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[yurinka]

MLB The Show Mobile is coming to iOS (minimum iPhone 11 and above, iPhone SE 2nd Gen and above, so far no iPads) and Android (minimum Android 12 and above, Mali G715, 4GB RAM, no tablets), and its soft launch started today in Philippines (meaning, it will take some time of tests and tweaks before releasing in rest of the countries).

Sign up below to get updates:
https://theshowmobile.com/


https://x.com/theshowmobile

https://www.instagram.com/theshowmobile

 

[Disciple of MSSP]

Eh, I'll try it

 

[DeepEnigma]

PC gamers,

 

[DarkShadowXI]

This got me thinking: we probably would've been better off as a society if cell phone technology peaked in like 2003 and stayed that way indefinitely.

That said…I'll probably try this and keep grumbling about how it's not on Steam yet.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This should've been a thing back in 2020 or 2022, but they got distracted by games like Concoured.

Wonder if they will integrate any fantasy baseball features to it in the near future?

 

[LordCBH]

PlayStation has announced more mobile games in the past month than anything else.

 

[Tobimacoss]

PC gamers,

Do you not have phones?

On another note, Sony enabled MLB The Show 21-25 for xCloud Buy and Stream, day before yesterday.

Only way to play them on PC.

 

[Witchilich]

PC gamers,

With Magnus, they may even drop Xbox.

 

[DarkShadowXI]

PlayStation has announced more mobile games in the past month than anything else.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

With Magnus, they may even drop Xbox.

 

[vivftp]

This should've been a thing back in 2020 or 2022, but they got distracted by games like Concoured.

Wonder if they will integrate any fantasy baseball features to it in the near future?

Why in the world do you think this has anything to do with other games like Concord? The mobile initiative began about 5 or so years ago, and games take time to make, especially when a studios pipeline to develop on said platform has to be built from scratch. That would be why we're hearing about so many of their mobile titles as of late, it simply took this long to get them out the door.

 

[adamsapple]

PlayStation has announced more mobile games in the past month than anything else.

2020 burner account with 300 posts, most of them in the last 10 days.

Yeah, that boi is someone's saved alt.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

2020 burner account with 300 posts, most of them in the last 10 days.

Yeah, that boi is someone's saved alt.

 

[Fake]

PlayStation has announced more mobile games in the past month than anything else.

More mobile games than PS5 games.
PS6 will be a smartphone confirmed.

 

[Pop]

Oh thats about to be massive. Will make PS tons of money

 

[DeepEnigma]

More mobile games than PS5 games.
PS6 will be a smartphone confirmed.

Rumor is, there will be a portable version on or around launch of the PS6.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Rumor is, there will be a portable version on or around launch of the PS6.

I would bet massive amounts of bank its not a rumor

Watch it get canceled tomorrow

 

[Tobimacoss]

With Magnus, they may even drop Xbox.

Console warrior, you're confused. MLB wants the games on every platform. Nobody's dropping anything, just adding more.

 

[adamsapple]

Rumor is, there will be a portable version on or around launch of the PS6.

But the expectation would be more bespoke versions, not conversions of these mobile gacha/mtx driven games.

Hopefully ..

 

[DeepEnigma]

I would bet massive amounts of bank its not a rumor

Watch it get canceled tomorrow

Right? lol

With the success of Portal as just a streaming device, this seems only natural for them to get back into the portable arena Their mobile moves scream getting the feet wet again for that type of hardware profiles for their studios. Oh, and most importantly,

But the expectation would be more bespoke versions, not conversions of these mobile gacha/mtx driven games.

Hopefully ..

Read above.

 

[Witchilich]

Console warrior, you're confused.

The pot calling the kettle back.

MLB wants the games on every platform. Nobody's dropping anything, just adding more.

They want it as long as there is a userbase that makes them money. When Magnus bombs, no one will justify the cost of porting it.

