MLB 2K9 Blamed for Take Two Losses

The MLB third party license may still have a few years left but it continues to be a drag on Take Two/2K Sports. MLB 2K9 was one of only two (the other being NCAA Football 10) major yearly sports titles that dropped in sales compared to the previous year. It was poorly received by both reviewers and gamers and that clearly affected sales after years of subpar offerings. It has become a second class citizen compared to the MLB: The Show franchise which outsells it despite only being available on the PS3. Now Take Two has come out and cited the performance of its MLB titles as a major reason why they have had a bad year and upcoming quarter.

MLB 2K9 was not the only MLB title released so some fault could be attributed to the others. MLB Front Office Manager was a complete failure but The BIGS 2 performed respectably. Regardless of how they sold the company was not relying on them to make up for losses elsewhere. The fact that Take Two is so openly putting the fault on what really matters to them with MLB 2K9 is telling. The question is whether they will commit more resources to make the game better or if they will just continue to try and cut their losses until the license expires.