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MLB 2K13 News Post


In a shocking development, baseball is coming to the Xbox 360 in 2013 after all. 2K Sports has just announced MLB 2K13 will arrive on March 5th, 2013 for 360 and PS3. Kotaku's Owen Good picked up on the story earlier this morning. Check out the official press release below.

Official Press Release

2K Sports Announces Major League Baseball 2K13 and Return of the Perfect Game Challenge

Cy Young Award Winner and Tampa Bay Rays` ace David Price named cover athlete

2K Sports today announced that the Company has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and Major League Baseball Advanced Media to release Major League Baseball 2K13, the next iteration of the popular MLB 2K franchise. MLB 2K13 will be available on March 5, 2013,for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation3 computer entertainment system.

"We`d like to thank our league partners for their support in helping us reach an agreement to bring back MLB 2K," said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. "We know fans are extremely passionate about the MLB 2K series and the Perfect Game Challenge."

David Price, ace pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, has been selected as the cover athlete for MLB 2K13. Price was recently named the American League Cy Young Award winner after posting a 20-5 record and league-best 2.56 ERA. Price edged out MLB 2K12 cover athlete Justin Verlander for the honors, and is the third consecutive reigning Cy Young Award winner to grace the cover of an MLB 2K game.

"It`s a dream come true to appear on the cover of MLB 2K13," concluded Price, who helped lead the Rays to their fourth 90-win season in the last five years. "I`m looking forward to working with the 2K Sports team again, and welcoming another skilled gamer into `The Perfect Club.`"

The Perfect Game Challenge*, 2K Sports` groundbreaking $1 million competition, will also be returning for a fourth consecutive year and introduce a new contest format with exciting ways to win. Since 2010, 2K Sports has awarded $3 million in prize money to players exhibiting the highest caliber of skill in throwing a perfect game in MLB 2K. Last year`s Perfect Game Challenge achieved record participation numbers, with nearly 1 million attempts made and more than 1,000 perfect games registered. The contest was won by 21-year-old Christopher Gilmore, who prevailed in an eight-person tournament at the MLB FanCave in New York City. Complete details of this year`s contest will be announced at a later date.

Developed by Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio, MLB2K13 is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available on March 5, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system.

For more information on 2K Sports, visit www.2KSports.com.

For more information on MLB 2K13, visit http://www.facebook.com/MLB2K.

Source - There Will Be Baseball on the Xbox 360; Major League Baseball 2K13 Returns (Kotaku)

Major League Baseball 2K13 screenshot gallery - Click to view
Game: Major League Baseball 2K13Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
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Major League Baseball 2K13 Videos
Member Comments
# 161 Cardot @ 01/28/13 02:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Money99
I've heard so many people rave about 2K7, but never played it myself.
I was wondering what that game did right? What made that game so great?
It looked great. I enjoyed it, but it was too long ago for me to rememeber much else. I think it also had rain delays. It did some things right.

But a big drawback was that hitting was very random. A developer for a 2K8 even admitted as much.
 
# 162 Behindshadows @ 01/28/13 03:05 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Money99
I've heard so many people rave about 2K7, but never played it myself.
I was wondering what that game did right? What made that game so great?
People rave about 2k7's visuals...and wondering why the games graphics too such a large decline after Kush left...and why they didn't keep the same graphics processors and tools, instead of going for the cartoon look it has today....

No one can tell us different.....we never said the gameplay was perfect, as they've improved on that aspect every year since......But look at the screenshots attached and tell me why did we not improve from this point.
 
# 163 MVP9072 @ 01/28/13 04:47 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Behindshadows
People rave about 2k7's visuals...and wondering why the games graphics too such a large decline after Kush left...and why they didn't keep the same graphics processors and tools, instead of going for the cartoon look it has today....

No one can tell us different.....we never said the gameplay was perfect, as they've improved on that aspect every year since......But look at the screenshots attached and tell me why did we not improve from this point.
wow i looked up some 2k7 vids and those were great graphics if only 2k12 had those
 
# 164 SoxFan01605 @ 01/28/13 05:21 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonadom
They can't "go back" to MLB 2K7. MLB 2K7 was developed by Kush Games and when they left - unfortunately - MLB 2K7 left with 'em ( this is also a reply to the post above wondering why the graphics declined ). Things changed after MLB 2K7 because I'm guessing 2K and Kush had a disagreement.
lol...someone clamoring for Kush to return. That's a first!

