Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

[Steve_OS]

Owen Good has chimed in with his weekend article at Kotaku. This one titled, Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10.

"Scapegoated by its ownership and sandbagged by both declining sales and declining reviews, MLB 2K is a seriously troubled franchise. Flawed though it is, the title's biggest problems going into 2010 are not entirely of its own making.

Let's recap. In a conference call with investors and analysts last week, Take-Two Interactive said its quarterly and fiscal year figures would be worse than expected, and called out just one current property in explaining why: Major League Baseball. (The delay of an upcoming Max Payne sequel also was cited.) 2K Sports' MLB titles also took the fall for a fourth quarter earnings decrease of 9 cents per share.

That this could happen to a publisher holding the exclusive MLB license for everything other than Sony's platforms raised a lot of schadenfreude in a community disappointed - at best - by what MLB 2K9 showed this year. Savaged in reviews, MLB 2K9 declined in sales as poor word of mouth spread while Sony's MLB The Show became the sport's standard bearer - on a single console - with a superbly received offering."

[mkharsh33]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

thanks for sharing this...i read the article in its entirety. looks like financial woes for 2k baseball. i suppose we can hold out hope that, once this exclusive contract ends in 2012, EA Sports will get back into baseball which is their strongest sports title. but i have little hope for 2k10 and this article doesn't provide much promise as it looks like they are losing money hand over fist...

[kennyacid]

sony baseball game is so successful because they build on top of what they did the year before. They dont constantly re build from the ground up throwing in extra stuff that doesnt need to be there without fixing the problems from the last game. Like i always say, just because you wrap a tart in chocolate, it doesnt make it a snickers bar..its still crap and thats what VC has been doing with this game; introduce a new feature to cover up all the problems they didnt fix.

Now dont get me wrong the show has its fair share of problems but at lease the developers work hard on trying to fix them while introducing a couple of little things new without going overboard , and not listen to others saying they need to revamp this, or change and add that. They just stay consistent with their product. Hopefully this year 2k baseball will be a good push in the right direction, but then again i said that last year lol

[jusmegamer]

As I have said before, if 2K had not made that ignorant business move of signing a "Somewhat Exclusive" license we would not even be having this discussion. They should have signed a real exclusive just like Madden did with NFL and College Football. If your gonna do it, do it big, 2K fails to understand this simple concept.

[Bahnzo]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

Here's the jist of the article- 2K Sports is losing money on baseball because they signed a bad deal, not because they make a bad game.

Horse-bleep! Make a good game and people will buy it.

As I have said before, if 2K had not made that ignorant business move of signing a "Somewhat Exclusive" license we would not even be having this discussion. They should have signed a real exclusive just like Madden did with NFL and College Football. If your gonna do it, do it big, 2K fails to understand this simple concept.

Wasn't that not an option for them? And for that matter, doesn't this just go to show how bad an exclusive deal is for sports? I can't imagine how angry I would be if 2K's garbage baseball game was the only option I had for the sport. And MLB should be unhappy about it as well. While they still get paid, a terrible representation of your sport certainly doesn't help build new fans...something MLB needs more than ever.

[baa7]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

2K blaming their games' sales is akin to an stumbling drunk who blames the room for spinning around to fast. Hey 2K: try investing some MONEY into marketing and hiring programming talent.

Put out a quality game and advertise it properly and they'll see sales jump up. This is not rocket science.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

2K blaming their games' sales is akin to an stumbling drunk who blames the room for spinning around to fast. Hey 2K: try investing some MONEY into marketing and hiring programming talent.

Put out a quality game and advertise it properly and they'll see sales jump up. This is not rocket science.

You might try reading the article. The problem is that baseball games don't sell like other sports games, so even marketing them has a limited effect. It's not like The Show is exactly a mega seller itself.

2K made a mistake by investing too much money in their deal with MLB, for a sport that just doesn't translate nearly as well to videogames as football, basketball, or even hockey.

The fact is, The Show and MLB 2K9 sold about the same. So the increase cost to 2K means that they need to cut corners to make money. This doesn't bode well for 2K10 or 2K11. There isn't that much market up for grabs.

[baa7]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

So the increase cost to 2K means that they need to cut corners to make money.

Right, like a stumbling drunk blaming the spinning room.

