RIP MLB2K SERIES

[Inuyasha]

I don't think baseball games are system sellers amongst the general population. I think 2K suffered from that. The Show sells 500K but is that enough for the amount of money they put into that game. This year will be the first time I buy THE SHOW since the PS2 days.

[MizzouRah]

I just wish Show users didn't settle for crappy gameplay with stunning visuals. It's beyond hilarious to see how many people just let the CPU do the work for them. Next year, you no longer have to work counts, the game will do that for you to! World Series Baseball rightfully gets dinged here for not letting the User play defense, while Show users use auto defense in mass.

2K baseball floundered and failed for a lot of reasons, but its gameplay was not one of them. The chief reason was playing for a ridiculous exclusive deal to hurt EA, but which let Sony make a game for much less. Then they overreacted to the sorry state 2K8 was released in, which set the franchise back again. But by 2K11, the game was solid, and 2K12 and 2K13 (the same game, essentially) were great. They weren't without issues, but they were fun to play, strategic, and replicated real life attributes and performance incredibly well in a game where you actually controlled the players.

I quit on console baseball games for years because the gameplay was so bad. Even High Heat and MVP 05 failed to deliver realistic pitch counts and battles at the plate. They were trying, but the truth was, to make those games work, you had to accept that walks really weren't part of the game. And controlling base runners was a joke. All I see in the Show is more acceptance of this as the norm because it is so purty.

I bought The Show twice for the ps3 and I just couldn't get into it after playing MLB 2k.. I know we are in the minority.. but The Show is just really boring beyond the stunning visuals.

Oh well.. I can live without console baseball and still have MLB 2k13 if I need a quick fix.

[Danimal]

I don't think baseball games are system sellers amongst the general population. I think 2K suffered from that. The Show sells 500K but is that enough for the amount of money they put into that game. This year will be the first time I buy THE SHOW since the PS2 days.

You don't think?

There not system sellers, mystery solved. 2k sold 430k units last year so its not like The Show killed them in sales. Honestly I don't even know how Sony makes money off of the show when you consider development costs. I guess the PR of having the best game in a genre is enough to east costs. I also don't know why EA keeps NHL around either it does paltry sales as well. If a non-sports game did these kind of numbers there would be no sequels.

Considering the show's sales have gone down they are sure to get some kind of bump this year you would think but even if every 360 2k user bought a playstation your sales are only going up 200k according to the numbers.

[FifaInspected]

Some numbers:

For versions 2007 - 2013 The Show sold 4.07 Million units. It's best year was 2012 with 820,000 units sold.
Over that same span 2k baseball sold 4.53 million copies across both consoles with 1.2 million of those going to the PS3.

[pk500]

There not system sellers, mystery solved. 2k sold 430k units last year so its not like The Show killed them in sales. Honestly I don't even know how Sony makes money off of the show when you consider development costs. I guess the PR of having the best game in a genre is enough to east costs. I also don't know why EA keeps NHL around either it does paltry sales as well. If a non-sports game did these kind of numbers there would be no sequels.

The terms of the licensing deal almost certainly mandate annual sequels, regardless of sales totals. Plus there is a certain cache for a league to have a video game. It's almost a standard part of the sports marketing mix for major leagues, even if the game doesn't sell well.

For example, molten bags of caterpillar sh*t sold more than the two IndyCar Series games produced by Codemasters in 2003 and 2004. And they weren't bad games, especially the second one. But some execs at IndyCar freaked when the deal ended and IndyCar couldn't find another publisher and developer willing to take the risk of building a game that wouldn't sell. After all, the execs bleated: NASCAR had a console game. World of Outlaws had a console game. So IndyCar HAD to have a console game.

People at IndyCar were pissed and couldn't understand why Codemasters had an entire floor devoted to development of the Colin McRae Rally series and had just four or five guys in a pod developing the IndyCar Series games. Well, duh: Sales figures!

It's funny. The World Rally Championship never had a licensing deal with Codemasters, yet the Codies' superb Colin McRae Rally series did more to raise the profile of the WRC in America in the late 90s and early 2000s than anything. It's not a stretch to say SPEED Channel never would have broadcast the WRC for two or three seasons in the U.S. without the CMR games coming to America and gaining some popularity and plenty of critical acclaim on the original PlayStation in the late 90s.

Sorry to be so long-winded.

[Inuyasha]

The best racing game I played in the last 10 years was TOCA 2 on XB.

How come they dropped that series on next gen 360/PS3?

[Danimal]

Some numbers:

For versions 2007 - 2013 The Show sold 4.07 Million units. It's best year was 2012 with 820,000 units sold.
Over that same span 2k baseball sold 4.53 million copies across both consoles with 1.2 million of those going to the PS3.

4 million over a 7 editions, you're basically making my point. Perhaps that is what you were trying to do.

[Danimal]

The terms of the licensing deal almost certainly mandate annual sequels, regardless of sales totals. Plus there is a certain cache for a league to have a video game. It's almost a standard part of the sports marketing mix for major leagues, even if the game doesn't sell well.

Again this is to my point. I have no idea what 2K was paying for their semi exclusive license or what Sony pays but that is just another cost. The league is making money regardless of whether the game sells.

Speaking of which Maddens deal with the NFL expired at the end of 2013 didn't it? I wonder why there is no news on that.

[Phototropic]

I also don't know why EA keeps NHL around either it does paltry sales as well. If a non-sports game did these kind of numbers there would be no sequels.

HUT and microtransactions.

[pk500]

The best racing game I played in the last 10 years was TOCA 2 on XB.

How come they dropped that series on next gen 360/PS3?

It morphed into the GRID series, seen as more accessible and more commercially viable for the Need For Speed crowd.