 

[Ribi]

Announce PC you cowards

 

[CamHostage]

I can't read the fine print on my phone, is SSM actually developing this or is there a co-developer?

(I'm sure there are already lots of codevs working on MLB proper, it's not like this would take time away from the main game... Or that the main game has really shown much serious investment of time in redevelopment over the past few releases. I'd just be surprised if a mobile game was maintained in house by Sony.)

 

[CamHostage]

Announce PC you cowards

The license likely does not let them.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Why in the world do you think this has anything to do with other games like Concord? The mobile initiative began about 5 or so years ago, and games take time to make, especially when a studios pipeline to develop on said platform has to be built from scratch. That would be why we're hearing about so many of their mobile titles as of late, it simply took this long to get them out the door.

Well IMO, I still think this is something they should've had out sooner. So if it's taken until only now for it to release, then they simply started development later than they should have, again just my personal opinion.

But also worth saying, resources both in terms of management and funding aren't infinite. I'd argue the time SIE spent managing over a game like Concord could've been better served towards guiding MLB mobile out the door faster. Just something to take under consideration.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Well IMO, I still think this is something they should've had out sooner. So if it's taken until only now for it to release, then they simply started development later than they should have, again just my personal opinion.

But also worth saying, resources both in terms of management and funding aren't infinite. I'd argue the time SIE spent managing over a game like Concord could've been better served towards guiding MLB mobile out the door faster. Just something to take under consideration.

Its possible The MLB directed the move to mobile (timing wise) like they did to Xbox

 

[vivftp]

Well IMO, I still think this is something they should've had out sooner. So if it's taken until only now for it to release, then they simply started development later than they should have, again just my personal opinion.

But also worth saying, resources both in terms of management and funding aren't infinite. I'd argue the time SIE spent managing over a game like Concord could've been better served towards guiding MLB mobile out the door faster. Just something to take under consideration.

SIE's current live service initiative and mobile initiative were formulated around 2019/2020, and it takes time to choose a direction, get a team and pipeline in place and develop a title for release. Plus the SIE/MLB renegotiation didn't occur until December 2019. The pieces simply weren't in place to do this any sooner as SIE wasn't interested in gaming off of their own platform prior to that point in time.

The resources and time and teams spent on this would have been completely separate from that spent on other games like Concord. That's like saying Sony should have skipped developing The Last of Us HBO and put more resources towards MLB Mobile. It does not compute as one thing has nothing to do with the other.

We're likely seeing MLB Mobile and Ratchet And Clank's mobile game and hearing about Horizon's mobile game now simply because it's taken this long to get those projects this far. Not because resources were being directed elsewhere.

Its possible The MLB directed the move to mobile (timing wise) like they did to Xbox

The SIE/MLB renegotiation was announced December 2019 and to my knowledge we don't really know what, if anything, may have been mandated by MLB and what SIE may have wanted to do. Do you have a particular insight into this subject to say there was a mandate by MLB? We know that SIE's been fine to port their own games over to competing consoles in instances where it makes sense, such as LEGO Horizon and Helldivers 2. Based on that, I wouldn't be surprised if SIE was also gung-ho to get MLB on Switch and Xbox as that was their most popular live service game at the time and they were just formulating plans to kick off their live service/third party initiative. I know SIE hasn't been publishing those MLB games on the other platforms to date, but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes for MLB26 onwards. Back then when those contracts were negotiated, SIE didn't really have an off-console publishing arm set up, but they do now. For example, Death Stranding 1 on PC was published by 505, but Death Stranding 2 on PC is expected to be published by SIE. SIE's publishing this mobile MLB game, so I wouldn't be surprised if they begin publishing the console variants too. I have theorized that's one reason they've held back on a PC port, to allow the publishing rights to revert back to SIE so they can make bank and not have to split a larger share with MLB.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

