms more favorable to the publisher. Take-Two certainly has nothing to lose, if itâs been so publicly willing to leave this category. But at this point, itâs looking like the unfounded speculation is that there will be a major league baseball title on the Xbox 360 next year. Sound crazy? Well, thereâs no college basketball video game on the market, either.
STICK JOCKEY
Stick Jockey is Kotakuâs column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays.
