Take-Two is a powerhouse writer behind various profitable franchises like GTA, NBA 2K, Civilization, Borderlands, and BioShock, however not every thing that Take-Two touches turns to gold.
In an interview with Game File, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned the corporate is unlikely to get again into MLB-licensed baseball video video games as a result of it is “too small a market” and Take-Two desires to position bets on video games which can be extra more likely to earn a living.
“We had a troublesome historical past with MLB,” Zelnick mentioned. “It is no secret there (*6*) we misplaced a substantial amount of cash with them. And I do not like dropping cash.”
Take-Two’s MLB 2K sequence began in 2005 and ran for a few decade earlier than 2K introduced in 2014 that the franchise was coming to an finish. The sequence didn’t exit on a powerful word. MLB 2K13 was critically panned for being primarily the identical sport as its predecessor, that includes solely roster updates.
Whereas Take-Two is not making baseball video games, the corporate continues to supply its massively profitable NBA 2K sequence, together with its golf sport franchise, PGA Tour 2K, and the WWE 2K video games. What’s extra, the TopSpin 2K tennis sequence got here again in 2024.
In 2020, it was introduced that Take-Two and the NFL had reached a deal for brand new, non-simulation soccer video games. A cell sport, NFL 2K Playmakers, got here out in April 2024, however that was the extent of issues.
So what occurred? Zelnick mentioned, “What we hoped would come to fruition creatively didn’t.” Zelnick mentioned he could be open-minded to working with the NFL once more “if a possibility presents itself.”
In different information from Zelnick, he not too long ago touched on the lengthy anticipate BioShock 4 and gave an replace on Borderlands 4’s delayed Swap 2 version.
Take-Two’s largest upcoming sport is GTA 6, which releases on November 19.