Like the rest of the world, the gaming industry has seen a lot of changes forced upon it due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More and more people are working remotely and changing how to go about putting together the best games possible. For the MLB The Show 21 team at Sony San Diego, that’s no different.
The team is hard at work on this year’s installment of the only AAA baseball game on the market, but it’s been awfully quiet. The only thing that’s been announced by the studio is that news will be coming in February. And according to a source close to the matter, that’s because there’s still discussions regarding release happening behind the scenes.
MLB The Show 21 news coming in February.
— MLB The Show (@MLBTheShow) January 15, 2021
One of the biggest questions is if MLB The Show 21 will be multiplatform. For those unaware, when Sony extended its partnership with MLB and the MLBPA, it was announced that the game will be brought to other platforms “as early as 2021”.
SGO has learned that MLB The Show 21 was originally confirmed internally to be coming to both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 in 2021 back in January 2020. When the pandemic hit and started forcing working changes, that discussion was reopened.
As 2020 continued, the discussion then changed to holding off on bringing the franchise off PlayStation for another year to make sure it doesn’t have any issues on the PS5. That idea received push back from multiple parties, including Microsoft. The creators of the Xbox have been banking, for a lack of a better term, on MLB The Show 21 being the first major MLB game to appear on the platform since MLB 2K13 in 2013.
How Likely is a Delay?
Because of the push back, Sony San Diego began talks of delaying the release of this year’s game. This discussion continued through the end of 2020. And while a decision has been made, the source told SGO that it’s being kept close to the vest to avoid it getting out.
Now, usually the first trailer and details about the game aren’t released until late January/early Febuary anyway. However, if we look back, for MLB The Show 20, fans knew about a closed beta in December 2019. On top of that, the cover athlete for the game was announced well before.
With MLB The Show 21, there has been nothing. Not a peep from the team about what’s to come, the platforms it’ll be on, or when it’ll be available.
When pressed to put a percentage on the chances of a delay, SGO was told that it’s sitting around 35%-40%. It was added that if there was a delay, it’s likely to only be a month or so “at most”.
As far as the hopes that it will show up on Xbox, PC, or even Google Stadia, the source simply said, “If it’s this year, that would be a pleasant surprise.”
So sports gamers, what do you think is going to happen with MLB The Show 21? Let us know in the comment section below and stick with Sports Gamers Online for more.