Meet the newest face in sports game publishing. 2K Games is the name of the newest publishing label launched by Take Two, on the heels of the company's purchase of the sports game development house, Visual Concepts. 2K Games' sports subsidiary, 2K Sports, "will develop games for consoles, handhelds, and PCs." According to the release, titles under both the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels will come from both in-house studios (such as VC and Kush, on the sports side) as well as third party developers. So we've got new owners, a new name, and a new logo. All that's left, it seems, is for some solid details of where 2K Sports' line of titles is heading in this new cutthroat environment.

　　Industry analysts seem moderately cool to the new publishing venture, though at least one analyst said the company will be forced to not only raise the prices of their 2006 line of games, but sell two million games in 2006. That may prove to be a tall order, especially if the prices go back up to $50.

　　One analyst even speculated that Take-Two "will partner with an established sports media brand to offset the loss of the ESPN license." And with recent reports of Fox head honcho Rupert Murdoch looking to enter the gaming space, the most obvious media brand that comes to mind is Fox Sports. Could "Fox Sports' Best Damn MLBPA Baseball Sim" be far behind?