The SIE/MLB renegotiation was announced December 2019 and to my knowledge we don't really know what, if anything, may have been mandated by MLB and what SIE may have wanted to do. Do you have a particular insight into this subject to say there was a mandate by MLB? We know that SIE's been fine to port their own games over to competing consoles in instances where it makes sense, such as LEGO Horizon and Helldivers 2. Based on that, I wouldn't be surprised if SIE was also gung-ho to get MLB on Switch and Xbox as that was their most popular live service game at the time and they were just formulating plans to kick off their live service/third party initiative. I know SIE hasn't been publishing those MLB games on the other platforms to date, but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes for MLB26 onwards. Back then when those contracts were negotiated, SIE didn't really have an off-console publishing arm set up, but they do now. For example, Death Stranding 1 on PC was published by 505, but Death Stranding 2 on PC is expected to be published by SIE. SIE's publishing this mobile MLB game, so I wouldn't be surprised if they begin publishing the console variants too. I have theorized that's one reason they've held back on a PC port, to allow the publishing rights to revert back to SIE so they can make bank and not have to split a larger share with MLB.

100% was told from the very top people (at the time) of Xbox that The MLB mandated the inclusion of Xbox

 

[Tobimacoss]

100% was told from the very top people (at the time) of Xbox that The MLB mandated the inclusion of Xbox

Yep, Sony holds no power in such negotiations. MLB interest is in reaching every single interested user to help the sport thrive long term. Even if they have to fund the ports personally like they did when they were publishing.

 

[vivftp]

100% was told from the very top people (at the time) of Xbox that The MLB mandated the inclusion of Xbox

Gotcha. Whenever the subject has been brought up in discussion, folks have taken the position that SIE was unwilling but were strong armed. No idea about that personally, but like I said since SIE has willingly put some of their own games on competing platforms over the last couple of years when it makes sense, it wouldn't surprise me if SIE was up for it, even if MLB were the ones who pushed for it.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Gotcha. Whenever the subject has been brought up in discussion, folks have taken the position that SIE was unwilling but were strong armed. No idea about that personally, but like I said since SIE has willingly put some of their own games on competing platforms over the last couple of years when it makes sense, it wouldn't surprise me if SIE was up for it, even if MLB were the ones who pushed for it.

Now I know some of those people tend to have embellished things in the past so can only relay how I was told it went

MLB said move to Xbox, Sony replied no, MLB said move to Xbox or we take the publishing rights elsewhere

 

[vivftp]

Now I know some of those people tend to have embellished things in the past so can only relay how I was told it went

MLB said move to Xbox, Sony replied no, MLB said move to Xbox or we take the publishing rights elsewhere

Heh, cool. Well, regardless of how things may have gone down at the time, I doubt SIE are broken up about the game being on other platforms. I think they'd currently be more concerned about publishing rights. My running theory has been that the publishing rights would revert back to SIE after a set number of years, so it could be that has been a factor in when SIE would announce a mobile/PC MLB game if they wanted to wait until they could have full publishing rights across the board. That way they don't have to give MLB the publishers cut off of all the sales/mtx

This game has been announced almost exactly 6 years after the renegotiation was announced (off by 6 days) so perhaps the rights have now reverted. I guess we'll see if SIE winds up publishing MLB26 next year on Xbox and Switch, and if a PC port gets announced.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Heh, cool. Well, regardless of how things may have gone down at the time, I doubt SIE are broken up about the game being on other platforms. I think they'd currently be more concerned about publishing rights. My running theory has been that the publishing rights would revert back to SIE after a set number of years, so it could be that has been a factor in when SIE would announce a mobile/PC MLB game if they wanted to wait until they could have full publishing rights across the board. That way they don't have to give MLB the publishers cut off of all the sales/mtx

This game has been announced almost exactly 6 years after the renegotiation was announced (off by 6 days) so perhaps the rights have now reverted. I guess we'll see if SIE winds up publishing MLB26 next year on Xbox and Switch, and if a PC port gets announced.

