Take-Two Interactive, still hot in talks with Electronic Arts (supposedly) over their merger, has sent in its financial statement for the previous fiscal quarter. The report reveals their line-up of games for the next (fiscal) year. Details in the full article.

One could argue, but it's difficult to nail down a title that offers an immersive baseball experience like Ultimate Baseball Online (UBO) does. 18 players, one field, free to play - can you ask for more? Some of your questions may be answered with Gamasutra's interview with Netamin Communication Corp. Event Marketing Manager Sean Mackay.

As a level-headed gamer would guess, this entry to the sports genre was a wild attempt to attract a rather small market. Sure, MMOGs are big, but only a handful like Freestyle actually enjoyed success. UBO, however, doesn't see this as a problem. In fact, here's what Mackay said:

Freestyle has done some great things with their video game. It is important that sports MMOs generate market share in the gaming industry and they are making a move to help spearhead that initiative. Our games differ greatly however and I think that our communities can coincide quite easily. Building market awareness and increasing its depth is the most important key to sports MMO success. We are all helping each other in this regard.

Such ambitious titles that aim to put a lot of people together come with plenty of obstacles in development. Netamin had its share in problems, especially in network issues. Fortunately, a patent "that allow for the connectivity of a specific group - the players on the field - to send and retrieve data at the same rates" made it work.

Interested in what else the guys behind the massive baseball online game have to say? Click on the Read link below.

And here comes a new kid in the gaming industry block, pitched by no less than Major League Baseball pitcher Boston Red Sox">Boston Red Sox">Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox. Introducing 38 Studios, formerly known as the Green Monster, this brand promises to deliver not only massively multiplayer online games, but a whole lot of immersive products boasting of a wide range as well.

Brett Close, president of 38 Studios, explains, "the name 38 Studio captures the scope of our goals... Our mission is to create ground-breaking intellectual properties that inspire a vast selection of entertainment experiences."

Why the number 38?

It's not only about what we're going to accomplish, but how. 38 is Curtis' number, of course. Anyone familiar with Curt recognizes that he represents excellence, integrity, and achievement. These are attributes intrinsic to our people, our organization, and our products.

The company is currently attending this year's Game Developers Conference marking their debut appearance in the gaming industry's event.

It is such a shame if you claim to be a hardcore MMO gamer and not know Raph Kostner. Given that, we really don't have to continue writing this when you really think about it. It would only mean that you don't know the guy. But since we don't want you guys left out, we're sharing this with you anyway.

Kostner received his bachelor's degree in Creative Writing back in 1992. At that same year, he also found his true calling as he became involved with MUDs or multi-user dungeons. In fact, the first title ever credited to him is the 1994 hit LegendMUD. Being the modest guy that he is, he explained:

I didn't create LegendMUD, or certainly not by myself. A bunch of us all played a MUD called Worlds of Carnage. It went down for a period, and some of us went to try to start a different mud, and some others went to try to start LegendMUD. We all worked then on the game design and the content.

From then onwards, MUDs evolved and became what is known to us today as MMORPGs. He then became involved with hits Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest II. Despite these projects, Kostner mentioned that there are a lot of things MMOs haven't picked up yet from MUDs. He lamented,

I still think some of the quests in Legend are better than anything I have played in the MMORPGs, and a lot of it is because text gave so much freedom for special effects. I did a quest in LegendMUD where you brought a jungle town back to life, and when you did a wave of color passed through the entire town, and ghostly inhabitants came back to life, and everything was restored.

Given those however, Kostner understands perfectly that there are some differences between MMOs and MUDs that just can't be settled yet. MMOs, for one thing, involve a thousand or more players in one go while dungeons will just involve 10 probably. Kostner elaborated on this:

Legend has stuff like embedded baseball games, Shakespeare performances on the stage of the Old Globe, WWI trench warfare and blackjack in the back rooms of pubs on the London docks. That sort of variety happens because of two things: giving designers the ability to go nuts within a really broad theme, relatively easy tools, and the lack of graphics -- which are a huge huge barrier to making cool stuff because they are so expensive and hard to make.

Currently, Raph Kostner is involved with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. In Kostner's words, it is an organization that promotes the legitimacy of games as a medium. Lastly, he believes that MMOs, as great as they are already, still have a long way to go.

Sports builds, aside from muscles, camaraderie among players. Kidding aside, at the core of every competition is the desire to unite each and every participant. The Global Gaming League (GGL) together with its partners were probably thinking along this line when they launched the Professional Baseball Videogaming League (PBGL).

