There are only 81 days before Opening Day gifts us all with another season of baseball, which means it’s prime time we start talking about baseball videogames. While PS3 gamers never had to worry, many 360 players were left fearful that without 2K Sports coming to terms with Major League Baseball, there wouldn’t be a season for them to enjoy.
In a surprise announcement today though, 2K sports confirmed that a consensus was found with Major League Baseball, and MLB2K13 will officially be hitting store shelves on March 5th, 2013. With the new title, 2K is once again reprising their Perfect Game Challenge, offering a million bucks to the first player to throw a perfect game on camera.
Jason Argent, the vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, was quoted earlier as saying “We’d like to thank our league partners for their support in helping us reach an agreement to bring back MLB 2K, we know fans are extremely passionate about the MLB 2K series and the Perfect Game Challenge.”
The only other thing we know for sure is that the American League Cy Young winner David Price will grace the cover this year. Price certainly earned his spot after putting up a 20-5 record with a 2.56 ERA.
The main area for concern here is the abbreviated development schedule 2K will be working with. There are really only two options: 2K was secretly working on the game in hopes that the deal would be completed, or that they’re going to develop a complete game in two months. I think the most logical explanation will be that 2K13 will mostly be a rehash of MLB2K12 as there’s simply not enough time to complete a full project. This is one of those times where I really hope I’m wrong, but barring an announcement from 2K sports, even the most hardcore fans should be a bit wary of this year’s offering.