Codemasters did the same thing with the Colin McRae Rally series. It morphed into DIRT, which is more accessible for the X Games and gymkhana crowd.

[pigpen81]

It is unbelievable how much the industry has grown but how far it has fallen at the same time in the last 15 years.

Games now have to sell a million plus to be determined viable and even that is a low number.

We have gone from a plethora of baseball game choices 11-15 years ago to one.

SAD!

Personally, it is a complete and F'd up joke to see baseball games not evolve well in all this time. Sure the Show is great, but has it evolved?

S**T, ASB had a fielder cam 11 years ago. 11 years later we are still stuck with the same damn fielding cameras. No options or anything.

How about a stadium builder/editor....NOPE

F all these companies and I pray a group decides to make a game via kickstarter someday.

This time of year I always had SO much anticipation for February/March baseball games and it is now going on three years where I could give 2 SH**ts.

[Inuyasha]

It is unbelievable how much the industry has grown but how far it has fallen at the same time in the last 15 years.

Games now have to sell a million plus to be determined viable and even that is a low number.

We have gone from a plethora of baseball game choices 11-15 years ago to one.

SAD!

Personally, it is a complete and F'd up joke to see baseball games not evolve well in all this time. Sure the Show is great, but has it evolved?

S**T, ASB had a fielder cam 11 years ago. 11 years later we are still stuck with the same damn fielding cameras. No options or anything.

How about a stadium builder/editor....NOPE

F all these companies and I pray a group decides to make a game via kickstarter someday.

This time of year I always had SO much anticipation for February/March baseball games and it is now going on three years where I could give 2 SH**ts.

I remember back in those days we use to have arguments on SR and OS with game developers and fans on which one was the best : HH vs 2K vs ASB. I even remember one year the ASB developers made some codes to make fun of the other games.

I hope with next gen we can see some independent baseball games with full editors. Maybe the next gen systems are now powerful enough for the ordinary developer to create quality looking/playing titles without being bogged down in corporate indecision.

[Brando70]

The cost-to-sales ratio for sports games is just so prohibitive. It's one thing when you have a game like The Show that's an established franchise and is already a good game. It doesn't have to be rebuilt every year. But the effort to create a new game from scratch is just too much for a sport like baseball.

I also think DB is right about realism being especially important in baseball games. The reason why The Show is not only the best console baseball series ever made but also one of the best sports series is because it's about as realistic as a sports game can get while still allowing users control over the players. 2k had some great innovations, but the game as a whole was really lacking when compared to The Show.

I understand what it's like to enjoy a sports game that goes against the mainstream consensus as the best -- I was a big ASB fan for years -- but I think Sony does just about everything a sports gamer could want with The Show, and 2k just could just never quite keep up. Today's games are just too expensive for also-rans.

[FifaInspected]

I wish Konami would bring Pro Spirits to the states. Make a MLB version or not..simply translate it and i'd be happy. Make it available for both consoles and I'm guessing they would easily double or triple their sales volume.

This was the first year that I imported a version of the game and I will say it was fantastic.

[Diablo25]

I wish Konami would bring Pro Spirits to the states. Make a MLB version or not..simply translate it and i'd be happy. Make it available for both consoles and I'm guessing they would easily double or triple their sales volume.

This was the first year that I imported a version of the game and I will say it was fantastic.

Agreed. Would love to see it.

[Danimal]

http://rbigame.mlb.com/rbigame/home.jsp

Hmm...

[sportdan30]

http://rbigame.mlb.com/rbigame/home.jsp

Hmm...

Very interesting. The fact though they mention mobile devices has me thinking this might be a game downloaded from Xbox Live and PSN, and not a full fledged next gen game.

Or is it simply an enhanced MLB app that tracks scores, stats, etc. ?

We'll see.......

[Diablo25]

http://rbigame.mlb.com/rbigame/home.jsp

Hmm...

Very interesting. The fact though they mention mobile devices has me thinking this might be a game downloaded from Xbox Live and PSN, and not a full fledged next gen game.

Or is it simply an enhanced MLB app that tracks scores, stats, etc. ?

We'll see.......

That link definitely has me curious

[Danimal]

I wish they would bring back an updated Microleague baseball. I'm not joking either.

[RobVarak]

I wish they would bring back an updated Microleague baseball. I'm not joking either.

Amen! It was a better game simulator than FOB

Actually, Diamond Mind was always my favorite, though.

[sportdan30]

I wish they would bring back an updated Microleague baseball. I'm not joking either.

I absolutely loved that game. I have such fond memories playing it on my Apple IIC. I would update the stats of the Cardinal players from the newspaper from that morning along with their opponent.

My friends and I had a fantasy style league later that we'd sim using my friend's Apple IIGS. It was much faster. Games only took 10 minutes to play!

[Aristo]

I wish they would bring back an updated Microleague baseball. I'm not joking either.

Amen! It was a better game simulator than FOB

Actually, Diamond Mind was always my favorite, though.

I miss Diamond Mind!

I'm curious as to what this RBI Baseball will be, but I'm assuming it will be a good to great version of arcade baseball. I'm surprised they didn't provide a little more info. Although they had to be chuckling with Sony proudly proclaiming baseball deacon the 360 and XB1. But I doubt it is a direct competitor.

Although, honestly, it could be almost anything. They could have hired Konami or 2K developers when they realized that they were only going to get one year out of 2K. The RBI name was good enough to have it splashed across every gaming and sports blogs on the internet within hours. Hell, it could be SCEA, who works with MLB pretty closely.

[MizzouRah]

I miss triple play baseball.. loved that series.

[Sudz]

Baseball Stars.

What is a wren?

[Pete]

Tony LaRussa Baseball 3 for the PC. One of my favorites before I found High Heat.