Take-Two Cements MLB Rights

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Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 1, 2005 @08:31AM from the cement-in-the-shoes-no-doubt dept.

GamesIndustry.biz has a story on Take-Two interactive and their efforts to tighten up agreements with Major League Baseball. From the article: "As with the MLBPA deal, the new arrangement gives Take Two exclusive rights among third party publishers only..but a loophole identified by many analysts has been sealed up, with third party publishers prohibited from developing and releasing titles in partnership with the platform holders."

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Take Two Wins; Consumer is ultimate loser by Skuggamara · 2005-02-01 08:33 · Score: 3, Insightful

While it's a shame to see these exclusive (or semi-exclusive as the article points out) deals being made, it is nice to see Electronic Arts getting a bit of it's own medicine.

These exclusive deals are bad for the games industry and bad for the consumer as they stifle innovation and competition from smaller, more creative game developers.
Re:Good Thing by obsid1an · 2005-02-01 09:25 · Score: 2, Insightful

So let me get this right. EA does it, it is bad. Take Two does it, it is good because it stops EA. You understand there are more than two publishers out there right? Oh well, typical Slashdot hypocrisy.
Re:Who... by ivan256 · 2005-02-01 09:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

But baseball cards, if kept in mint condition, can at least be worth something in the future. Think of buying baseball cards each year as making a minimal-risk investment each year.

Hah!

First of all, most baseball cards are *worthless* in the future. Buying to find the potentially valuable ones is essentially gambling.

Secondly, most of the people who buy baseball cards don't keep them in mint condition. I'm sure many do, but most end up in a shoe box that gets thrown out by said purchaser's mom when they grow up and move out.

People buy these things because they are fans, and because they are fans to the level of obsession.
Re:Who... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-01 09:43 · Score: 2, Insightful

You buy one in the spring to play out the season. Then you buy one in the fall to play out the pennant chase and the World Series.

There is usually a good turn over in rosters just prior to September as teams make trades for the stretch run, and there are also players who get injured or come out of nowhere.

There will be a purchasing audience at that point who would like to see the rosters in the game match the rosters in real life and the performance of the players match what's been going on that year.
Are we going to boycott Take-Two now? by hchaput · 2005-02-01 11:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

So, where is all the outrage against Take-Two? Where are the calls for boycotts, the anger at anti-competitive business practice, the hatred for companies that buy up other companies, and put other teams out of business?
Nowhere.
This is proof positive that people hate EA not because of what they do, but because they just repeat what they are told. EA gets the blame for everything the game industry does, and all the other companies get a free ride. Honestly, how can you give a crap about exclusive licences or buying up companies or labor practices and let everybody else get away with it? How can you care about these issues when you cheer a company for doing today what you just flamed another company for doing last month? You can't. Nobody cares about these things. Everybody just cares about beating up today's bad guy.