The Fall of MLB 2K - What Happened?

[Music] mlb 2k13 was the last 2k baseball game and it was pretty bad so bad that ign labeled the game as a phoned in embarrassment and ign isn't known for being very critical of sports games however the series actually had a long life starting with world series baseball a sega genesis game from 1994 while the mlb2k games were never amazing there were some pretty good titles that released unfortunately for 2k even their best mlb games were overshadowed by other studios major league baseball 2k5 was a good game but ea's mvp baseball 2005 was even better at that point in time 2k was also still making nfl games until ea signed an exclusive rights agreement with the nfl so that only ea could release nfl games going forward that's why today all you see on store shelves are madden titles but what many people don't know is that 2k did the exact same thing in response to ea they signed an exclusive rights agreement with the mlb so that only 2k could release third-party mob games of course if you're a regular viewer of the channel you can probably predict exactly what happens next the less competition a product has the less innovative the product becomes unlike ea however 2k didn't sign a fully exclusive deal only a third party one meaning 2k was the only third party company allowed to make mob games so companies like ea couldn't but first party companies such as sony's san diego studios could continue making mlb games for their respective console if microsoft wanted they could have released an mlb game too all 2k really did hear was screw over ea which somewhat seems justified considering what ea had done at 2k with nfl games but the end result left consumers worse off ea's mvp baseball games were amazing and while they continued for a couple years as college games since they couldn't use the mlb license it just wasn't the same while playstation users had the choice between mlb2k and mlb the show everyone else was just stuck with one option as mlb the show got better and better and as mlb2k got worse and worse 2k threw in the towel and stopped trying with the last few iterations of the series besides nba 2k was making them a ton of money anyways the lack of care with the later mlb2k games is what sealed their fate eventually most people simply stopped buying the games mlb the show was wildly more popular despite being a sony exclusive at the time it was simply a much better and more feature filled game at least near the end of mlb2k's life most hardcore baseball fans had a playstation console by that point and 2k quietly ended the series despite all the negativity surrounding the more recent mlb2k games at one point in time the series was not only good but great in the early to mid 2000s the mlb2k games were pretty good and the world series baseball games were incredible and offered arguably the best mlb experience ever in the mid to late 90s let's take a look at the history of 2k's mlb series from its early inception to its peak and finally to its eventual fall the roots of 2k's mlb series starts with world series baseball a 1994 sega genesis game developed by blue sky software this was the first video game ever to include both mlb players and teams it received critical acclaim and many critics deemed it the greatest baseball video game to date naturally sega continued the series they released an upgraded version for the sega saturn which was the best looking baseball game ever at the time and then got to work on the next iteration of the game while blue sky software would continue developing the sega genesis versions of the game sega themselves developed the more impressive saturn releases after 95 and 96 released on pc and genesis sega released world series baseball 2 a sequel to the first game on the saturn the game was another massive success in terms of gameplay these older titles leaned more towards the arcade side with a lack of sim options sega focused on creating fast-paced gameplay that would remain engaging and fun even when playing through an entire team's season the following year however sega received some competition mlb 98 developed by sony interactive studio america which would later become 989 sports can be considered the first iteration of mlb the show although sony's mlb games didn't use that title until 2006. sony's game was very good and received great reviews but it couldn't compare to world series baseball 2. at the time next generation said there's no denying mlb 98 is a good solid baseball game however in the grander scheme of console baseball mlb 98 does nothing to advance the genre and can't even clean the cleats of sega's world series baseball 98 for saturn how long would sega's lead last world series baseball 98 was fantastic but it was the end of an era for three years there were no new mlb games from sega meanwhile sony was taking advantage of the opportunity mlb 2000 was a huge step forward and since sega wasn't releasing a new game at that time baseball fans had to choose between that or ea's triple play series which was starting to catch up as well after releasing the sega dreamcast in 1999 sega developed and released their own sports games including the first nfl nhl and nba 2k titles after three years world series baseball finally returned as world series baseball 2k1 while many would start here when going over the history of mlb2k games i think the other world series titles belong in the story too since they signify a time when sega was on top of the baseball world 2k1 however was just not a good game fans were super excited when they heard world series baseball was returning but it turned out only the name was coming back the game wasn't developed by sega but instead wow entertainment sega's other 2k sports games were all as realistic as possible aiming to be true simulations unfortunately that wasn't the case with world series 2k1 the game was pretty bare