MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression - Some Details Revealed

[brahmagoul]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

I'm eager to find out if the PS5 version will have any added controller perks!

[DJ]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

Anyone surprised at no Switch version announcement? I am, a little. The thing still prints money, but maybe they're waiting for the upgraded one that might be coming towards the end of this year?

It would probably have to be scaled down dramatically to be playable on the current Switch.

I think the scaling down is what prevented it from making it to Switch. Like you said, hopefully if this Switch Pro ever happens, The Show can appear there.

[Funkycorm]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

Is it? I mean, many here are jaded...but.....

The decision may very well have boiled-down to two options:

1. Do nothing/very little with franchise mode but keep carryovers.
2. Overhaul franchise but you have to do away with carryovers for a year.

What if the "new franchise" includes expanded rosters (beyond 90)? The roster size alone may have been enough to necessitate killing-off carryovers for a year - roster expansion will greatly alter every dynamic in the game...carryover saves likely would have been massively "busted". Once that new base is in-place in MLBTS21, it would (in theory) be able to continue in 22 and any franchises from 21 could be moved forward from that point.

If carryovers are gone to never return, then yes, it's bad. I just don't think this will be the case - I don't see the proverbial "writing on the wall" here. SDS even commented in the blog that they understand the popularity of this feature.

I'm going to say this though...I think it would strongly behoove SDS to be up front in their pre-launch materials/streams if they intend for carryovers to return for '22. It might be questionable from a business perspective to do this; but if they want to be a customer-driven service, then I think it would be a classy thing to do.

I guess I should clarify that people means me and a few of my colleagues that have been discussing this in our MLB group text this afternoon. Maybe I was generalizing more than I should have. I am coming off of four 12s in a row though...

I don't disagree with your points.

I do acknowledge that it was likely a choice. Change franchise or keep carry over saves. If you are going to improve something you have to start over at times. No denying that.

Carry over saves may come back. I remember something about them taking a full cycle to make sure they could add it though. I hope they return as they said they knew it was a popular feature. I just don't know. But I agree if it is in the plans they need to put it out there.

I do have more faith in SDS than a lot of other developers. There are only a few other developers I really count on to follow through and this is one sports one I have faith in.

It's all going to come down to what revamped means. Sure if we get 125 man rosters or what not, that would be cool. And an obvious reason why carry over could not stay.

I am likely eyeing 2022 as a return to the game myself as I will have hopefully accomplished what I have sought it my Indians franchise and that is a four year championship run. I won in 2025, 2026, and recently won in 2027. I plan on starting 2028 soon and since I can't complete that in 21, I am sticking with 20. Yes it is jumping to conclusions but I am ok with that. Plus I should be on the PS5 by then.

[DanH35]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

Looks like we will have to wait until March until they reveal anything about the game. Thank you vey much Coronavirus

And I am not shocked at all that the PS5 version will be $10 more then the PS4 version. But I really hope they are charging $10 more because the PS5 version will be something "EXTRA SPECIAL" and not just because they can.

Just saying year after year I see so many say MLB The Show looks the same for good reason. But I really hope that trend finally stops with PS5!

I just really want that tug to the floor feeling when my eyes see MLB The Show 21 PS5 version for the first time

The PS5 version was always going to be $70. That’s the price point for all major Sony published PS5 games. While I’m sure there will be upgrades on the PS5, mostly graphic fidelity, audio, and controller upgrades, I won’t expect anything past that. There’s cross play with last gen, so the gameplay cannot be drastically different between the generations.

[bcruise]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

The PS5 version was always going to be $70. That’s the price point for all major Sony published PS5 games. While I’m sure there will be upgrades on the PS5, mostly graphic fidelity, audio, and controller upgrades, I won’t expect anything past that. There’s cross play with last gen, so the gameplay cannot be drastically different between the generations.

I'm hoping for a few extra bells and whistles in presentation, personally. Since it's so stripped down for the sake of speeding up play, Online (with cross-play) presentation doesn't necessarily have to limit what the next-gens can do offline in that department.

Agree that the gameplay has to be virtually the same if online cross-play between console generations exists.

[Lisac]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

4/20 release
Another month for Ridin Roster so Memorial Day Weeknd start Franchise!
Only thing I can hope for is the Season doesnt start til 5/1

[ninertravel]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

I’m going to blame Xbox on why carry over stuff is gone, they didn’t want 2 seperate codes for a feature that Xbox won’t have with no prior history

Poor ricin has months of work from scratch and do those classic rosters guys, don’t expect import rosters from 20 feature either because Xbox wouldn’t have it,

[Dannyld]

No PC?

[mgoblue]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

I'm trying to remember, weren't there some quirks that the Sony guys said they literally couldn't fix on current gen due to the engine? Hoping that the cross play stuff doesn't limit those updates.

[ninertravel]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

4/20 release
Another month for Ridin Roster so Memorial Day Weeknd start Franchise!
Only thing I can hope for is the Season doesnt start til 5/1

Don’t expect that this year he’s gonna have to start from scratch with no carry over saves they can’t use the export import trick now it’s gonna be more like 3 months starting from scratch.

[bcruise]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

Doesn't Ridin collaborate with SDS now for the full minors rosters? I don't really feel like he'd be starting completely from scratch as though it was a pre-carryover saves scenario....

I mean that was the case last year. No idea if that's going to happen again though.

[Funkycorm]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

4/20 release
Another month for Ridin Roster so Memorial Day Weeknd start Franchise!
Only thing I can hope for is the Season doesnt start til 5/1

I think it's going to come down to if roster carryover is still there or not.

If roster carryover is not there and season carryover is not there, they would have to start entirely from scratch. Well maybe give or take if they do part of the minors roster for SDS like last year.

Now I didn't start following the FM roster until 2016 so I am not sure how long it took before year to year carryover started but I would guess it took longer than a month.

If they do it, I can see it taking 2-3 months because they are starting from base one as opposed to transfer and update.

[tnixen]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20 with Cross-Platform Play & Cross Progression

Just a thought here but X Box might be the downfall of MLB The Show in the not to far future?

What are the odds MLB said to Sony either you put MLB The Show on other consoles or we will not renew the MLB License?

Hopefully I am just talking out of my *** lol

[John Hannah]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

SDS could have had to disable the Y2Y carry over for this initial release due to a "revamped franchise". SDS even mentions that they know how important this Y2Y feature is to the community, so maybe they are reworking it alongside the revamped franchise still, but don't want to get everyone's hopes up by fully promising it out of the gate.

Thinking about it as a coder, this is what makes the most sense.

There's really no reason for the console generation to matter, as some others have speculated.

The franchise files are just databases of attributes. If SDS wants to revamp what attributes are present, how they're used, how they're weighted, etc. there can potentially be a lot of work into testing to make sure the porting process doesn't break anything.

Look at basically any roster project where the people running it are trying to use outside sources to interpolate to the ratings of a given game. They put a lot of time into tweaking the transform so it works as best as possible even including the edge cases. Anyone familiar with the PC-based tools for many EA games (NCAA for example) can attest to just how much information there is, and how large a project it could be to port those forward to some newer even more complex system.

This is, I think probably, the same sort of thing. Think of it as porting one rating system to another, rather than thinking of it all as a single series. There's no reason it should be impossible, but plenty of reasons it may not be worth the time to have ready for launch.

[ajs41072]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Arrives on April 20

New to MLB The Show this year is gameplay styles along-side new gameplay onboarding tutorials to help new users learn the game.

Casual: An easier, fun, pick-up and play experience with an emphasis on learning the game.

Simulation: Authentic MLB experience that plays true to player and team ratings.

Competitive: User stick skills reign supreme. Our online H2H default

I didn't read the entire 15+ pages, but this part I don't like. I don't understand why there needs to be a difference between simulation and competitive. I can see the difference with casual. So competitive is if I'm batting and I time my swing properly, I'm going to get a hit or homerun regardless if Mike Trout or the 25th man on the Tigers is at the plate, just because I have stick skills and move the plate coverage indicator in the right place. You have to be able to play the game well to win, but I don't want to see anyone hit like Trout just because of stick skills. And this is the online game style. I'd hope that Trout would get more hits if even if I don't get a good swing/plate coverage than the a bench player and that would depend on stick skills anyway.