2K Sports secures Asian baseball deal

2K Sports is to co-develop a new online baseball game with Korean company Nexon Corporation, as the company looks to expand into Asia's online market.

The new game for the Korean market will be developed by 2K Sports' Visual Concepts studio, who have worked on 2K's Major League Baseball 2K series, as well as NBA 2K and MLB 2K.

Nexon Corporation, best known for free-to-play online titles such as Maple Story and KartRider, will also aid in the game's development and introduction into the South Korean market.

"Nexon is a pioneer in the online gaming space and its track record of creating quality online titles makes them an ideal partner," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "We view this as a great opportunity to deliver an outstanding simulation game to a population that enjoys online gaming and has a passion for baseball. We look forward to reaching new audiences with our authentic simulation titles."

"As Korea's number one spectator sport with nearly six million fans in 2010, baseball has a massive untapped audience to whom we believe our game will appeal," added Hubert Larenaudie, president of Take-Two Asia.

"This partnership is an opportunity to demonstrate the scope of our development capabilities by creating a new type of online game," said Min Suh, CEO of Nexon Corporation.

"We're confident that Visual Concepts' proven success in developing sports simulations coupled with our online gaming expertise will result in a new kind of baseball experience for Korean online gamers."