MLB The Show’s Big Swing

How San Diego Studio's big hit has gotten better and better

If you are one of the eager fans of San Diego Studio’s hit baseball simulation game, MLB the Show, then chances are you’re already enjoying the early access granted to customers who pre-ordered. For everyone else, the game releases on March 28th on PlayStation, Xbox, and the Nintendo Switch. MLB the Show is arguably the most revered sports video game franchise and for good reason.

Gamers may scoff at any sports title, given their reputation of being copy-and-pasted with a different number attached to the title every year or the fact that so many sports titles are considered pay-to-play. However, MLB the Show is and always will be different. This is because of the care that San Diego Studios, which is a first party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment, take with each and every version of the game that they release.

SDS make it a point to ensure that players who would rather not spend their money on packs, which are the equivalent of loot boxes, have a viable chance to get the players they want for the game’s premier mode. Diamond Dynasty is one of many modes that are available in MLB the Show which may be familiar to anyone who’s played any Madden or FIFA title. You can think of it as SDS’ answer to EA’s Ultimate Team mode.

For those unfamiliar, a mode like SDS’ Diamond Dynasty or EA’s Ultimate Team tasks a player to create their own dream team. A player earns what are called cards (which represent a real life player of the sport) that give the player access to use an athlete’s likeness in the game. So each roster is comprised of different cards with different attributes that all represent a real life athlete and their likeness.

If you’ve ever played any EA Ultimate Team mode, you know that when it comes to acquiring the best cards you have to spend some money in order to do so. SDS takes pride in allowing you to earn the best cards the game has to offer, simply through completing tasks and accruing XP to complete various programs that have reward paths. If it sounds intimidating at first, it’s because it is. I recommend anyone even moderately interested to just dive head first into the mode, like I did back in 2021 when the game was finally made available on Xbox. The game rewards you for jumping in the deep end, now more so than ever given a monumental change to the way content works in MLB the Show.

In 2023, SDS chose to completely revamp their content strategy. Instead of opting for the familiar content schedule for a Ultimate Team mode which involves a steady power creep of potency of cards available throughout the entire game’s cycle, SDS is shaking things up by making 99 overall rated cards available on day 1. In other years, the highest rated card that a player could unlock in March would be a 90 overall rated card. This new strategy is possible due to a new content structure that relies on cards belonging to Sets and Seasons. Certain cards are only available in certain Seasons.

SDS shaking the tree like this comes as no surprise. Throughout multiple feature streams that SDS has done in the lead up to the game’s release, they’ve explained that they wanted to keep the game fresh throughout the whole year. Additionally, they continue to explain to their customers that instead of the game cycle lasting the typical 10 months worth of content, customers should imagine that the game will reset on an 8 week basis.

I can’t help but think this is a direct response to the MLB the Show community’s negative reaction to last year’s release. Some complaints that the community voiced to SDS was a staleness of content, inconsistent gameplay, and a seemingly underrating of player input resulting in good results on the field among other things. SDS have made it loud and clear that they heard the community all throughout last year and the changes that they made to MLB the Show 23 reflect that. Now that the game is out to those who pre-ordered, only time will tell if MLB the Show’s swing for the fences will be a perfect-perfect or if it will be a flailing misfire. My money is on the former.