EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?
EA Sports has been a leader in football and soccer, but when it comes to our national passtime, the publisher simply hasn't had an opportunity in the market in several years thanks to MLB's exclusive third-party agreement with Take-Two's 2K Sports. That agreement is coming to an end in 2012, and since the MLB2K games have been underperforming, odds are 2K Sports won't seek a renewal. This, of course, opens the door for EA Sports and its once popular MVP Baseball franchise to return to the virtual diamond.
Speaking to IndustryGamers (as the head of EA Sports before being promoted to EA COO), Peter Moore informed us that the "majority" of the team that worked on the MVP Baseball series are still employed at EA Sports. "There’s enough people at Sports who would say 'I’m in.' And we’ve got enough quality talent that’s been around a long time. You would start from scratch because this would be something where you’d have to build the engine again because it’s been a few years," he said.
Moore added, "But the business has to be right for it. We like where we’re at right now in building the relationship, kind of interestingly, from the lowest common denominator, which is Facebook, and we’ll see where we go from there."
Moore's referring to EA Sports' World Series Superstars on Facebook, which lets you build and train a baseball team. "If you’re a baseball fan, it’s a lot of fun. But, you know, we’ve had a relationship that goes back a long time with MLB, MLBPA, and...we’re dealing with them all again, so we’ll see what happens."
EA Sports will definitely be watching the situation between MLB and 2K closely. "It hasn’t worked out the way 2K would have liked it from the baseball perspective. I don’t know whether they’re renewing," Moore observed. "We will certainly, as always, keep an eye on it."
Sony's MLB The Show franchise is king of the hill right now, but MVP was highly rated at the time. What do you think? Should EA Sports pursue MVP again?
EA Sports has been a leader in football and soccer, but when it comes to our national passtime, the publisher simply hasn't had an opportunity in the market in several years thanks to MLB's exclusive third-party agreement with Take-Two's 2K Sports. That agreement is coming to an end in 2012, and since the MLB2K games have been underperforming, odds are 2K Sports won't seek a renewal. This, of course, opens the door for EA Sports and its once popular MVP Baseball franchise to return to the virtual diamond.
Speaking to IndustryGamers (as the head of EA Sports before being promoted to EA COO), Peter Moore informed us that the "majority" of the team that worked on the MVP Baseball series are still employed at EA Sports. "There’s enough people at Sports who would say 'I’m in.' And we’ve got enough quality talent that’s been around a long time. You would start from scratch because this would be something where you’d have to build the engine again because it’s been a few years," he said.
Moore added, "But the business has to be right for it. We like where we’re at right now in building the relationship, kind of interestingly, from the lowest common denominator, which is Facebook, and we’ll see where we go from there."
Moore's referring to EA Sports' World Series Superstars on Facebook, which lets you build and train a baseball team. "If you’re a baseball fan, it’s a lot of fun. But, you know, we’ve had a relationship that goes back a long time with MLB, MLBPA, and...we’re dealing with them all again, so we’ll see what happens."
EA Sports will definitely be watching the situation between MLB and 2K closely. "It hasn’t worked out the way 2K would have liked it from the baseball perspective. I don’t know whether they’re renewing," Moore observed. "We will certainly, as always, keep an eye on it."
Sony's MLB The Show franchise is king of the hill right now, but MVP was highly rated at the time. What do you think? Should EA Sports pursue MVP again?
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