Now that the final touches have been put on Version 9 of OOTP Baseball, are there any significant parts of the game that you are targeting for improvement in the next edition of the game?

Yes. But I won't discuss which features right now. Of course, improving the AI and player aging/development model is always one of our top priorities.

OOTP Baseball is distributed via digital download. What are the pros/cons of that method of distribution to you as a developer?

The cons are that you do not get the customers that stumble over the game by accident, and some potential customers are still not fond about the idea of owning a digital license instead of a CD/DVD. But the benefits are far greater in my opinion. First, the profit percentage is much higher. In addition we do not lose time due to the production of packaging/CDs so we can release the game the second we have finished them. That results in more income as well.

Piracy is a big discussion point amongst PC gamers and developers. Do you have any concerns about piracy of your games? Do you believe piracy to be a legitimate problem or overblown in regards to the impact on the PC gaming industry?

Piracy is a legitimate problem in countries that are not as strong economically, for example Russia. But I think it is generally overblown. Sometimes it even helps in reaching new customers for future versions. But maybe I am a bit naive in this area...

Are there any genres outside sports simulations that you'd be interested in developing a game?

I love science-fiction games, and developing a game where you can explore space and discover all sorts of things and alien life-forms would be fun. Something like a dynamically expanding strategy-adventure in the Star Trek world would definitely be something I'd be interested in.

If you had to choose one developer outside of the text simulation genre to work with, who would it be and why?

ID Software, because I have no clue about 3D programming and would love to borrow John Carmack's Ferraris once in a while!

We'd like to thank Markus for taking the time to chat with us. You can check out OOTP at the game's website .

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .