Last week, rumors appeared on the Internet that Horizon Zero Dawn would be released on personal computers. Community
What is known
In addition to Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted and God of War,Sony also has a “sports exclusive” — the baseball simulator MLB: The Show. The game is published under the Major League Baseball license, and since 1997 it has been released only on the PlayStation platform. Now the organizations have signed a new agreement, and MLB will expand beyond Sony consoles.
Today @MLB, @MLB_Players, @SonySanDiego and @PlayStation announced multi-year, multi-platform video game partnership extensions @MLBTheShow. pic.twitter.com/PEGIRSNUSK
- MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) December 10, 2019
MLB Organization, MLB Players Association, SonyInteractive Entertainment and SIE San Diego Studio have extended their partnership agreement, but under new conditions. As part of the agreement, the baseball simulator will be released “beyond PlayStation platforms as early as 2021.”
The contract does not specify the exact platformsBut the official Xbox and Nintendo Twitter accounts reposted the MLB post on their pages. Perhaps this is how the companies decided to hint that owners of Xbox One and Nintendo Switch will also be able to play virtual baseball.
At the same time, it looks like Sony willSelf-publish MLB: The Show games on Nintendo and Microsoft platforms. The contract does not specify a new publisher, and the series will continue to be developed by SIE San Diego Studio, an internal Sony team.
According to Polygon, SIE San Diego Studio is workinghas been working on MLB: The Show games for 20 years, starting with MLB ’98 for the first PlayStation. Moreover, this is the only series that managed to stay afloat. The same MLB 2K closed in 2014 after Major League Baseball 2K13 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Nintendo completely stopped releasing Major League Baseball on its platforms in 2012.
The only alternative is the R.B.I series.Baseball, which comes from MLB Advanced Media on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. At the same time, fans of baseball simulators do not take these projects seriously, so MLB: The Show thrives with almost no competition.
The deal can be called historic, because Sonydecided to share an exclusive series without competitors with other companies. Yes, games based on MLB: The Show did not explode the market, but in March 2019, MLB The Show 19 outsold Devil May Cry 5 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. So it’s unlikely that Sony decided to squeeze the last out of the dying franchise.
- Bethesda pulled TES: Blades from the bottom: the developers changed the economy, balance and added “Arena”
- Due to a bug in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the player ended up on an unannounced “battle royale” map (video)
- It was better with loot boxes: Rocket League players riot over new “greedy” monetization