This game desperately needs a PC version just for the modding community alone.

 

[yurinka]

Now I know some of those people tend to have embellished things in the past so can only relay how I was told it went

MLB said move to Xbox, Sony replied no, MLB said move to Xbox or we take the publishing rights elsewhere

Heh, cool. Well, regardless of how things may have gone down at the time, I doubt SIE are broken up about the game being on other platforms. I think they'd currently be more concerned about publishing rights. My running theory has been that the publishing rights would revert back to SIE after a set number of years, so it could be that has been a factor in when SIE would announce a mobile/PC MLB game if they wanted to wait until they could have full publishing rights across the board. That way they don't have to give MLB the publishers cut off of all the sales/mtx

This game has been announced almost exactly 6 years after the renegotiation was announced (off by 6 days) so perhaps the rights have now reverted. I guess we'll see if SIE winds up publishing MLB26 next year on Xbox and Switch, and if a PC port gets announced.

MLB is the owner of the MLB rights, its rights don't 'revert to Sony'.

Sony pays MLB to get the license during some years, they agree. Once the license is going to expire, they negotiate a renewal of the license to let Sony use it some years more. And keep doing it multiple times.

At some point in one of these renewals, MLB decided that if Sony wants to continue using the IP they must port it to other consoles. Sony acceded to port it but not to publish it, so MLB created a game publisher to publish the Xbox and Switch versions.

This time seems they agreed to make separate game for smartphones, also made (like the game and its ports) by Sony San Diego. It isn't clear who will publish it, but I assume Sony because unlike when they made the previous negotiation they're now open to publish on PC, rival consoles and mobile.

From Sony's point of view now that they want to push their mobile games part side, when looking at the available IPs to bring to mobile, MLB The Show is one of the series that has a best fit. So maybe Sony is the one who asked them to bring it to mobile. And pretty likely if this year MLB The Show expands to mobile, it may also expand to PC too the next one, and published by Sony (even if sport games don't sell in PC as well as in console).

A similar case of Death Stranding: in the first one Kojima wanted to port it elsewhere, Sony didn't but acceded to port it and let him find another publisher for the other platforms. Nowadays Sony is open to publish outside PS, and Sony will be the publisher of Death Stranding 2 on PC.

SIE's current live service initiative and mobile initiative were formulated around 2019/2020

No, the PC+GaaS+mobile push started before Jim Ryan and Hermen got in charge in 2019: The PC ports of Horizon were also stated by Shuhei Yoshida and Shawn Layden who also greenlighted Helldivers 2 in 2016 or games like Condord, Horizon Online or pretty likely Gran Turismo 7 in 2018.

At some point they had Japan Studio making mobile games, something Hermen did stop around their restructuring, greenlighting them Astro Bot for the internal development team and tasking their external development team to publish games not only developed in Japan, but also in other Asian countries (and greenlighted them Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Marvel Tokon, Lost Soul Aside or Physint).

Nowadays mobile games take almost as much time to be done as console games, make sure games like Destiny Rising, Horizon Steel Frontiers or this MLB The Show take the same time than equivalent console games. As an example, Bungie and Netease signed their deal for Destiny Rising back in 2018 and the game released now.

I can't read the fine print on my phone, is SSM actually developing this or is there a co-developer?

(I'm sure there are already lots of codevs working on MLB proper, it's not like this would take time away from the main game... Or that the main game has really shown much serious investment of time in redevelopment over the past few releases. I'd just be surprised if a mobile game was maintained in house by Sony.)

Developed by Sony San Diego (they're the ones who make the console game, not Sony Santa Monica), published by PlayStation Mobile Inc. Pretty likely like any game (including the big mobile games) it will have several support/outsourcing studios helping to codevelop it.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Its possible The MLB directed the move to mobile (timing wise) like they did to Xbox

If it took the MLB to convince SIE the IP was worth bringing to mobile, then SIE's leadership is/was in dire straits.

