In a brief update posted on the Out of the Park Developments forums, developer Markus Heinsohn made two big announcements. First, Heinsohn announced that the team has signed a 5-year extension with the MLB and the Player’s Association. That’s a lot more Out of the Park Baseball games! Second, he revealed that OOTP 23 will miss its usual March launch window, instead aiming to launch in April 2022.
Out of the Park Baseball 23 Pushed Into April
“This is normally the time of the year we’d be officially announcing our newest Out of the Park Baseball game,” Heinsohn said in the post, “this season though, things will be starting a bit later than usual.” Heinsohn cited technical infrastructure challenges, saying the team wants the launch of OOTP 23 to be as smooth as its predecessors.
Out of the Park Developments is a virtual studio, which means they’ve been able to avoid many of the same delays that have befallen other studios as we enter the third year of an ongoing pandemic. Chief Marketing Officer of OOTP Developments Richard Grisham confirmed as much in an email. He says that throughout COVID-19, things at OOTP Developments have remained business as usual. Grisham reiterated Heinsohn’s post, saying the delay is “simply an issue of some unexpected challenges put in the team’s way that will be overcome soon.”
A Year of Licensing Chaos
Licenses have been bouncing around a lot in 2022. Earlier this year, FIFA ended it’s exclusive licensing deal with Electronic Arts. Just this week, 2K announced a series of arcade sports games with its new partner, LEGO. These things considered, it’s nice to see a studio that produces consistently successful licensed games also successfully renew both the MLB and MLBPA licenses.
OOTP Developments announced that they will extend the deadline for the current Brooks Robinson Loyalty Mission as a result of the delay. The new deadline will be March 14.
Just a quick note folks, with the release date of PT23 being pushed back, we'll be extending the deadline to complete the Brooks Robinson Loyalty Mission and be eligible for the reward
Any completions before March 14th at 11:59pm ET will qualify for the PT23 Loyalty Brooks card pic.twitter.com/b4Qp8QXQYI
— OOTP Perfect Team (@OOTPPerfectTeam) February 23, 2022
Heinsohn said the team will announce when pre-orders for OOTP 23 will open “shortly.”
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