bones missing expected features like home run derby scenarios and only had exhibition season and playoff modes the season mode was very lifeless as the cpu couldn't even make trades the player had to control everything there was no challenge to team building the game was full of lag and slowdowns making already bad gameplay even worse the game wasn't completely horrible however it did have a great create a player feature allowing users to edit everything down to their players socks and batting stance there was also a team edit feature where you could create a team from scratch the presentation was great looking like a real mlb broadcast with authentic camera angles and great stadium recreations but besides that it was a far cry from the critically acclaimed world series baseball titles of old meanwhile sony's mlb 2001 was another critical success and more and more baseball fans were ditching sega for the playstation ea's triple play 2001 wasn't very good however giving 2k an opportunity we really don't know what was going on behind the scenes world series baseball was supposed to be a dreamcast launch title yet it was delayed an entire year only to be a pretty rough game when microsoft released the xbox sega decided to release their next title on that console too while the dreamcast version of 2k2 was an improvement it didn't come close to sega's new xbox version the xbox was a much more powerful console at the time and sega took advantage dropping the best world series baseball title in five years sony wouldn't release a baseball title for the playstation 2 until two years later but ea did release triple play 2002 on the ps2 and xbox luckily for 2k ea's game received mixed reviews and the game's lack of success caused ea to rebrand their mlb titles the following year mvp baseball 2003 released and was an incredible step forward for ea adding a ton of new features improving gameplay and more the complete story of ea's baseball titles is for another video however the key here is that competition was bringing out multiple great games when one of the big three companies was down they'd bounce back within a year or so world series baseball 2k3 was another great game however sega had changed a lot by then they had discontinued their dreamcast system and were now a third party publisher the game released for the xbox and playstation 2 and a gamecube version was developed but then canceled despite the history of the world series baseball name and the recent success of the series sega decided to rebrand all of their sports games by pushing their espn license and integration their next title was called espn major league baseball and while it was technically 2k4 that wasn't part of the official name the other 2k sports games were like this too that year over the previous few releases sega took their great base game of 2k2 and continued tweaking it and adding new features but year to year the games weren't changing all that much the games were really good but not exactly innovative luckily for sega sony's first game on the ps2 mlb 2004 was a mess ea however was doing great rebranding to mvp baseball led to a huge jump in sales and mvp 2004 was a fantastic game that was arguably better than sega's changed the following year in 2005 competition was at its peak for mlb video games you had sony's mlb 2005 you had a claims all-star baseball 2005. you had mvp baseball 2005 and you had mlb 2k5 in the nfl video game space espn nfl 2k5 was a huge hit and because it retailed for only 20 dollars it nearly outsold madden causing ea to panic reportedly the nfl was unhappy with competition leading to price drops on games with their branding so they decided to choose one company to give the exclusive nfl license to and while many people preferred the more realistic gameplay of nfl 2k ea won and only madden titles would release from that point forward in response 2k signed a similar agreement with the mlb killing off any third-party mlb series such as eas or acclaims this was terrible for everyone not only would nfl games now of no competition but the fantastic mvp baseball 2005 what i consider to be the greatest mlb game ever made would now be ea's last mlb video game because the license was only for third party games however sony could continue releasing their mlb games on playstation consoles and they did for their 2006 release they rebranded the game to mlb06 the show and heavily marketed the game on tv with mlb players and famous actors the game was a huge step forward from sony's recent titles and the show became the mob game to buy this would never change mlb2k6 wasn't terrible it added new features like inside edge the world baseball classic the swing stick and it even had animations for fans catching balls those who grew up on the mlb 2k games likely remember joe young a replacement for barry bonds as well as other fictional players like carnival lane while the game received decent reviews at least for the original xbox and playstation 2 it just didn't compare to the show and most people still preferred mvp baseball the exclusive license left a sour taste in the mouth of baseball fans and 2k became the villain of the industry in a sense despite the fact they were only responding to what ea did to them with the nfl license regardless an eye for an eye isn't a well-liked strategy and without competition on non-sony consoles things weren't looking great for consumers the xbox 360 version of 2k6 was not well received so 2k set their priorities on fixing the game and improving it for 2k7 and it worked the game became more challenging as you could no longer button-mash your way around the bases the presentation and gameplay design was changed to not only look much nicer but also play much nicer unfortunately many features were lost in this game such as the world baseball classic and international teams and the rest of the game modes merely