Actually, Kush didn't "leave" they were closed. Kush (which was actually renamed to "2KLA" before it closed) was owned by Take Two when it developed these baseball games. And people have a skewed memory of this series it seems. Kush did more to put this series in the mess it got in than VC when they took back over.

Kush was sloppy and had no focus which is part of why the series had to be rebooted by VC in 2K9 and 2K10 to begin with (To be fair, Brinkman leaving was a big part of it too, though he was part of the messy transition from 2K7 to 2K8). They had all these issues while the license was still a priority for 2K to boot.

The reason 2K8 (still developed by your beloved Kush, which wasn't closed until they had already begun work on 2K9) looked like crap is because they didn't build a solid foundation with 2K7. They built from the outside-in and made it a great looking, well-presented, choppy, and simple game. When they went in to address issues with game play and frame rate, they realized they couldn't get it running properly with 2K7's visuals and had to scale back...way back. They were too ambitious with the visuals in 2K7 (admitted by them, I believe) and 2K8 in all it's ugliness was born...lol.
 
# 165 Behindshadows @ 01/28/13 06:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoxFan01605
lol...someone clamoring for Kush to return. That's a first!

Actually, Kush didn't "leave" they were closed. Kush (which was actually renamed to "2KLA" before it closed) was owned by Take Two when it developed these baseball games. And people have a skewed memory of this series it seems. Kush did more to put this series in the mess it got in than VC when they took back over.

Kush was sloppy and had no focus which is part of why the series had to be rebooted by VC in 2K9 and 2K10 to begin with (To be fair, Brinkman leaving was a big part of it too, though he was part of the messy transition from 2K7 to 2K8). They had all these issues while the license was still a priority for 2K to boot.

The reason 2K8 (still developed by your beloved Kush, which wasn't closed until they had already begun work on 2K9) looked like crap is because they didn't build a solid foundation with 2K7. They built from the outside-in and made it a great looking, well-presented, choppy, and simple game. When they went in to address issues with game play and frame rate, they realized they couldn't get it running properly with 2K7's visuals and had to scale back...way back. They were too ambitious with the visuals in 2K7 (admitted by them, I believe) and 2K8 in all it's ugliness was born...lol.
Actually 2k8 was made by someone named Blue Castle...Kush was gone after 2k7....And yeah I can agree and disagree with the way it played, because they tried the analog stuff with 2k7 and it wasn't good...I switched back to classic and it was fine. I do know you had more control on the outfield in 2k7 and the cutscenes didn't stick like they do in the later games. 2k7 had it's issues.

But other titles of BB Games I won't mention here have proved you can get graphics and gameplay.

No reason after 5 years they couldn't get back to 2k7 level of visuals and have current control systems. Also Kush got the color palettes right! Why is it no matter what game VC puts it's hands on, Red becomes Pink...and so forth...Navy Blue is grey, etc?

We just want the best for this series, and one reason competition is considered so much better is because of the lack of the visual attraction. Gameplay is good, Presentation is Perfect / Flawless, and gameplay modes are plenty....Even the PC version's online was great.....

But visually it's a ugly bitch with a nice personality.....lol

We need that portion to be fixed.
 
# 166 SoxFan01605 @ 01/28/13 07:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Behindshadows
Actually 2k8 was made by someone named Blue Castle...Kush was gone after 2k7....And yeah I can agree and disagree with the way it played, because they tried the analog stuff with 2k7 and it wasn't good...I switched back to classic and it was fine. I do know you had more control on the outfield in 2k7 and the cutscenes didn't stick like they do in the later games. 2k7 had it's issues.

But other titles of BB Games I won't mention here have proved you can get graphics and gameplay.

No reason after 5 years they couldn't get back to 2k7 level of visuals and have current control systems. Also Kush got the color palettes right! Why is it no matter what game VC puts it's hands on, Red becomes Pink...and so forth...Navy Blue is grey, etc?

