Yesterday's surprise video game licensing deal involving 2K Sports, MLB, MLBAM and the MLBPA to revive the thought-extinct "MLB 2K" franchise is a one-year pact designed to buy time for baseball until the next gaming console cycle. Sony and Microsoft are both said to be working on next-generation advancements to the existing PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and the bridge deal allows baseball to stay fully active in the console gaming space while those projects develop. The extension, in the works since last fall, calls for the March 5 release of "MLB 2K 13" for both consoles. 2K Sports' return to baseball arrives despite a decidedly choppy five-year contract run that included several critically panned games and tens of millions of dollars in fiscal losses. Before yesterday's news, MLB was slated to go without a video game this year for the Xbox 360, with Sony's "MLB: The Show" series available only on Sony platforms. "I think we all recognize this is sort of a gap year coming up in console cycles. But you never want to be dark in the marketplace (with regard to the Xbox 360)," said MLBAM President & CEO Bob Bowman. "So what we've done is gone back to a trusted partner who knows the space and has a game engine. This will allow us the opportunity to look at the overall gaming landscape and see where it goes."
