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Sports-related video games haven’t held my interest since NBA Jam, when basketball was still exciting and I wasn’t yet down on my high from the Magic Johnson vs Michael Jordon debates that we kids argued about amidst the trading of collectable sports cards. Prior to, I’d even get into old Nintendo baseball games and highly-pixelated Intellivision Soccer, on which there were a mere handful of players per side, all of one color, with monotone music magic happening somewhere on the sidelines.

Those days of sports game’s past are now long gone, replaced by the vivid and highly-modeled graphics of the modern era, and over the past half decade, there’s been a steadfast struggle to wrestle one’s way to the forefront of a particular sport. Only those ignoring video-gaming news are unaware that Electronic Arts (EA), in a debaucherous decision, managed to sign an exclusivity agreement first with the NFL, and later ESPN, such that the Madden gaming legacy could live forever, despite the peculiar knowledge that it was no longer recognized as the top dog as far as video game football was concerned (until soon).

So we have it that the race continues, with Sega stealing the MLB from EA’s icy grasp, and Take Two Interactive promptly throwing an axe at Sega and replacing it with a sum of money. These are no longer the days where Sega was a contender for console gaming crown; Sega’s strategy of becoming a prominent force of video game software isn’t even coming to be, with paltry business decisions like jumping into handheld gaming, and selling their significant assets.

Sure, Sega lead the assault a bit too early on nearly every gaming technology from online, broadband gaming to Windows-based consoles, but have they not learned? Sega, you foolish fool, why must you extinguish the company you were with the Master System, and give up the few useful assets you have left?

More importantly from an industry standpoint, the big-boys are buying up everyone. Is there even a small development house making cool games that isn’t owned (literally and otherwise) by some major capitalist entity like Microsoft and EA? It would appear that the trend of in-house development (as opposed to in-mansion) is over, just as the days of single-developer games were numbered a mere decade ago.

On the bright side, take your football, EA, and have fun with baseball, you Take-Two crazies. Until I get some Boom-Shakalaka! from an NBA Jam rewrite, your silly sports games don’t even hit my radar.

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