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.

Quote:

"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]

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]

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.

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

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]

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by baa7

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by jayhawker

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?