100% was told from the very top people (at the time) of Xbox that The MLB mandated the inclusion of Xbox

TBH if I were running SIE I would've just told the MLB to sod off and good luck getting a competent baseball dev to make a game for you. Don't go telling me what I can do with my own studios; they're my studios MLB, not yours.

But that would require having a backbone.

SIE's current live service initiative and mobile initiative were formulated around 2019/2020, and it takes time to choose a direction, get a team and pipeline in place and develop a title for release. Plus the SIE/MLB renegotiation didn't occur until December 2019. The pieces simply weren't in place to do this any sooner as SIE wasn't interested in gaming off of their own platform prior to that point in time.

The resources and time and teams spent on this would have been completely separate from that spent on other games like Concord. That's like saying Sony should have skipped developing The Last of Us HBO and put more resources towards MLB Mobile. It does not compute as one thing has nothing to do with the other.

We're likely seeing MLB Mobile and Ratchet And Clank's mobile game and hearing about Horizon's mobile game now simply because it's taken this long to get those projects this far. Not because resources were being directed elsewhere.

Well, fair enough. Though I still say if, for example, they had Nixxes working on these mobile games instead of porting console titles to PC at such a fast clip (not just Nixxes but Iron Galaxy as well), SIE still would've had the resources to get a mobile version of MLB to market earlier than this year.

 

[DeepEnigma]

TBH if I were running SIE I would've just told the MLB to sod off and good luck getting a competent baseball dev to make a game for you. Don't go telling me what I can do with my own studios; they're my studios MLB, not yours.

But that would require having a backbone.

This also came on the backs of MLB failing two years in a row with their own developed and published third party baseball game with the RBI Baseball license.

MSFT owns the High Heat Baseball license they bought back with the first Xbox when they were trying to entice EA to support their console and Xbox Live. Buying HH and vaulting that license for good was part of the "competition eliminating" favor since that game at the time had the best gameplay of the bunch (not graphics) with a large PC following in the modding community. MSFT was free to make their own first party MLB game since they had an established IP, but never did, for the former mentioned reason.

2K had the third party license before MLB was doing RBI, and that failed so they bowed out and focused mainly on NBA. Bowed out of NHL and we know the EA/Madden story as being the first to lock down a sole pro license for sports games.

Sony license was up for renewal, MLB failed in-house on their own end, no other studio can make a baseball game as good due to the established pedigree and at the time, were a group of baseball loving and ex MiLB/College players making up the passionate dev team. They literally were a "special group" with lightning in the bottle for an MLB sim. A few old HH devs ended up there as well early on, which aided in the gameplay.

If Sony said, piss off, the license would have collected dust and we would all be without quality a baseball sim. MLB stood just as much of a chance to lose millions in revenue as well losing reach of their brand globally with the youth and gamers, especially with the MLBs version of MUT/FUT in Sony's Diamond Dynasty.

Who else could have filled their shoes? All those EA MVP guys are long gone and most that went to 2K, showed that gameplay did not age well at all in the sim arena. Video game baseball, especially a competent sim in the refined gameplay department, is one of the hardest games to get right, especially on only 10 month dev cycles. Otherwise, everyone would've nailed it, and they didn't.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This also came on the backs of MLB failing two years in a row with their own developed and published third party baseball game with the RBI Baseball license.

MSFT owns the High Heat Baseball license they bought back with the first Xbox when they were trying to entice EA to support their console and Xbox Live. Buying HH and vaulting that license for good was part of the "competition eliminating" favor since that game at the time had the best gameplay of the bunch (not graphics) with a large PC following in the modding community. MSFT was free to make their own first party MLB game since they had an established IP, but never did, for the former mentioned reason.

2K had the third party license before MLB was doing RBI, and that failed so they bowed out and focused mainly on NBA. Bowed out of NHL and we know the EA/Madden story as being the first to do this for sports games.

