Take-Two and Sega to co-publish ESPN games
Including ESPN NFL, NHL, NBA, College Hoops and Major League Baseball, with an option to do more in future.
Take-Two and Sega have announced a "binding letter of intent" to co-publish and distribute the latter's ESPN Videogames sports, er, games. The deal encompasses ESPN NFL Football, ESPN NHL Hockey, ESPN NBA Basketball, ESPN College Hoops and ESPN Major League Baseball. It also makes provision for the duo to extend their sporting relationship in future.
For now, the games will be co-published under the Sega/Global Star Software labels, and distributed through Jack Of All Games in North America and Take-Two Europe internationally. Interestingly, 'Global Star' is generally reserved for Take-Two's budget-priced offerings, suggesting that the ESPN games could come in at a significantly lower price than their EA Sports counterparts...
There's more - lots of waffle about strategies and how pleased everybody is - but we're falling asleep here. Really? You want a quote? Go on then. Let's see... [Closes eyes. Points finger at screen. Opens eyes. Reads:] Aha. Greg Thomas, president of developer Visual Concepts, said the company was "excited" at the prospect of working with Take-Two.
"We are excited to have Take-Two bring their second-to-none distribution power and proven experience reaching the mass market to the ESPN Videogames franchise we've built with Sega," he said yesterday. "We are proud of the quality of our games and the loyalty of our fans, and we look forward to being able to reach a whole new audience."
Despite our lazy, late night cynicism, the ESPN Videogames were widely acclaimed last year by fans of the sports in question.