Many are taking some of these quotes from Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick to mean that 2K will walk away from the MLB license in 2012, opening up the possibility for the return of EA SPORTS' MVP Baseball franchise:


Strauss Zelnick told Reuters that annualizing a video game risks producing one of lower quality and burning out consumers. While it's a relatively new concept to triple-A franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, it's been a requirement of sports titles for the past 15 years. Zelnick sounded put off by that as well. While Take-Two is open to renewing its agreement with MLB, he indicated the economics of the deal have to be more favorable.

"It's a losing proposition and we don't have any interest in pursuing losing propositions."

2K's baseball deal expires in 2012. Last year, one analyst estimated its worth at $40 million over its lifespan.

Last year, Zelnick also singled out 2K's baseball titles, blamed a poor-selling and poorly-reviewed MLB 2K9, plus spinoff titles like The Bigs 2 and Front Office Manager, when the company came in under earnings projections (and lost more than $130 million for the year.)