After putting out the worst baseball game...

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Microsoft Seeks High Heat

 

August 12, 2003 - You might recall a story we ran about the inevitable sale of various 3DO assets following the company's untimely, but not unexpected demise. Well, more developments have arisen in the last few days that shed further light on who is moving to purchase what. With potentially lucrative properties like SRS, Army Men, Might & Magic, and High Heat Baseball up for grabs, we're starting to see the big publishers come out of the woodwork for a piece of the 3DO pie. Full details, infected by lawyers, can be found here. But, we'll break it down for you nice and easy.

Perhaps most surprising is Microsoft's move to purchase High Heat, given the existence of its own baseball franchise, Inside Pitch. But then since many describe that title as a complete waste of a box, the bid by the mega giant could be one to establish its own non-crappy brand of Major League ball. Of course, this may cause some to wonder where this leaves the supposed Sega/Microsoft deal. Why would the big MS attempt to purchase a different brand of ball if it were also still pursuing the rumored buyout of Sega, which has its own supremely ass kicking World Series 2k3? Well, there are a few speculative answers to that...

 

1) Microsoft makes so much money it doesn't even care. Comparatively speaking, the bids listed for High Heat do not equal an obscene amount of money, which Microsoft has. The creator of the Xbox may just figure, "Why the hell not?"

 

2) The Sega deal is no more. But, since it was only heavily rumored to begin with, there's not a whole lot available to prove or dismiss this theory.

 

3) Let's bid for the sake of bidding. Regardless of whether Microsoft is or is not pursuing Sega, the company could simply just not want another publisher to attain a strong brand that would eventually turn into competition for World Series or Inside Pitch. Thus, it was decided that the ante should be raised. Either MS gets the brand and is happy, or Bill's baby causes someone else to spend so much money they'll be hard-pressed to find the funding necessary to develop the license into a quality game for a timely release.

 

Regardless of the reasoning behind the High Heat bid, it's still interesting. Of course, if you care little for Microsoft and its dealings, there is plenty else to get excited about within the endless string of headache inducing legal jargon that is the sale of 3DO assets. The table below will sum up who's making a bid for what.

 

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/433/433384p1.html

 

 

 

I'm not sure what I think.

 

1. I love High Heat and buy it every year.

 

2. If this is the only way that High Heat will keep being made...that's great.

 

3. If it's designed specifically for XBox...it should be pretty for a change.

 

4. Live play, BABY!!!

 

But...if they don't keep the developers of the game on payroll to make the next versions...it won't really be High Heat.

[Karnage 0]

It wouldn't hurt to replace Inside Pitch with High Heat and make it have XSN and stuff.

 

And as long as they don't bid for the Army Men series, its all good.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

As long as EA dosen't get it, I'm happy.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Hmm..well if this happens, all the Gamecube will have next year is All Star Baseball, although I got ASB2004 and probably wont buy a new game next year (similarly why Im not getting Madden 2004..)

[Red Baron 0]

wait a minute...

 

Sega no more for X-Box?

 

 

I don't want to be stuck with decent EA games.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

What?

 

They're talking about Microsofts deal to buy Sega.

 

...although no one knows if that really exists or not.

 

The question was "Why bid on High Heat if they are supposedly trying to buy Sega".

 

Since Sega already has a baseball franchise.

[Dr. Tom 0]

And Sega's baseball franchise > High Heat. I liked the first WSB for X-Box better than HH2003 (and HH2003 was VERY good), but HH2004 was a letdown. WSB2k3, however, was excellent. I'd be extremely disappointed if MS buys High Heat and doesn't allow next year's WSB to come out on X-Box.

[jimmy no nose 0]

http://www.ningc.com/news.php?article=3275

3DO's franchises have been sold to the companies that bidded them.

 

Street Racing Syndicate went with Namco and was bought for $1.5 million; High Heat Baseball was sold to Microsoft but the price was not revealed. Finally, Ubi Soft bought both Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic for $1.3 million.

 

It is unknown what happened to the rest of 3DO's franchises, but we'll have more news as they come.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Thanks for that Jimmy.

 

They may still buy Sega (if they were in the first place) and just have WSB be exclusive too...

 

Either way I see WSB on the Box next year (and probably on all systems...since I don't buy the Microsoft buying Sega story anyway).

 

So...I guess my favorite baseball game is going to be Box exclusive. I pray they keep the same developers...but help them out with the graphics.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

All it will be is Inside Pitch with a brand name. High Heat died with 3DO. This is like the Twisted Metal fiasco on the PS1, where Sony bought the rights to the series and brought in their own programmers and completely destroyed the game.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Like I said...they better keep the programmers.

 

It's not like they'll be doing anything else.