PBGL aims to enable online gaming competition between actual major leaguers and fans. Aside from GGL, the concept was approved by the Major League Baseball Advance Media, Boras Marketing and New York Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon. Also, Damon will serve as the league's first ever commissioner. He announced:

Both baseball and video games play a huge role in today's culture in the US and around the world, and the PBGL is doing a great job of bringing these two communities together. More importantly, the PBGL is allowing me to invoke another passion of mine.

The Wounded Warrior Project raises funds and awareness for wounded veterans. As Commissioner, I'm proud to add former U.S. Army Sergeant Steven Andrew Robison of Kansas City, Missouri, to this season's PBGL line-up.

Well, that's hitting two birds with one stone! Anyway, PBGL for its first season will be employing Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360. PBGL has a lot of in store for everyone. For details regarding these activities and how to join, refer to the Read link below.

Baseball is said to be America's national pastime...that is until technology changed our lives and MMOs became one of our favorite hobbies. So it wasn't that surprising if a company combines baseball and MMOs. And that is just what Netamin Communications Corp. had in mind when they came up with the MMO, Ultimate Baseball Online or UBO. Of course, the fact that you could play it for free is just the icing on the cake.

Recently, UBO joined the bandwagon called personalized info and social networking by launching a new capability called "MyUBO". This new feature is designed to give personalized info to each player upon game entry in order to keep them up-to-date with the latest community networking activity and possibility of event participation. The feature will include the following:

• MyEvents - highlights events including team happenings and tournament scheds that are available or assigned to a player.
• MyCharacters - displays game stats for each player's characters. It also shows the Experience Points each character needs to level up.
• MyNews - shows UBO news and updates as well as personalized messages for an individual character.

We think we've posted our befuddlement regarding advertising seeping into our gaming experience before. Anyway, what follows is perhaps the ideal win-win scenario when it comes to the topic of in-game advertising.

Netamin Communications Corp's UBO, or Ultimate Baseball Online, will be implementing the advertising business model in the coming month instead of charging its players for monthly subscriptions. With the aid of a leading in-game advertising agency, players will start seeing ads from leading consumer companies get featured in Ultimate Baseball Online. This will allow characters of non-subscribers to remain intact without level downgrades.

So why is there still a subscription you ask? Well, there will be what the developers claim, "heightened services" available for pay. Leagues and Sponsored Tournaments will have low, one-time charges for participation and prizes. Participation in these leagues and tournaments allow players to be eligible to compete in the annual Best of UBO, which features cash and merchandise prizes. So there's a little something for everyone whether or not you do subscribe.

While some of us here at QJ still can't see how in-game advertising will fit in a game like WoW, sports games are perfect for in-game ads. Some think that ads just plain work for games with contemporary settings, where advertising and billboards blend in instead of stand out. In the case of sports games, the adverts actually add to the credibility of the setting. The ads in Battlefield 2142 for example, are a bit weird, but they sort of fit... sort of.

This also makes one wonder if games like GTA or City of Heroes will be cheaper if players saw the game world littered with Coke, Pepsi, and Calvin Klein ads? Anyway, what other games or genres out there do you think would fit with in-game advertising? Feel free to comment.

Netamin has announced a new Ultimate Baseball 2006 tournament called Summer Classic. It is comprised of Double Elimination-format rounds, and takes place from August 7 to August 15. 16 six-man (5 on the field, 1 as a substitute) teams get to play for the fame and money. Actually, it'll be 32, as Netamin has decided to run two tournaments simultaneously, one for players Level 30 and above, another for the players from Level 1 to 40, so that each player regardless of the amount of time he spent with Ultimate Baseball Online has a chance of winning.

The entry fee for the event is $6.95, but the prizes that are up for grabs should far outweigh that little investment. Here's what'll be available to the winners...

Upper Division (Level 30 and above)

1st: $100 toward game tickets/merchandise to any MLB, Minor League, or other professional baseball game
2nd: $50 gift certificate to shop.mlb.com
3rd: Custom UBO T-shirt

Lower Division (Levels 1-40)

1st: $75 gift certificate to shop.mlb.com
2nd: Custom-fitted UBO hat
3rd: Custom UBO T-shirt

The Summer Classic is the second Ultimate Baseball Online event after the Invitational Tournament ended a few weeks ago. The players of the winning team received a Playstation Portable system, once again proving that it's worth to spend a little time in the Sports MMO World of Ultimate Baseball Online.

Before you spam the comments again, I know this isn't news; it's just a good laugh. Anyway, a guy (I assume it's a guy) that goes by the name of 'Artmonkey' made a World of Warcraft dub of the classic Who's on First? baseball comedy act by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Their act has been translated into a dozen of different languages and used to be in theaters all over the world.

Now Artmonkey is bringing it back to this generation using the oh so popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. I admit it's very easily done but it's a good laugh if you like comedy acts. Check it out below: