2K Sports gets another chance
Much to my surprise, Major League Baseball and 2K announced today that they will be releasing MLB 2K13 for the Xbox 360.
It wasn’t too long ago that 2K’s contract with MLB had expired, and I honestly thought there was little to no chance it would get picked up again. For those who played the games, you should be pretty well aware of where I’m coming from.
As a baseball fanatic (that’s probably putting it mildly), I have yet to be overly impressed with any of the 2K baseball games. Although they’ve come a long way since MLB 2K9 (trust me, it wasn’t pretty), there still is plenty of room for improvement.
My biggest concern is the fact that this deal was placed at the last minutes. Three months is not a lot of time for a game development company to make signficant changes. What does that mean? We may very well be getting MLB 2k12, just with David Price on the cover, and updated rosters.
Overall, that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing, although there are a few things I would very much like to see get changed. There’s several glitches, such as the replaying of animation (such as when a batter swings and misses). Although their minor details, I really hope they can get them fixed before they release the game.
Another huge improvement would be if they can keep up with the roster changes during the season. As the 2012 season progressed, it seemed like 2K Sports was sometimes a bit slow when it came to adding new players (due to injuries, being called up from the minor leagues, etc.), and also adjusting their player ratings based on what’s going on currently in baseball.
Yet, I have hope that Major League Baseball cares enough, and they will demand that 2K Sports finally get it right. They owe it to the fans who have suffered through the last few years, since there have been no other options for people who only own a Xbox 360.
So as it stands, the game is expected to be released on March 5th for both the Xbox 360, as well as Playstation 3. You can be sure that I’ll be there on “opening day” to pick it up and give it a try.
Brad Jeffers
Pingback: It’s game over for Xbox and MLB. « If You Write It, They Will Come
I’m glad MLB 2K13 and Major League Baseball got their contract fixed, but after seeing the overview of the game. I’m going to be dissapointed and loooooooonng summer, because I have only a Wii and PC, not XBox 360 or PS3. I was so excited for this game and now not likely being able to get it. Angers me.
Hopefully they’ll be able to at least release it for the Wii at some point during the year. Seeing as the older games were available, it would seem odd if they didn’t do so this year. The biggest factors were probably due to the short turn around from when they agreed to make 2K13, and production time. I would think they sold more copies for the PS3 and Xbox 360 than the Wii, so they probably put their focus their first. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I never really cared for the 2K series in any sports, especially baseball. ‘The Show’ is a pretty good game, but no one does games like EA Sports. They made the best baseball games, and I still play MVP ’05, and MVP ’07 NCAA Baseball is my favorite game ever. I’ve been through about three PS2′s, but still rocking those games.
-Mike
http://minoringinbaseball.com/