Local hero Fernando Tatis Jr. is the cover star of Sony San Diego Studio MLB The Show 21, which launches on April 20, but the real news is that the game will also be released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X on the same day.
The unusual cross-console launch of a game developed by Sony offers Xbox baseball fans their first simulation-quality game since 2013 Major League Baseball 2K13 from Visual Concepts and 2K Sports. MLB The Show 21 it will also feature cross-platform play (between Xbox and PlayStation devices) and cross-generation game rescue compatibility (PlayStation 4 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox One for Xbox Series X).
Game saves between generations, however, will not include importing the career and progress of Road to the Show from previous versions of the game. Sony introduced this feature, the first and only one of its kind in sports titles, with MLB The Show 14 and 15 on PlayStation 4.
“We have nothing to share about the future of the feature, but we are aware of its popularity in the community,” wrote Sony San Diego in a FAQ.
However, there is no free update from the previous generation of the console for the current family. Players who want to play MLB the Show 21 both generations will have to buy a collector’s edition. The price and other details will be announced on Wednesday.
MLB The Show 21Sony’s launch on Xbox platforms was foreshadowed in a December 2019 announcement, with Nintendo and Microsoft acknowledging that the Sony franchise would be reaching its platforms. (Details on the release of the Nintendo Switch were not provided on Monday)
The absence of MLB on these two platforms goes back to the formation of 2K Games itself, when Take-Two Interactive bought Sega’s Visual Concepts studio in 2005 and negotiated an exclusive third-party license with MLB. Sony maintained the right to make its MLB the Show series with San Diego Studio (then known as 989 Sports).
2K Sports’ MLB franchise dropped in quality with the 2005-2006 console generation shift, and never regained its balance, while MLB The Show has arguably become a console selling sports title for PlayStation. The only video games licensed by Major League Baseball for Xbox and Nintendo since 2013 were the reconstituted RBI Baseball series, an arcade-style game developed by MLB Advanced Media.
Interbases Fernando Tatis Jr. begins his third season with the San Diego Padres this year. The son of former St. Louis and New York Mets third baseman Fernando Tatis, he took third place in the 2019 National League Rookie of the Year vote, with 22 home runs and a batting average of 0.317 over just half a season (84 games).
Tatis, Jr. is among a wave of second-generation baseball stars who have won the league over the past four seasons, including Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette of Toronto.