received a facelift having to basically rebuild the game after 2k6's missteps set the series back while sony's the show was only getting better and better 2k7's development was led by ben brinkmann who in an interview with ign was quoted as saying mlb2k7 was the first step in a long process of reinventing the 2k sports baseball brand in the mlb franchise 2k 7 was year 1 of that and a lot of that was just getting back onto stable ground getting back with the people who play our game and putting something out there that they're happy with they have a blast playing and that they can play for an extended period of time i think we delivered upon that given the short timeline with which we had to create that game 2k8 was part 2 of the series rebuild in like 2k7 it was a step up and a respectable game but it didn't touch mlb-08 the show this was the issue 2k's mlb games weren't bad they just weren't worthy of the exclusive mlb license and it showed when sony was destroying them year after year however the mere presence of 2k's baseball games and the fact that they were decent enough helped push sony to develop the best baseball game they could mlb the show would not have been as successful as it was if 2k wasn't right there behind them in the mid to late 90s sega's mlb games were at the top of the pack but after some missteps in the early 2000s and after sega sold 2k to take too interactive and of course after nearly all competition was wiped out mlb2k was no longer the same it was becoming less and less popular every year xbox or wii owners really had no choice but to buy the 2k games if they wanted an mlb game but the show was the obvious choice for anyone with a playstation perhaps with mlb2k9 the last game of the three year rebuild 2k would close the gap between them and sony expectations were high which led to a disappointing release the game received much worse reviews than the last game 2k8 as it felt unfinished buggy and simply bizarre animations were messy glitches were everywhere and the game was just not good enough 2k had invested serious time and effort into fixing the series and they failed when mlb2k10 released no one really cared the die-hard fans of the series who had remained since the 1994 release of world series baseball must have been confused by this game since it was labeled as the 10-year anniversary of the series the game was a lot better than 2k9 with bug fixes in much more polished gameplay but it was just too late all faith had been lost 2k did put in the work to improve 2k10 but it simply felt like the game 2k9 was supposed to be on the other hand mlb10 the show was considered to be one of the greatest baseball games ever created mlb2k11 was the same story a decent game but not even close to the show so why bother it had a my player mode like nba 2k but it was shallow and not even close to as in depth as its nba counterpart some people however did really enjoy these games even if they weren't as well received or as popular as sony's for many who already owned an xbox 360 why buy a playstation 3 just for one game those who grew up with these games grew to enjoy them the franchise mode while less in depth in the shows was simpler and easier to navigate commentary and presentation were fantastic gameplay was simpler and easier to get into mlb2k quietly died off two years later mlb2k12 was a roster update to 2k11 as was 2k13 the last game in the series 2k lost faith in their game due to declining sales and despite putting an effort to improve the game a few years before it just didn't work out in my opinion 2k gave up too soon but with nba 2k becoming such a success at the time killing off nba live it made sense why 2k would shift all their focus towards that series instead i believe the mob video game scene is worse off without mob2k look back at mlb the show during the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s the game was incredible adding new features every year somehow raising the bar with every release while 2k killed off most of the competition at least it was competition for the show now the show which now releases for xbox consoles 2 has no other game to compete with or try and surpass predictably the show has gotten lazier and lazier and while you can make a pretty good argument that it's the best sports game currently on the market that doesn't mean much better than madden what game is it less money hungry than modern nba 2k games when playing online that should be the baseline for any video game the show is the only mlb video game left and while it isn't a bad game its development has stagnated recently and it has a lot of problems while mlb2k was never great world series baseball was and older fans of that series still miss it to this day nearly everyone who played mvp baseball misses that awesome series as well but most of all we miss competition it's become a tired narrative on this channel but it's such an obvious issue with sports video games today even if mlb 2k was a roster update every year it would at least keep san diego studios on their toes despite the fact that the series was never revered past the 90s the fall of mlb2k left the sports video game scene worse off i do hope that more mlb games return now that there is no longer any exclusive license even if it's ea in their current state at the very least there would be a choice again and if history is any indication the show would dramatically improve as would sports video games as a whole thanks for watching do [Music] you

Channel: SOFTDRINKTV

Views: 183,377

Keywords: softdrinktv, softdrinksports, retrospective, documentary, sdtv, Mlb 2k, mlb 2k13, world series baseball, sega genesis, dreamcast, mlb 2k5, espn major league baseball, what happened to mlb 2k, the fall of mlb 2k, 2k baseball, mvp baseball, mlb the show

Id: tsLxlbsDFhs

Length: 19min 40sec (1180 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 09 2022