''Major League Baseball 2K12'' or, in short, ''MLB 2K12'', is a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

licensed

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

simulation video game published by 2K that was released for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

, and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on March 6, 2012. This was the last ''MLB'' game to be released for the PlayStation 2 PlayStation Portable Wii and Nintendo DS. The commentary is delivered by the trio of

Steve Phillips Stephen Francis Phillips (born May 18, 1963) is an American baseball analyst and former baseball executive. He served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003. He worked as a baseball analyst for ESPN from 2005 until h ...

Gary Thorne Gary F. Thorne (born June 9, 1948) is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major League ...

, and

John Kruk John Martin Kruk (born February 9, 1961) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. Kruk played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, and Chicago White Sox from through . D ...

Cover athlete

Justin Verlander Justin Brooks Verlander ( ; born February 20, 1983) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros. From Manakin-Sabot, ...

of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

is the game's cover athlete replacing

Roy Halladay Harry Leroy "Roy" Halladay III (May 14, 1977 – November 7, 2017) was an American professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies between 1998 and 2013. His nicknam ...

from ''

MLB 2K11 ''Major League Baseball 2K11'' or, in short, ''MLB 2K11'', is an MLB licensed baseball simulation video game published by 2K Sports. ''MLB 2K11'' is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nin ...

''. Verlander won both the

AL Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall ...

and the

AL MVP Award The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers' ...

in 2011.

Modes

*The Perfect Game Challenge is a competition where players will compete to pitch a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

in MLB 2K12. *MLB Today Season Mode *Franchise Mode is a mode where a player can play through multiple MLB seasons with one team, all while signing free agents, making trades, drafting players and setting rosters for that team and its minor league affiliate teams. However, it is not as in depth as MLB Today Season Mode, and more than one game may be played in a day in Franchise Mode. You can edit your players abilities in all areas unlimited times, making it possible to make your entire team perfect. You can also edit their contract values and adjust the sliders or difficulty level during a franchise.

Changes from the previous installments

*''MLB 2K12'' makes pitcher and batter interactions more realistic than ever before, as certain pitches will decrease or increase in effectiveness against certain players, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. *''MLB 2K12'' has a new throwing system and variation and realism in the hits. *''MLB 2K12'' features improved gameplay from the previous installments, including improved AI, as well as improved graphics and lighting. *''MLB 2K12'' features all of the real life MLB logos, uniforms, and ballparks.

End of the Series

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same m ...

gave many signals on May 22, 2012, that the game would mark the end of the ''MLB 2K'' series. The game was left off the list of games for 2K's 2013 fiscal year, which was the same way they signaled the end of the ''NHL 2K'' series (although it returned on mobile devices in 2014) and the College Hoops series. A spokesman for Take Two commented, "''Our legacy Major League Baseball agreement will sunset in fiscal 2013. MLB 2K12 is our last offering under that agreement. At this time, we have no further comment.''" However, on January 9, 2013, 2K Sports eventually announced that they had reached an agreement with

, the

Major League Baseball Players Association The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League club ...

, and

Major League Baseball Advanced Media MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league. Robert Bowman, former president and CEO of MLBAM, indicated in ...

to release '' Major League Baseball 2K13''. The game was released on March 5, 2013. ''MLB 2K13'' was the final installment of the series.

Soundtrack

The following soundtrack was confirmed on February 17, 2012.

Reception

''Major League Baseball 2K12'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. ''GamesRadar'' wrote, "Despite its many issues, MLB 2K12 packs a significant punch when it comes to the nuts-and-bolts of big league baseball...Unfortunately, it's just too ordinary-looking and choppy-playing...For all its good points, a game of this stature should be more polished at this stage of the franchise's existence."

Cover athlete

Modes

Changes from the previous installments

End of the Series

Soundtrack

Reception

References

See also