Take-Two Takes the Plunge

Uber-tipster, striegs, has been brought on board here at Joystiq. Until he's up and running, I'll post this for him:

By now you all must know about Take-Two Interactive's deal with the MLB Players Association, but you also must know that there were several loopholes that could theoretically allow everyone's favorite archrival, EA, to still develop baseball games using MLB properties. As a matter of fact, just last week EA was quoted as "looking into the possibility an independent publisher could still make a baseball game by partnering with one of the console makers."

Well, as of Monday, Take-Two has partially amended the problem by striking a deal with Major League Baseball Properties, the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball Advanced Media. While financial details were not disclosed, the terms of the new contract block any other independent publisher or developer from publishing official baseball games, "either directly or in affiliation with a hardware manufacturer."

So this doesn't exactly sound the death knell for Nintendo's recently announced Pennant Chase Baseball, but it should quelch any hopes of EA's MVP series returning any time soon.