MLB 06: The Show
Ending an era of MVP Baseball from EA Sports, Major League Baseball signed an exclusive agreement (it’s a little confusing, since this is 989 Sports and not Take2, but it has something to do with it being 1st party versus 3rd party) with one game producer (Take 2, not 989) in 2005. As of this writing, MLB 06: The Show — basically the sequel to MLB 2006 — is 60 days away. Since I’ve been playing EA Sports’ MVP series, it will definitely take some getting used to, but I don’t expect too much trouble. And there are some unique features that I’m looking forward to checking out, especially being able to manage a complete 40-man roster.
That Gamespy article has an explanation about the whole licensing issue:
This is going to be a strange year for hardball loving gamers. Just as EA Sports snapped up exclusive rights to NFL teams and players, 2K Sports did the same with Major League Baseball. Sort of. Unlike EA’s situation, 2K’s exclusivity only pertains to third party game makers. This leaves the door open for Sony to continue its MLB series. This is good news for the DualShock crowd. After playing some very pre-season ball with MLB 2006: The Show, it looks like Sony’s sports development is continuing its return to its past glory.
So maybe it’s worth waiting to see what 2K comes up with? MLB 2K6