By the time you are reading this, MLB The Show 23 is most likely out in early access. That means the wait is finally over for the newest entry in the long running MLB series. On Thursday, the team at SDS held a nearly 3 hour long Feature Premiere live stream where they went over all the live content that will be in the game at launch, as well as what we can expect to see throughout the year.
XP Reward Path
The first news revealed on the stream was that at launch, MLB The Show 23 will have more than 300 flashback and legend cards, including more than twenty 99 OVR cards. This by far the most we have ever had at launch for any MLB The Show game. This is part of the new Sets and Seasons set up for Diamond Dynasty that seeks to reinvent the card-collecting mode genre. Eventually, most of the launch content will be restricted in certain parts of the mode.
We also learned that the XP Reward Path would be returning as the main XP path in the game. The last few years this place was taken by the Innings Program and Featured Programs. Players will earn XP in this path by playing any part of MLB The Show 23, inside and outside of Diamond Dynasty. Players will also be able to complete objectives like missions, moments, collections, and others to gain additional XP towards this path.
The XP Reward Path will reset at the start of each Season. The Season 1 XP Reward Path features 5 bosses, of which players can earn 3 through the path. Players will also have a chance to earn more of the bosses by gaining extra XP after completing the XP Reward Path. The five bosses in the Season 1 XP Reward Path are:
- WBC Munetaka Murakami 3B (99 OVR)
- Charisma Bob Gibson SP (99 OVR)
- WBC RP Devin Williams (99 OVR)
- Charisma LF Rickey Henderson (99 OVR)
- WBC SS Francisco Lindor (99 OVR)
Team Affinity
The biggest news to me from this stream was that Team Affinity was returning in all of its former glory. And I do mean all of its former glory. Players will now be able to earn all 30 cards from each Team Affinity release.
This is an incredibly positive change to me. I did not enjoy how Team Affinity was replaced by Featured Programs in MLB The Show 22, mainly because we were no longer able to earn all 30 cards. Now, the fact that we are able to get all 30 makes me so excited to hop back into my favorite part of Diamond Dynasty.
The first Team Affinity release is already in the game at launch. This first release features 30 cards from the new Charisma series. Each of these cards is a 97 OVR. Players will be able to earn all 30 of these cards through moments, missions, exchanges, and more.
WBC Program
There is one more big program in Diamond Dynasty at launch. The World Baseball Classic program features some of the best launch cards we have ever seen in MLB The Show. There are tons of diamond cards in this program, including a 99 OVR Mike Trout. That’s right, the card we all wait all year for is in a pack contained in this program. It is a choice pack that has a base and rare round. Players will have a 1:5 chance of getting the rare round of cards to choose from.
