EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

[22cedric]

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?

[Money99]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

No other baseball game has sold more copies in a year than the last MVP title did.
So I'd say EA would do really well if they got back in the baseball business.
I still hope 2K stays in the game, but I'd be surprised if they did.

[HustlinOwl]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

No other baseball game has sold more copies in a year than the last MVP title did.
So I'd say EA would do really well if they got back in the baseball business.
I still hope 2K stays in the game, but I'd be surprised if they did.

not hard with being on multiple platforms lol

[bkrich83]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

God, MVP was terrible.

I do hope it comes back though, the more competition the better.

[BlueSkies7776]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

God, MVP was terrible.

I do hope it comes back though, the more competition the better.

I wouldn't say it was terrible, but there were things that I did not like about it. Even in 2005 when the game was new (and everyone was praising it) I was having trouble enjoying it. The gameplay was solid for the most part, but the presentation was pretty laughable. I hate how the fielders never plant their feet or double clutch before a routine throw. And I hate how the catcher does not throw the ball back to the pitcher after every pitch (this was later added in the college games MVP 06 and MVP 07).

People loved the MVP series because they were fun, polished games. But when the series ended and I was "pushed" to try out Sony's MLB series, I realized how cartoony and arcadey the MVP series was. MLB 06 The Show, which was the first "The Show" game, was light years ahead of MVP in terms of presentation. And the gameplay wasn't bad at all either, it was pretty much right up there with MVP IMO.

With that said I'd love for MVP to come back because Baseball desperately needs another polished series of video games. Especially for those who do not own a PS3. I'd love to play another Baseball game away from MLB The Show that is worth a damn, just for a breath of fresh air. The closest I got to that was The Bigs in 2009, which was a fun game but obviously an arcade-like game. But if EA does do it, they really need to make the player models look more like real life and less like bobble heads.

[SoAwesome]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

It will come back and dominate.

[22cedric]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

I hope MVP Baseball returns and becomes a simulation baseball game.

[Money99]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

not hard with being on multiple platforms lol

Check out it's totals on JUST the Xbox.
On the Xbox alone it sold nearly 1M copies. On the PS2 even more.

So that argument can't be used. MVP was extremely well received and no other baseball game has come remotely close to matching it's sales totals.

EA's brand recognition certainly helps. I'm positive that if EA made another baseball game it would double the totals that The Show and 2K have combined.

I don't know why, but baseball sales have really tailed off over the past few years.
The Show sold nearly 1M copies in 06 but '11 didn't even sell 500K on the PS3.
I wonder if people are just less interested in baseball today compared to a few years ago.

[bkrich83]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

I hope MVP Baseball returns and becomes a simulation baseball game.

i hope they ditch that terrible hitting mechanic that dates back to Triple Play.

[BlueSkies7776]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

Check out it's totals on JUST the Xbox.
On the Xbox alone it sold nearly 1M copies. On the PS2 even more.

So that argument can't be used. MVP was extremely well received and no other baseball game has come remotely close to matching it's sales totals.

EA's brand recognition certainly helps. I'm positive that if EA made another baseball game it would double the totals that The Show and 2K have combined.

I don't know why, but baseball sales have really tailed off over the past few years.
The Show sold nearly 1M copies in 06 but '11 didn't even sell 500K on the PS3.
I wonder if people are just less interested in baseball today compared to a few years ago.

It could be because 1: A lot more people owned a PS2 in 2006. More PS2 owners means more Baseball fans looking to get their fix. And 2: The Major League Baseball 2k series sucks and it is the only choice for a lot of people right now.

[Money99]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

It could be because 1: A lot more people owned a PS2 in 2006. More PS2 owners means more Baseball fans looking to get their fix. And 2: The Major League Baseball 2k series sucks and it is the only choice for a lot of people right now.

All excellent points. But The Show is a better game than MVP ever was.
Seeing the sales totals for The Show is mind boggling.

I'd like to see the stats comparing to PS2 owners in 2005 compared to PS3 owners today.
I wonder if the percentages are the same in comparison to baseball sales?

[BlueSkies7776]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

All excellent points. But The Show is a better game than MVP ever was.
Seeing the sales totals for The Show is mind boggling.

I'd like to see the stats comparing to PS2 owners in 2005 compared to PS3 owners today.
I wonder if the percentages are the same in comparison to baseball sales?

I'd like to know that too. But like someone mentioned earlier, I'm sure the EA brand helped the MVP sales. EA advertises like nobody's business, so I think people were more aware of the MVP series than they were of Sony's MLB series. Especially when you consider that the MVP was multiplatform. Your average joe back in 2005 would think "EA SPORTS BABY! I wonder what they have going for Baseball???" And they'd pick up MVP without giving Sony's MLB 2006 and MLB 06 The Show a look.

My brother is a perfect example of this. He is as casual as you can be when it comes to gaming. He owned a PS2 pretty much only for sports games and he loves Baseball. When the MVP series ended he had no choice but to pick up MLB 06 The Show and he once told me that once he got into MLB 06 The Show he just could not go back to MVP, he thought The Show was so much better.

Imagine if he knew about Sony's MLB series before hand, he would have been a fan for a lot longer. My point is that he knew full well about the MVP series but was in the dark about the MLB series. Think of all the Xbox 360 owners that don't know about The Show series right now. In fact, a couple of years ago I was at Gamestop and there was a couple of guys in the store looking for a Baseball game. They were dressed in Dodgers jersey's looking in the PS3 section. I asked them if they were there to pick up MLB 10 The Show, and they said no, they had been playing 2K for a few years. I told them they need to check out MLB 10 The Show, it is widely considered to be the better Baseball game series.

After talking for a few minutes they decided to buy MLB 10 The Show. I'm not saying I pushed them to buy The Show, I mean it was still their choice and up to them to decide which game to buy. All I hope is that they were blown away by the game, and they probably didn't even realize it was there. My point again is that people might not even realize how good The Show is, if they even know it exists at all.

BTW, I've been playing the demo of MLB 2k12 and it actually doesn't seem that bad. I might buy it if the demo keeps impressing me. But it's not the first time I have played the series. I think I'm just desperate for something new but I still love my MLB 12 The Show and I can't wait for those patches to come out!

[daflyboys]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

God, MVP was terrible.

I do hope it comes back though, the more competition the better.

It's a great game modded. But do we really need 3 threads about the same thing started by the same guy?

[jeffy777]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

I'd love to see it come back, but I doubt it ever will.....

[sydrogerdavid]

Re: EA Sports: MVP Baseball to Return?

I think they might want to wait until the next generation comes around. I don't feel as though MVP will be so great on these consoles because they will be forced to start from scratch, five years too late.