> All I have to say is...Thank God 989 Studios hasn't gotten any of the exclusive deals.
Actually, 989 is exempt from the exclusivity because they are a First Party Developer. This also means Microsoft, Nintendo and even someone like Nokia are free to negotiate a license with the MLBPA to make an officially licensed game.
Furthermore, this is (so far) a deal with the MLBPA only. They are not the same as the MLB. I'm sure a deal with the MLB will follow, but it's still theoretically possible they won't get exclusive rights from the MLB, allowing someone to make a MLB game with all the teams/stadiums but without real player names.
The silliest thing about this deal is they actually picked the wrong horse to bet on. I don't care how anti-EA you want to be, but MVP was clearly the better baseball game, hands down.