This time of year tends to be pretty dry when it comes to new releases and big industry news, but there’s one game that’s been making a pretty big impact on the gaming community.MLB The Show 21, the newest installment in San Diego Studio’s yearly baseball simulation, has unexpectedly caught the attention of many gamers. On the surface, it may just look like another annual sports game, butMLB The Show 21appears to be breaking from those expectations in more ways than one. From robust new features to some welcome surprises, this year’s version of the game appears to be truly exciting.
When it comes to the sports genre of video games,MLB The Showhas routinely been in a league of its own. It usually isn’t as widely marketed as games likeMaddenorNBA 2K, making it one of the more low-key yearly sports titles. At the same time, however, there aren’t many other baseball games that provide such a detailed experience that so perfectly captures the feel of the real game.San Diego Studiolooks to be making a case forMLB The Showto not only be comparable to other sports juggernauts, but to be one of the most memorable sports games in a long time.
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Innovation in the Face of Stagnation
In recent years, a number of criticisms have been levied at the sports genre of games in general. Among these criticisms, one of the most consistent is the belief that annual sports games hardly see any changes or real innovations year after year. There have been cases where many gamers believe that one version ofa game likeMaddenis just the same version as the last year, but with updated rosters and some different lighting effects.
MLB The Show 21is doing everything it can to avoid any accusations of stagnation, it seems, by making as many refinements and additions as possible. In terms of gameplay, it’s already been revealed that the game’s fielding mechanics have received substantial touch ups in regards to player animations. Some changes have been made toThe Show’s pitching mechanicsas well, making them more intuitive and adding a whole new control scheme in the process. It’s these gameplay innovations that ensureMLB The Show 21’s gameplay loop doesn’t mimic previous entries.
Perhaps one of the most exciting gameplay innovations thatMLB The Show 21is introducing is a full-fledged stadium creator. Everything from the height of walls to the placement of seating is up to the discretion of players, and these creations will be available for use in offline and online modes with some restrictions to the latter. Some kind of stadium creator has been highly-requested inThe Showcommunity for quite some time, and it’s been one of the major selling points for the game ever since it was announced. Sports games haven’t encouraged such creativity in a while, and it’s likely it will draw in a lot of new players.
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New Places, New Faces
On top of the many gameplay additions that are being made toMLB The Show 21, something is happening with this year’s version of the game that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Ever sinceThe Showdebuted in 2006, the franchise has been a hard PlayStation exclusive. It served as a way to draw baseball fans to the console for years, as Xbox never really had a comparable baseball sim. That’s all changing withThe Show 21,however, asthe series will be coming to Xbox consolesfor the very first time.
First-party PlayStation exclusives have made their way to PC in the past, but never to such a direct industry rival such as Xbox. Although it may seem like a completely backwards decision on the part of Sony, the situation is a bit more layered.The “Console Wars"that have permeated much of the gaming industry ever since Sega started calling out Nintendo has largely been coming to an end for the past few years. The continuing connectivity of multiplayer games has mostly spurred this on. The popularity of titles such asFortnitehas encouraged Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft to embrace things like cross-play so gamers can play with whoever they want with no restrictions based on console preference.Outridersis a recent example of why crossplay is so beloved.
This change in culture is being further reflected byThe Show 21. The game will offer cross-play and cross-progression across all consoles, which will likely expand the audience of the franchise significantly. Instead of keeping the game secluded to one console, a whole other market of gamers will know what it’s like to hit a towering home run or pitch a gem of a game. What’s perhaps most exciting is how much the game is doubling down on its introduction to Xbox consoles, asThe Show 21will be available on Game Passon launch day. This will put the game into the hands of as many gamers as possible, perhaps even more than on PlayStation.
The release ofMLB The Show 21is fast approaching, and a lot of eyes will be on the game to see if it sticks the landing. Sports games usually don’t draw that much attention in comparison to the blockbusters of the industry, so the fact thatThe Show 21is so highly anticipated is a testament to the work that San Diego Studio has done with the franchise. The new gameplay additions demonstrate howThe Showis not content with being a copy and paste sports game, and the series' introduction to Xbox will be an interesting experiment on how well PlayStation exclusives perform on a rival console. It will just be a matter of time until the gaming community finds out if the experiment goes according to plan.
MLB The Show 21releases April 20 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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