So you think cutting costs and therefore reducing the quality of the game, isn't the problem? And that not marketing their products properly isn't a big part of the issue as well?

[baa7]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

2K made a mistake by investing too much money in their deal with MLB, for a sport that just doesn't translate nearly as well to videogames as football, basketball, or even hockey.

That's a BS excuse, sorry. I would guess the MLB license was a fraction of what EA paid for the NFL license. The problem is 2K thinks too small. Every game they release reeks "cheap." Combine that approach to game development with their equally skinflint marketing mindset and you have a recipe for failure. 2K blaming the cost of the MLB licence is a complete copout.

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

This is the bed Take-2 made for themselves, when they chose to buy 2K Sports from SEGA. SEGA was so successful with 2k Sports because they threw their resources behind the developer & allowed the product to speak for itself.

Take-2 has done no such thing. What they did was try to MILK 2k Sports for their reputation as a very good development house, by short changing the developer, which in turn short changes the ability of 2K to market their product, which in turn causes games to hit market in not so great condition (Bugs, Glitches ETC, ETC, ETC...)

The only hope we have is Take-2 selling off 2k Sports to another publisher, who in turn gives 2k Sports the financial backing they would need to get back to creating some great sports titles

[myghty]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

Hey 2K: try investing some MONEY into marketing and hiring programming talent.

Put out a quality game and advertise it properly and they'll see sales jump up. This is not rocket science.

^This.

They need competent programmers, period. They are the ones causing the loss of money by releasing such an unfinished game these past years.

[GlennN]

I haven't loved a video baseball game since the High Heat series on PC. I bought MLB 09 for the PSP and have not been real impressed. I did not bother buying any baseball game for my Xbox 360 (since 2k9 was the only choice). Exclusivity only works if you can make a decent product. I opted for just not buying a game at all. As noted above, a not-quite-exclusive license was probably not worth the investment for 2k.

[jkra0512]

Also, I think the features they put into their other MLB titles BIGs and Front Office Manager could be put into the "flagship" title. Especially FOM's features, because the offseason is so boring in the MLB series I think they could add some of FOM's features and kill two birds with one stone.

One, by adding new features they will stir some excitement, especially since most of us play this game for the franchise features.

Two, it wouldn't cost them very much to put something already made into the game and make some money off a game that failed. Sure they would have to spruce it up and maybe add something to it but, they would be getting indirect returns off their former investment.



Ultimately, like many others have said before me, they made their own bed and now they have to lay in it, which is really too bad for all parties involved, MLB (bad representation of their game), developer, and the consumer. Though I don't think MLB cares too much as long as long as that money keeps their wallets fat.

[Pared]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

This is the bed Take-2 made for themselves, when they chose to buy 2K Sports from SEGA. SEGA was so successful with 2k Sports because they threw their resources behind the developer & allowed the product to speak for itself.

Take-2 has done no such thing. What they did was try to MILK 2k Sports for their reputation as a very good development house, by short changing the developer, which in turn short changes the ability of 2K to market their product, which in turn causes games to hit market in not so great condition (Bugs, Glitches ETC, ETC, ETC...)

The only hope we have is Take-2 selling off 2k Sports to another publisher, who in turn gives 2k Sports the financial backing they would need to get back to creating some great sports titles

An intelligent, concise and correct post in a sea of assumptions and false guesses.

Great job!

[Artman22]

Re: Not the Bottom of the Ninth, But a Big At-Bat Coming For MLB 2K10

You might try reading the article. The problem is that baseball games don't sell like other sports games, so even marketing them has a limited effect. It's not like The Show is exactly a mega seller itself.

2K made a mistake by investing too much money in their deal with MLB, for a sport that just doesn't translate nearly as well to videogames as football, basketball, or even hockey.

The fact is, The Show and MLB 2K9 sold about the same. So the increase cost to 2K means that they need to cut corners to make money. This doesn't bode well for 2K10 or 2K11. There isn't that much market up for grabs.

This completely false. MLB the show 09 has sold over a million copies. MLB 2k7 sold 800k. If a game is good. It will sell. The only reason why Sony isn't selling more is because not a lot of people have ps3. As the numbers keep going up on ps3 sales. You will see that MLB the show will sell like crazy. It's all about having a quality game.