Sony license was up for renewal, MLB failed in-house on their own end, no other studio can make a baseball game as good due to the established pedigree and at the time, were a group of baseball loving and ex MiLB/College players making up the passionate dev team. They literally were a "special group" with lightning in the bottle for an MLB sim. A few old HH devs ended up there as well early on, which aided in the gameplay.

If Sony said, piss off, the license would have collected dust and we would all be without quality a baseball sim. MLB stood just as much of a chance to lose millions in revenue as well losing reach of their brand globally with the youth and gamers, especially with the MLBs version of MUT/FUT.

Well there's a lot you mentioned which is new to me, I don't really follow the sports game scene so didn't know about what happened to the other baseball franchises. It's very interesting stuff nonetheless, and I think it just shows that Sony likely had the real leverage in those negotiations. Who were the alternatives? They didn't exist anymore!

That's why it's rather audacious for a party like the MLB to demand Sony bring the IP to Xbox, if that's how it went down. So maybe it was more like what happened with LEGO Horizon, where Sony themselves wanted to bring the IP to Switch, and I'd argue MLB was even less contentious since it's a sports IP. It's nothing like a Spiderman or even Helldivers going to the platform.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Well there's a lot you mentioned which is new to me, I don't really follow the sports game scene so didn't know about what happened to the other baseball franchises. It's very interesting stuff nonetheless, and I think it just shows that Sony likely had the real leverage in those negotiations. Who were the alternatives? They didn't exist anymore!

That's why it's rather audacious for a party like the MLB to demand Sony bring the IP to Xbox, if that's how it went down. So maybe it was more like what happened with LEGO Horizon, where Sony themselves wanted to bring the IP to Switch, and I'd argue MLB was even less contentious since it's a sports IP. It's nothing like a Spiderman or even Helldivers going to the platform.

It's definitely much more complex and nuanced than, "if you don't do this, we are going to go elsewhere."

Where are they going to go?
- You won't have the 20+ year established IP that charts and sells in the millions.
- You won't have the fleshed out Diamond Dynasty that people are hooked on and makes tens of millions if not more.
- You won't have their 2+ decades of tuned gameplay, engine, API pipelines, etc.,etc..

Good luck starting from scratch. They tried that, saw first hand how hard it was and failed that experiment already.

As for the the Xbox thing, there were rumors that EA was looking into doing MVP again and would be down to purchase the license outright like they did Madden. Sony would have much to lose as well, so why not buy it outright and basically be "The Madden of MLB." It's a win/win for both, and fits into the GaaS model and reach.

 

[vivftp]

MLB is the owner of the MLB rights, its rights don't 'revert to Sony'.

Sony pays MLB to get the license during some years, they agree. Once the license is going to expire, they negotiate a renewal of the license to let Sony use it some years more. And keep doing it multiple times.

At some point in one of these renewals, MLB decided that if Sony wants to continue using the IP they must port it to other consoles. Sony acceded to port it but not to publish it, so MLB created a game publisher to publish the Xbox and Switch versions.

This time seems they agreed to make separate game for smartphones, also made (like the game and its ports) by Sony San Diego. It isn't clear who will publish it, but I assume Sony because unlike when they made the previous negotiation they're now open to publish on PC, rival consoles and mobile.

From Sony's point of view now that they want to push their mobile games part side, when looking at the available IPs to bring to mobile, MLB The Show is one of the series that has a best fit. So maybe Sony is the one who asked them to bring it to mobile. And pretty likely if this year MLB The Show expands to mobile, it may also expand to PC too the next one, and published by Sony (even if sport games don't sell in PC as well as in console).

A similar case of Death Stranding: in the first one Kojima wanted to port it elsewhere, Sony didn't but acceded to port it and let him find another publisher for the other platforms. Nowadays Sony is open to publish outside PS, and Sony will be the publisher of Death Stranding 2 on PC.

