Bad News for Console Sports Gamers?

[Eaglesfan27]

Sega has exited the sports video game market. Here is the link:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/24/news_6117016.html


Here is the story for those who don't want to click:

Sega officially out of the sports game

http://www.gamespot.com/b.gif
The Japanese publisher confirms it has sold off Visual Concepts and its Kush subsidiary for a bargain price of $24 million.

When Sega entered into an agreement with Take-Two Interactive to co-publish its line of ESPN sports games last year, many industry watchers suspected that the publisher was planning to sell off its internal sports-studio, Visual Concepts. Those suspicions were confirmed just before Christmas, when it was revealed (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/23/news_6115592.html) that part of the co-distribution deal allowed for Take-Two to buy Visual Concepts, should it choose to do so.

Today, it appears that the publisher has chosen just to do just that. Following this morning's announcement that Take-Two had secured exclusive third-party publishing rights from the Major League Baseball Players Association, Sega confirmed to GameSpot that it is selling Visual Concepts to Take-Two.

According to sources, Sega parted with the critically esteemed developer of ESPN NFL 2K5 and ESPN NBA 2K5 for just $24 million. That very low sounding-price is likely due to Electronic Arts' impending monopoly (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/13/news_6114977.html) of NFL game rights and its 15-year exclusivity deal (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/17/news_6116473.html) with ESPN, whose high-profile brand name will no longer give Visual Concepts' games instant recognition.

Though the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, Take-Two will become the sole owner of Visual Concepts. It will also own VC's Kush Games subsidiary, which developed ESPN NHL: 2K5 and ESPN Major League Baseball 2K5. Presumably, the studio will also create Take-Two's upcoming pro baseball game.

GameSpot will have more information on this story as it becomes available.

By Tor Thorsen (http://www.gamespot.com/user/profile.html?user=thorsen-ink) -- GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/)
POSTED: 01/24/05 05:04 PM PST

[Flasch186]

ouch

[SackAttack]

Nothing really changes but the sign on the door. This was part of the distribution agreement, as the article states. Visual Concepts will still be developing the sports games. They'll just be Take-Two properties instead of Sega properties.

Given that a couple of Take-Two's properties bring in more money by themselves than Sega's collective take is in a year, this might actually be a good thing for the VC games, since there will be more resources available for promotion and R&D.

[Eaglesfan27]

There was an article on the same site saying that Take Two did secure an exclusive MLBPA license today that is 3rd party exclusive and should prevent EA from publishing MVP in 2006 with real players.

[Calis]

Yeah, this was expected, the deal with Take Two was supposed to be a trial run before actual purchase.

Still kinda stinks to know the Sega name won't be on there anymore though, good times.

But yeah, it's like SackAttack said..this isn't bad news for sports gamers, and could end up being good.

[Eaglesfan27]

Nothing really changes but the sign on the door. This was part of the distribution agreement, as the article states. Visual Concepts will still be developing the sports games. They'll just be Take-Two properties instead of Sega properties.

Given that a couple of Take-Two's properties bring in more money by themselves than Sega's collective take is in a year, this might actually be a good thing for the VC games, since there will be more resources available for promotion and R&D.
Ahh, cool. I had no idea that Take-Two made more money than Sega and just assumed that Sega had many more resources.

[SackAttack]

Of course, my glee at this announcement is predicated upon the fact that Take-Two sends us stuff, and Sega never did. Hooray for review copies of Visual Concepts games! :D

[SackAttack]

Ahh, cool. I had no idea that Take-Two made more money than Sega and just assumed that Sega had many more resources.

That hasn't been true since the mid '90s or so. Sega squandered what they had on the abortive 32X experiment and the Saturn, which left them in fairly dire straits by the time Dreamcast rolled around.

Do you remember back in the Genesis days, all the "Sega Scream" ads? Have you noticed that since those days, there hasn't really been much advertising of Sega properties on TV unless another party (such as ESPN or Take-Two) is involved? That's symptomatic of the problems they've had in recent years.

Plus, they got bought out by Sammy last year. Sammy has more resources, absolutely, but they're more focused on arcade titles and pachinko machines, and apparently they're determined that Sega's focus on consoles will be reduced in order to bolster Sammy's arcade properties.

So, y'know, even with Sammy's increased resources, Sega doesn't, practically speaking, see much of that. They break even these days, though, which is more than they were able to say from '96-'02 or so.

[General Mike]

Ahh, cool. I had no idea that Take-Two made more money than Sega and just assumed that Sega had many more resources.

Yeah, Rockstar Games is a Take-Two company, so between GTA and Midnight Club those are 2 pretty good franchises along with anything else they have the rights to.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, what Mike said.

Grand Theft Auto
Midnight Club
Max Payne
Conflict: Desert Storm/Vietnam/etc
Manhunt (which sold far more than it should have)

They've got a few other franchises, but those're the money-makers, right there. Particularly the top three.

[Anthony]

the next announcement from Sega is that they're going to leave the video game industry altogether. the writing is on the wall. slow death from here on out.

[sabotai]

Hmm. EA's grab at licenses might have actually helped VC and Take-Two in a way. SEGA sells for "dirt cheap" because of it and Take-Two has that much more money to sink into the developement of VC games.

[SackAttack]

Hmm. EA's grab at licenses might have actually helped VC and Take-Two in a way. SEGA sells for "dirt cheap" because of it and Take-Two has that much more money to sink into the developement of VC games.

Nah. The publishing arrangment between Take-Two and Sega included a trigger clause that allowed Take-Two to exercise an option to buy Visual Concepts, and I'm pretty sure the $24 million price was also contractually specified.

IOW, this is less "Sega selling" and more "Take-Two buying."

[PineTar]

So does this leave Football Manager / EHM as the only sports titles that are still published by Sega?