We just want the best for this series, and one reason competition is considered so much better is because of the lack of the visual attraction. Gameplay is good, Presentation is Perfect / Flawless, and gameplay modes are plenty....Even the PC version's online was great.....

But visually it's a ugly bitch with a nice personality.....lol

We need that portion to be fixed.
No, 2K8 was still made by Kush. They just changed their name to 2KLA. As I recall, Blue Castle came in to help finish it, but the game was still primarily developed by Kush/2KLA.

And I agree 100% about the visuals, especially the color palette. VC is terrible in this regard on this series AND NBA2K (though, to be clear, the colors were bad in 2K8 as well, where the Red Sox "red" was actually maroon). Graphics should be much better at this point. You can punch them up a lot on PC, but it still has that overall "cartoony" feel in a lot of ways (except for the stadiums. I think some of them are fantastic).

I also 100% agree that you can have both graphics and game play and am certainly not saying that they couldn't have gotten back to 2K7 levels of player graphics. My point was that 2K7, as good as it looked and as much as I liked it, would not have made a good base, as it was, from all indications, poorly designed at its core.

Really, the issue comes down to poor planning and poor design. As I said, they essentially built the game backwards. Plus, by the time VC took over and landed on a direction, it was pretty much too late. That said, I think, aside from visuals, VC has helped the franchise a lot in terms of focus and quality. The series was a joke a few years ago. It's at least viable now. Hopefully they come back stronger next gen, as I do like some of what the 2K series does.

Ugly bitch with a nice personality sums it up pretty well though...lol. I agree that they need to fix that. I just don't see it happening this gen (if at all).
 
# 167 SoxFan01605 @ 01/28/13 09:20 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonadom
My beloved Kush ? All I'm saying is they put more effort into MLB 2K than VC does. If that makes me a target on this forum, then fire away. I really don't care. It's what I think.
lol... I did not make you a personal target nor do I represent this or any forum, so you should be free from targeting there as well.

The "beloved Kush" comment was light-hearted as you had the timeline of their involvement wrong and it's simply rare to find anyone who has followed this series actually praising Kush's job with it. So, if you took that wrong, I apologize. I wasn't arguing your opinion about effort (which you never mentioned in the post I quoted anyway). You implied the graphics went down hill when Kush "left." I simply responded to your incorrect information about that and explained the nature of VC taking over development.

Now, as for "effort" I think it's impossible to quantify in this case. Kush had the game when it was a priority and before nearly every 2K Sports franchise started dropping due to finances. VC was given a partially-started game to reboot and has had their budget and focus reduced each year. Hell, 2K9 didn't even have a dedicated team for it at first. That's not to say that VC has done everything right. Far from it. It's only to point out the circumstances are far different. That's really not an issue of developer effort, that's a broader issue of corporate priority.

I don't think anyone is saying that the MLB 2K series has been everything it could, or even should be. Ultimately though, my opinion on the two developer's respective contributions aside, it's not even an issue of VC vs Kush. If you look at when the promise of the series started to fade, it's not in-line with a developer switch, it's in-line with 2K making cuts across the board. Nothing either Kush or VC could really do about that. 2K put itself in this position regardless of who actually worked on the game by a knee-jerk overpay for the license and not having a clear plan on how to transition the franchise to this generation.
 
# 168 pistolpete @ 01/28/13 10:35 PM
It's taken me two years but I absolutely love 2k11 on the 360 now.
 
# 169 MSNemitz @ 01/29/13 03:42 PM
Im sorry if this was already asked, Im at work and couldnt read through all the pages. Will MLB 2k13 have an online Franchise like NBA2k13's Online Assosication ???
 
# 170 tvman @ 01/29/13 03:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSNemitz
Im sorry if this was already asked, Im at work and couldnt read through all the pages. Will MLB 2k13 have an online Franchise like NBA2k13's Online Assosication ???
So far nothing new has been announced.
 
# 171 CMH @ 01/29/13 04:42 PM
David Price is a nice pick.

I've always liked this series but cannot stand the difference between contact and power swings. I wish contact could still generate a realistic amount of home runs while power was a Matt Stairs-like approach.

