2K Sports this morning made a surprise announcement that it has renewed its video game license with MLB, the MLBPA and MLBAM, and will release "MLB 2K 13" on March 5 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 featuring Rays P David Price on the cover. 2K Sports had a five-year deal with MLB that expired last year, one that was widely expected to just die without a renewal after the company in '10 blamed the MLB license for much of its overall fiscal losses. Execs for Take-Two Interactive, parent of 2K Sports, had then pegged its MLB-related losses at more than $30M per year. Plans to produce another MLB game have not been mentioned in any quarterly or annual filing with the SEC. Listing upcoming releases well in advance is typical practice for publicly traded game developers. "We'd like to thank our league partners for their support in helping us reach an agreement to bring back 'MLB 2K'," said 2K Sports VP/Marketing Jason Argent. 2K Sports also will revive its $1M Perfect Game Challenge for the fourth straight year as part of the rollout of "MLB 2K 13" with a new contest format. Last year's competition culminated in an eight-person tournament at the MLB Fan Cave.
