Sega and Take-Two Team Up for ESPN Titles

Take-Two Interactive today announced that it has signed a binding letter of intent with Sega to co-publish and exclusively distribute all of its ESPN videogames around the world. Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, franchises such as ESPN NFL Football, ESPN NHL Hockey, ESPN NBA Basketball, ESPN College Hoops, and ESPN Major League Baseball will be co-published under the Sega and Global Star Software labels. Distribution of the ESPN titles will be handled by Jack of All Games in North America and by Take-Two Europe in other international territories. The multi-year co-publishing and distribution agreement announced today includes a provision for Take-Two to further extend its participation in Sega’s sports game business and all associated intellectual property for both current and future gaming platforms.

“We believe this exclusive relationship with Sega is a great opportunity for Take-Two,” said Paul Eibeler, president of Take-Two. “We have tremendous respect for the critically acclaimed properties that Visual Concepts has created and we are confident that our global sales and distribution capabilities provide the resources that will fully support these products.”

“We are excited to have Take-Two bring their second-to-none distribution power and proven experience reaching the mass market to the ESPN videogames franchise we’ve built with Sega,” added Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts. “We are proud of the quality of our games and the loyalty of our fans, and we look forward to being able to reach a whole new audience.”

A significant part of Take-Two’s strategy is to gain market share by offering extremely high quality products, supported with aggressive marketing and value pricing. “We plan to expand the audience for ESPN Videogames’ sports titles by applying a variety of proven marketing techniques,” said Paul Eibeler, Take-Two’s President. “We are also adding the compelling element of value pricing to this high quality line, creating a significant point of differentiation for both core and casual gamers. We believe the recent console price cuts are bringing new consumers into the interactive entertainment market, and sports titles will be a meaningful part of their software purchases. Finally, with Sony and Microsoft not publishing sports titles this holiday season, there is a significant competitive opportunity for ESPN Videogames titles. The combination of these factors should expand the overall market for sports titles.”