For whatever reason, this series does not think that way and I refuse to play a baseball game that approaches hitting in such a poor way.
 
# 172 Money99 @ 01/29/13 04:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CMH
David Price is a nice pick.

I've always liked this series but cannot stand the difference between contact and power swings. I wish contact could still generate a realistic amount of home runs while power was a Matt Stairs-like approach.

For whatever reason, this series does not think that way and I refuse to play a baseball game that approaches hitting in such a poor way.
I agree. That's why I went with classic hitting and bumped up power a bit.
But it's still not perfect and could use some work.
 
# 173 rudyjuly2 @ 01/29/13 07:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CMH
I've always liked this series but cannot stand the difference between contact and power swings. I wish contact could still generate a realistic amount of home runs while power was a Matt Stairs-like approach.

For whatever reason, this series does not think that way and I refuse to play a baseball game that approaches hitting in such a poor way.
I think the only way to fix this ourselves would be if they offered batting sliders for each hit type. That way we could juice the contact swing more and also tone down the contact success. Right now the huge gap ends up resulting in too much of an all or nothing arcade result.
 
# 174 BustinLoose @ 02/11/13 10:44 AM
Sucks it's only available on the consoles. Why did they abandon the PC version? You can mod the PC version, which has the advantage over the consoles in graphics as well. Bad move to drop the PC version, but it's all about the money.
 
# 175 Riotboy @ 02/13/13 11:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by destructocid
There was basically a huge leap from 2k6 to 2k7. It was by no means a perfect game, but it was absolutely on the right track. It felt like baseball, it looked like baseball. It was the first MLB game that felt "next gen" and unfortunately that leap forward was followed by a step back in 2k8. The graphics weren't as good, the lighting, just didn't look as crisp and likewise there were frame rate issues and it just felt like an unfinished game. Like they literally forgot/or didn't have time to apply the finishing touches. Then I think Ben brinkmen left and immediately in 2k9 player models suffered and I don't know, it just changed drastically. It was as dramatic a change as this, I went from thinking that 2k7 was the best MLB game to date, to spending one month with 2k8 before getting a ps3 and the show. And I'm not a show "fanboy" I'm a MLB fanboy and you better believe I want nothing more as far as gaming goes, then two have two great, competing MLB games to choose from, from year to year. So I would love for 2k to turn this thing around, and I think they will. It's just going to take some time.


"than to have" damn spellcheck
THIS.

MLB 2K13 graphics look PS2-ish, I'll pass on baseball again this year. Needing a gimmick to sell a game instead of making a better game is not the way to go. I wish The Show was for Xbox those graphics/gameplay look GREAT. I miss the 2K7 days.
 
# 176 Money99 @ 02/13/13 01:15 PM
Which 2K game has the flapping jersey's? I couldn't play more than a couple of innings because of the distraction, haha.
 
# 177 thaSLAB @ 02/13/13 01:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Money99
Which 2K game has the flapping jersey's? I couldn't play more than a couple of innings because of the distraction, haha.
That was 2K7


-- Sent from the Future...
 
# 178 mjb6971 @ 02/13/13 03:35 PM
Friend came over with PS3 and tried out the show ! are you Bleeping kidding me LOL this game is horrible .... mlb2k12 with bugs blows this game out of the water , if your a die heart baseball fan this game will be a joke for you that's for sure
 
# 179 CMH @ 02/13/13 03:40 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjb6971
Friend came over with PS3 and tried out the show ! are you Bleeping kidding me LOL this game is horrible .... mlb2k12 with bugs blows this game out of the water , if your a die heart baseball fan this game will be a joke for you that's for sure
Unfortunately, because I can't understand a word you're saying here, I can't tell if you're trolling or simply trolling.
 
# 180 Knight165 @ 02/13/13 04:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjb6971
Friend came over with PS3 and tried out the show ! are you Bleeping kidding me LOL this game is horrible .... mlb2k12 with bugs blows this game out of the water , if your a die heart baseball fan this game will be a joke for you that's for sure
Just in case you care...

Die HARD....just like the book.

M.K.
Knight165
 


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