EA Sports has acquired Metalhead Software, the Canadian team behind the Super Mega Baseball series. The publisher said in a press release that it intends to help grow the developer’s popular arcade baseball series, as well as develop new gaming and sports experiences. “We look forward to supporting and investing in the team so they can continue to build out more amazing games that delight sports fans around the world,” said EA Sports’ Cam Weber.
“Our team has worked hard over the years to refine a formula that uniquely mixes an arcade style with deep on-field gameplay and innovative co-operative and competitive multiplayer experiences,” Metalhead Software’s co-founder Scott Drader added. “In this next chapter, we’re excited to leverage EA’s power and reach to bring our titles to a broader audience and to take some ambitious next steps in the development of our future titles.”
EA Sports is expanding quite rapidly at the moment, with various new projects in production to improve its portfolio, including EA Sports College Football and EA Sports PGA Tour. It also completed its acquisition of Codemasters earlier in the year, with F1 2021 due out this summer. It’ll be interesting to see how it assigns Metalhead Software: could we see similar arcade spin-offs for some of its biggest brands, like Madden and FIFA?
Comments 18
We lost another one.
Oh good, EA was really in need of yet another sports game developer and this in no way reeks of a monopoly... /s
That was fun while it lasted.
RIP. Thankfully we’ve got The Show. Poor Switch owners.
There goes that series.
@nessisonett With this purchase... EA will now have a studio familiar with baseball, and could probably start looking at taking the right for MLB The Show from Sony.
Only reason I ever bought this was because Switch had no MLB game
MLB: The Show is now on Xcloud so I’m covered when not home. Was never buying it again regardless.
They will get bored of them, close the studio and keep a few employees making FIFA DLCs
Hopefully they keep what they have with SMB, iterate on it, and add MLB teams, players and stadiums.
RIP, will be dead within a year. EA where developers go too die
Ah yes, sports gamers...the most gullible and eager to part with their wallets of the bunch. Just a tiny step above mobile game players. No wonder EA wants to acquire as many different sports as possible.
Cant wait for the UT mode....
@Floki Not likely to happen considering Sony has just signed a multi-year deal already. Plus they've had a long relationship with MLB since EA has bowed out. As long as the games make money, MLB and Sony will just continue extending their deal. EA is likely aware of this and is just looking to make a baseball game that isn't related to MLB.
@Jeevz Sony has the license for MLB teams, names, and logos. Good luck.
@InsertUsername I never said that it'll happen this year or next year or even the year after that. MLB doesn't care about their relationship with Sony. If they did, they wouldn't have went and sign an agreement with Microsoft to put it on gamepass. It all about who have the bigger wallet.
@Floki
Microsoft has always had deep pockets...but that has never equated to consistently great games...or games in general. Frankly, I would be happy if San Diego Studio was able to focus on games I’d actually play.
@InsertUsername I bet since MLB wanted The Show on other platforms they'd be willing to let others make arcade style baseball games with the MLB license akin to what the NFL is doing with their license. Something not lost on the developer of Madden.
@Floki Yes, they do indeed care about relationships, lol. That's why they get into agreements with business partners to begin with. That's just a foolish statement in of itself. There's a reason MLB wanted it to be on many platforms, because MLB likes the idea of having to work with one company rather than give out licenses to every developer and Sony was the simple choice. There's also a reason Topps has the rights to logos and teams names with their baseball cards and no one else is able to. It's unlikely EA will ever bother to try anyway since they've been out of the game for over 15 years now and would simply not put in the time to develop a decent engine. Having said that, I blame them for the whole mess when they decided to take the exclusive NFL license, so it is what it is.
@Jeevz Mobile and arcade style games I would put as an exception since they aren't going to cause any issue with a mainline game such as The Show. Just as Madden isn't going to be affected either. As far as a big budget game like The Show or Madden, it's obvious that MLB and NFL have chosen their partners, and will remain so as long as the games are profitable.
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