2K Sports drafts Konami's Power Pro Baseball

Never let it be said that a little thing like not having the proper license kept Konami from getting a game on store shelves. Earlier this year, the publisher's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 arcade game was released on Xbox Live through a deal struck with current TMNT game-rights holder Ubisoft. The publisher is doing it again, as its Powerful Pro Yakyuu series of baseball games is coming to North America with a Major League Baseball license attached, despite Take-Two Interactive's exclusive third-party deal with the league.

Take-Two's 2K Sports label today announced MLB Power Pros, a Konami-developed installment in the series that will released on the PlayStation 2 and Wii in North America this fall. The game will retain the series' trademark visual style, with cartoon-like approximations of baseball stars taking the field, along with its pick-up-and-play controls. MLB Power Pros features a dozen modes of play, including a season mode where players will have to handle the concerns of a general manager, and a story-based success mode that puts players in the cleats of a college ballplayer trying to make it to the big leagues.

While this is the first time the Powerful Pro Yakyuu series will be released in North America, this is not the first time the franchise has used the MLB license. Last year, Jikkyou Powerful Major League was released in Japan on the PS2 and GameCube with an MLB license and all the relevant teams and players intact.