By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The popularity of baseball is reaching new heights, and so is the fight between online computer game companies over the rights to develop games based on real teams and players.
According to industry sources, CJ Internet, a major online game publisher that operates the popular baseball game, "Magu Magu," is in discussions with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) over the exclusive rights to develop content based on the professional baseball league.
An exclusive license would allow CJ to keep rival products, such as "Slugger" by Neowiz Games, in the rear view mirror.
CJ's talks with the KBO are likely to cause some bickering within the industry, as the baseball league had been providing multiple licenses to CJ, Neowiz and KTH, which is preparing its own baseball game, "Windup."
CJ has also been criticized for using the characters based on retired KBO players without consent from the players, a dispute that is now being handled by a lawsuit.
Should the KBO grant an exclusive license to CJ, Neowiz, whose license expires at the end of the year, will be forced to tweak the names of the teams and players featured in Slugger.
KTH, however, will be allowed to feature real teams and players for Windup until sometime in 2010 as its KBO license extends two years after the game's commercial launch.
Since signing a three-year contract ahead of this season to be the main sponsor of the baseball league, CJ has been seeking an exclusive KBO license for its games.
"The talks have been continuing since the start of the year, and we believe an agreement could be announced at the end of the season," a KBO official said.
Neowiz officials declined to comment on the issue, saying they have no detailed knowledge about the discussions between CJ and the KBO.
CJ's move to secure exclusive KBO licenses is related to the rising popularity of Slugger, which has surpassed Magu Magu in the number of users. The competition between the two baseball games has been leading to a touchy relationship between the two publishers and also the game studios, which were responsible for the development of the games.
Ani Park, which had developed Magu Magu, said it will sue Wisenet, the developer of Slugger, on charges of plagiarism, although the company has yet to follow through on its threat.