Take-Two dumps ESPN brand early

Electronic Arts doesn't take control of the ESPN license until next year, but that isn't stopping Take-Two from ditching the brand early. Representatives from the publisher confirmed to GameSpot that they are dropping the "ESPN" from the forthcoming game, ESPN Major League Baseball 2K5. It was to be the last Take-Two-published game to carry the sports network's moniker.

Although the game will now simply be called "Major League Baseball 2K5," it will still feature the same in-game ESPN-branded presentation as its predecessor, ESPN Major League Baseball. "It's just a name change," said a rep for Visual Concepts, the parent studio of the game's developer, Kush Games. "It will not affect anything in the game…nothing else is changing." Both Kush and Visual Concepts were recently folded into Take-Two's recently formed 2K Games sub-brand.

Presumably the removal of "ESPN" from Major League Baseball 2K5's title is a compromise solution. It allows Take-Two to stop promoting the ESPN brand--which would amount to free publicity for EA--and sidesteps the sticky issue of removing all the heavily integrated ESPN content from the game, which would have presumably caused a delay.

The cover art for Major League Baseball 2K5 will most likely soon change, since it currently features the ESPN logo prominently. Also, following its agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association over the weekend, Take-Two announced that Derek Jeter would be the cover athlete for its next baseball game.

Major League Baseball 2K5 is still set for a March 15 release for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. After its release, Take-Two will assume exclusive third-party game publishing rights for Major League Baseball, although first-party baseball games like SCEA's MLB 2006 will still be allowed.