Com2uS has announced that it has acquired 100% of the stake in Out of the Park Development (OOTP), a German game company.
Founded in 1999, OOTP is a German company that provides PC-based sports management games such as Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP Baseball) and Franchise Hockey Manager.
OOTP Baseball is a management game that has secured the license of MLB, an American professional baseball game, and is currently being serviced through the Steam platform and online downloads.
Com2uS is expecting high synergy between the two companies with this acquisition of OOTP. Com2uS, which already has the know-how of global sports licensed games such as MLB, NBA, and KBO, plans to strengthen its competitiveness by adding OOTP’s management genre capabilities. In addition, the company is in a position to successfully lead the global market expansion of OOTP games and mobile version services through organic collaboration.
Com2uS has raised its brand status through global business performances in the United States and Europe, as well as a long-established global business network, and will further promote M&A for overseas companies in the future.
Markus Heinsohn, CEO of OOTP answers questions about the acquisition:
Q: How long do you intend to stay on board before the next project?
A: I have absolutely no plans to leave the company anytime soon. It’s my dream job and what I can do best, so why change? Andreas will retire in about 3 years, he’s already a grizzled veteran. 
Q: I know that COM2US has kinda good in-game graphics in their mobile games, such as MLB 9innings. Can I expect their graphic nohows can be adapted into OOTP pc?
A: We do not know yet how the 3D engine of the Com2uS products work, so for the short- & medium-term future, the OOTP 3D engine will stay in place.
Q: And do you expect a change in the billing policy to occur? I know that Korean games are very charge-inducing.
A: No change here, shop systems will remain the same.
Q: Will there be a price increase for the next product?
A: I am pretty sure the answer to that is no. We have toyed with that idea in the past, since games have been at the same price for decades while everything else got more expensive, but I think $39.99 is still the sweet-spot for us.
Q: I know Com2us has a different league license (eg KBO). So, do you have any plans to make other leagues a reality like MLB?
A: Yes, that is the plan.
Q: As you know, Korean fans of OOTP have long wanted to translate OOTP into Korean. Is it finally the moment they’ve been waiting for?
A: Yes, translation work starts immediately and we hope it’ll be done in time for the OOTP 22 launch.
Q: Congrats. What would you anticipate to be the biggest positive impact or difference in the game in 3 years due to this sale?
A: Thanks! I think all areas will benefit, as we now have bigger resources and more experience in the background. If I had to guess though, the biggest progress will probably be made with our mobile product(s), as here our experience so far has been quite limited.
Q: What does this mean for the development of PT? Will you be drawing on COM2US for development advice, given their track record in running microtransaction-model games?
A: They are very happy with PT, but you are right, they have lots of experience with these kind of game modes. We’ll see if that experience can be applied to PT in a meaningful way… I personally expect this to happen more for marketing purposes than the game design itself.
Come join the discussion about the acquisition…
