From GS:

When Sega entered into an agreement with Take-Two Interactive to copublish its line of ESPN sports games last year, many industry watchers suspected the publisher was planning to sell off its internal sports studio, Visual Concepts. Those suspicions were confirmed just before Christmas when it was revealed that part of the codistribution deal allowed Take-Two to buy Visual Concepts, should it choose to do so.

Today, it appears the publisher has chosen to do just that. Following this morning' s announcement that Take-Two had secured exclusive third-party publishing rights from the Major League Baseball Players' Association, Sega confirmed to GameSpot that it is selling Visual Concepts to Take-Two.

According to sources, Sega parted with the critically esteemed developer of ESPN NFL 2K5 and ESPN NBA 2K5 for just $24 million. That very low-sounding price is likely due to Electronic Arts' impending monopoly of NFL game rights and its 15-year exclusivity deal with ESPN, whose high-profile brand name will no longer give Visual Concepts' games instant recognition.

Though the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, Take-Two will become the sole owner of Visual Concepts. It will also own VC' s Kush Games subsidiary, which developed ESPN NHL 2K5 and ESPN Major League Baseball 2K5. Presumably, the studio will also create Take-Two' s upcoming pro baseball game.

" The ESPN Videogames line has not been a key profit driver in the North American market for Sega," Naoya Tsurumi, CEO of Sega of America, said in a statement. " While Sega recognizes the strength and depth of the ESPN Videogames franchise, we must remain committed to growing content that will help boost revenues across all western territories."

In addition to news of the sale of Visual Concepts is the disclosure of a new agreement between Sega and Take-Two. The companies said Sega will distribute " select Take-Two published software titles in the Asian region including Japan," as well as bring sports titles developed by Visual Concepts " to amusement machines produced and distributed by Sega Amusements" in Asia. Certainly, an interesting twist to the news of the Visual Concepts sell-off.

Oh well, NOW the proverbial " fat" lady has sung. It' s kinda depressing but eh what are ya gonna do?

I wouldn' t put it past Take-Two to have something BIG up their sleeve...it just seems too strange that Take-Two has been engulfing all of the sports lines from M$ and Sega.

Go, Take-Two!!!

Btw, when is the next installment of Serious Sam coming out?

You do know that Take Two just brought the rights to MLB?

Hopefully Take-Two also acquires the rights to the NBA sports simulation games, let EA have the Street Balling license. aRgh what hell am I talking about, the entire thing is beyond stupid.

I hope EA buys Capcom since their games aren' t selling well (for some reason I can' t figure out). And then I hope Microsoft buys EA.

I think Fox should buy EA (some Fox CEO was talking about buying EA).

It would be the greatest twist ever. I couldn' t help but to love it.

No, Microsoft would buy EA, then Fox would buy Microsoft, and then Bandai would buy Fox! It' s only natural!

Bandai already owns Fox. It' s under their " they used to have good shows in the 90' s" division.

I hope EA buys Capcom since their games aren' t selling well (for some reason I can' t figure out). And then I hope Microsoft buys EA.

Someone, I don' t care who or what, should buy EA and dis-band that dag-nabit company!!!

I dont want Microsoft To buy EA i want them or some other company to do a hostile takeover of EA.

So sega pretty much turned into a ***ty developer, the only things that makes profits are gay sonic games in which you dont even get to play as sonic half the time?

What a pathetic end.

You can' t say that! Outrun 2 is great, to quote a certain website ' it' s everything that was ever great about Sega in one game' and I must agree with them.

I agree with the Sonic thing though. Sonic Heroes was rubbish and yet became the best selling Sonic game since the 16 bit days (when everyone who had a Mega Drive owned at least 2 Sonic games).

Anyway did anyone outside the USA buy any of the Visual Concepts sports games? Thought not.

Visual Concepts make the best sport games.

As for Sega making bad games partially true.Otogi games were awesome.

The Sonic was good on the dreamcast then it went gay.

Microsoft should buy Sonic and make RARE work on it.

Just ' cause Sega wasn' t making any money from the ESPN games and is selling Visual Concepts, it doesn' t mark the end. I thinka major reason they' re doing this is because of EA' s recent monopilization of the sports genere. We' ll see what happenes in the future but Sega is still pretty much alive.

And I actually Liked Sonic Heroes ^_^

thanks man i didnt know that.im mad