I think we're partly saying the same thing. MLB owns the IP and Sony licenses the IP to make the game. On PlayStation Sony is the publisher and until now, MLB has been the publisher on Xbox and Switch. I'm talking about the publishing rights to the game, not the licensing rights. MLB probably got the publishing rights when they renegotiated in 2019 because Sony didn't really have much in the way of off-platform publishing set up at the time. My speculation is that there was a set number of years for MLB to publish the non-PlayStation variants before the publishing rights would revert back to SIE. Given this game was announced almost exactly 6 years after the renegotiation deal was struck, maybe it was a 6 year term and Sony could be publishing all of these non-PlayStation variants going forward. We'll have to see with MLB26 if it's still MLB or if it's SIE publishing that one to know for sure.

I don't anticipate that the regular MLB The Show game will find its way to mobile as they'd just be competing against themselves. This way they can offer a (presumably) F2P mobile variant and still offer a full priced variant on consoles (and maybe soon PC?) to cater to all groups. They're definitely not going to make the console variant F2P and it'd be a very tough sell to have the mobile version sold at full price, so this is the compromise. Much like how Horizon has a F2P mobile game being made and there will be a separate Horizon Online game made that will no doubt be sold at a cost. This split strategy seems to be SIE trying to have their cake and eat it too by having F2P/premium separate versions of their games that can cater to each group of gamers on those platforms without hindering their efforts on the other platforms.

No, the PC+GaaS+mobile push started before Jim Ryan and Hermen got in charge in 2019: The PC ports of Horizon were also stated by Shuhei Yoshida and Shawn Layden who also greenlighted Helldivers 2 in 2016 or games like Condord, Horizon Online or pretty likely Gran Turismo 7 in 2018.

At some point they had Japan Studio making mobile games, something Hermen did stop around their restructuring, greenlighting them Astro Bot for the internal development team and tasking their external development team to publish games not only developed in Japan, but also in other Asian countries (and greenlighted them Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Marvel Tokon, Lost Soul Aside or Physint).

Nowadays mobile games take almost as much time to be done as console games, make sure games like Destiny Rising, Horizon Steel Frontiers or this MLB The Show take the same time than equivalent console games. As an example, Bungie and Netease signed their deal for Destiny Rising back in 2018 and the game released now.

Some efforts may have been kicked off earlier, but the currently recognized live service strategy really took shape under Jim Ryans watch when SIE massively increased the budget of this endeavor. That's around the time Helldivers 2 had its budget doubled, the MLB contract was renegotiated, they publicly announced the initiative and started hiring for the mobile initiative. That is what I'm referring to when I talk about their current live service initiative.

If it took the MLB to convince SIE the IP was worth bringing to mobile, then SIE's leadership is/was in dire straits.


TBH if I were running SIE I would've just told the MLB to sod off and good luck getting a competent baseball dev to make a game for you. Don't go telling me what I can do with my own studios; they're my studios MLB, not yours.

But that would require having a backbone.


Well, fair enough. Though I still say if, for example, they had Nixxes working on these mobile games instead of porting console titles to PC at such a fast clip (not just Nixxes but Iron Galaxy as well), SIE still would've had the resources to get a mobile version of MLB to market earlier than this year.

These are business who are operating with the goal of growing and making money. SIE was already making tons of money from MLB, and this contract renegotiation in 2019 opened the door to making even more money and came at a time when SIE themselves were planning expansion that would see their games on platforms outside of PlayStation. For all we know, SIE were up for going this route too.

As for Nixxes or Iron Galaxy... well that's just going off into rampant what-if territory there and I see no value in going down that road.

 

[mckmas8808]

PlayStation has announced more mobile games in the past month than anything else.

Makes you wonder if priorities off PS to make money, have now............changed.

 

[vivftp]

Makes you wonder if priorities off PS to make money, have now............changed.

No
This initiative kicked off 5-6 years ago and games take time to make.