A Whole Lot of Monkey Business

While news of it was released last night, it wasn't until this morning that Take Two officialy announced their deal with the MLBA, making its third-party control of baseball games complete. Effective from the Spring of 2006 until an unspecified time(most people are predicting 7-8 years), Take Two will be the only third-part developer able to make baseball games that use the official players, teams, arenas, logos, etc. This deal does not affect Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft's abilities to release a baseball title, though. In fact, Nintendo just recently announced that it is preparing a baseball title for release in April and I bet you it's going to be pretty good.



Nobody is saying anything yet, but I bet you that some heated negotiations are going on for the rights to the NBA, NHL and anything else that's available. With so many companies desperate for a piece of the exclusive sports pie, one wouldn't be surprised to see the return of XFL or, even, Slamball products. The most interesting thing about all this is that T2 seems to want to alter the normal pattern of sports games and possibly release multiple titles throughout the year. One has to wonder if this idea is based off of the success of EA's "Street" games.



Like I've said in previous posts, this is just the beginning and the entire sports-based videogame market is never going to be the same. It's hard to say right how it's all going to end up, but let's hope that all these companies still manage to put a lot of time and energy into making these games better and better each year.

Before I head off into the sunset in order to join my wife (and pets) for a nice dinner, I thought it would be best for me to throw a couple of links your way. So, here they are... "Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush."

BloodRayne Trailer - The games were somewhat decent, but this movie definitely looks like it's going to suck - no pun intended. Uwe Boll has got to be stopped. After "House of the Dead" and "Alone in the Dark", this guy is going to kill the videogame-based movie. I can't even imagine how "FarCry" and "Hunter: The Reckoning" are going to end up.



Monkey See, Monkey Do - It appears that men and monkeys really do share a lot of things in common, one of which is the willingness to pay to see naked pictures.

Science Is Amazing - It must have taken years and millions of dollars to perfect, but the world is now graced with... an M&M sorter?!!