COPYCENSE

"After being locked out of the football market, game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software threw a curveball at the video game industry Monday by snagging semi-exclusive rights to Major League baseball.

"The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the union representing players, announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Take-Two granting the publisher a seven-year license to portray Major League players in video games. Take-Two still needs to reach a separate agreement with Major League Baseball for the rights to portray teams and stadiums.

"The MLBPA license gives Take-Two exclusive rights among third-party game publishers. That means game console makers Microsoft and Sony could continue to make baseball games for their respective Xbox and PlayStation 2 game consoles, but companies purely in the software business could not. Most notably, that shuts out leading game publisher Electronic Arts, whose ‘MVP Baseball‘ was one of the top-selling baseball games last year."

David Becker. Take-Two Out to the Ball Game. News.com. Jan. 24, 2005.

Update: Curt Feldman.  Take-Two Bulks Up on Baseball. News.com. Jan. 31, 2005. (Take-Two announced Monday that they have entered into a long-term licensing agreement with Major League Baseball Properties, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and Major League Baseball Advanced Media for exclusive rights to publish and distribute officially licensed games for consoles, PCs and handhelds.)

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