Video Games.

[jeffy]

[Kid]

FUCK ZAMBRANO!

 

Wait ...

[jeffy]

Heh.

 

Anyone pick up the new COD? I skipped the last few so I’m god awful, but I’m having fun and it seems pretty solid. 

[Kid]

Apparently The Show will be coming to Xbox.  Sony, MLB, and the MLBPA announced a deal yesterday that extends Sony's license and says the game will be made available on other platforms than Playstation as soon as 2021.  MLB hasn't had a a real game on platforms other than Playstation (not including arcade-style games like RBI) in a couple of years, and the 2K games that were the last ones were widely panned as awful.  It's pretty interesting because this will be a Sony in-house studio producing games for Xbox and possibly other non-Playstation platforms.  Presumably, MLB wanted to get a game on Xbox, etc. and likely gave Sony the option of either agreeing to do so or losing the license to another company that would make a multi-platform game.

[jeffy]

I never thought I’d see the day, but this is excellent news

I’d love a “play anywhere” Xbox version that covered the PC as well as thankfully that’s finally the way things are going with Xbox Game Pass, which is a fantastic service, by the way.

A Switch edition would be a welcome treat as well.

I’ve been playing The Show since ‘06 and it’s always felt to me like Sony’s personal love letter to the sport. This series has been going strong since its inception (and even before it was called The Show), so I think it’s safe to say that this is arguably the most consistent sports franchise of all time, which is quite impressive. Madden had a hell of a run till about 2012, but lost it’s way after that, imo, and now it’s basically a bad joke. Meanwhile, The Show hasn’t really skipped a beat and this latest development should only serve to bolster the series even further.

[Kid]

I didn't realize that 2013 was the last 2K game (and while I never played it since I only have had Playstations, 2K13 was made at the very last minute and was basically nothing more than a roster update from 2K12), so it will have been at least 8 years without a real MLB game on Xbox.

[jeffy]

Yeah, 2012 was the last I bought for that reason. It’s really sad what happened to that series because 2K7 was quite revolutionary for its time, but then they tanked 2K8 for some stupid reason, and completely started from scratch with 2K9 when Visual Concepts took over, which was supposed to be a beacon of hope since they had such a great track record with NBA and NHL...but it just never panned out, mainly because 2K simply wouldn’t devote more resources from what I could gather.

[jeffy]

Meanwhile, this might be one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in a video game:

https://youtu.be/iMFuCxSoyXg

He even has a bulldog...shut up and take my money.

[Kid]

I seem to recall the issue was that The Show really took off as a series shortly after 2K got the exclusive third-party deal.  So, 2K paid MLB for exclusivity to keep EA from being able to continue the Triple Play series, but then after paying that price, they were outsold on one of the 2 consoles they had paid for.  After that, 2K didn't want to pay enough to develop the games because they overpaid for the license, and so quality deteriorated.

[jeffy]

That sums it rather nicely. I really do think the competition at the time drove The Show to even greater excellence, so I was a bit worried the lack of competition might make Sony complacent, as we saw with Madden after 2K dropped out of the NFL business...but thankfully The Show apparently didn’t need the competition by that point (since 2K really hadn’t putting up a fight for some time anyway) and they just kept cranking out high quality games.

[Kid]

Apparently The Show is going to have full minor league rosters this year, so that's pretty cool.

[Kid]

At least The Show is still coming out tomorrow.

[jeffy]

I’m ready. I usually go with the digital version, but making an exception this year for the Baez cover.



Kid, have you ever played Super Mega Baseball? I’ve been enjoying it on my Switch when Im on the go. It’s quite fun for a change of pace and the online co-op is really well done. This is the one feature I wish The Show would implement. Actually now that I think on it, I believe it was in the game previously, but they ripped it out when they rebuilt their net code (16 was maybe the last to have it?) A real shame they haven't added it back in yet...Anyways, SMB3 is coming next month so Im looking forward to that as well.

[Kid]

I haven't.  I'm not big into arcade style games.

[jeffy]

I’m usually not either, but the gameplay is surprisingly sim, despite the cartoony graphics. Sounds like they’re moving even further in that direction with 3.

 

Hopefully by next year The Show will be on Switch.