MLB The Show 21is officially out in the wild for those that got early access with the game’s special editions, and it’s brought a fair amount of hype with it. This year’s installment of the San Diego Studio baseball sim has promised a lot of new features and enhancements to the franchise’s formula, among them being the highly-requested stadium creator mode. New gameplay isn’t the only reason thatMLB The Show 21has gotten so much more attention than its predecessors however. For this year’s game, the longtime PlayStation exclusive made its debut on Xbox consoles, in a move that stunned and excited much of the community.
Although it is certainly shocking that Sony would allow one of its most well-established exclusives to go to a direct competitor’s console, even if it were MLB’s choice, it’s not without precedence. In 2020, the company decided to expand its horizons by releasingPlayStation exclusives on PC. Although this strategy has been implemented very carefully and slowly for the past year, it’s clear that Sony sees some benefit in loosening the terms of what makes its games “exclusive.” Now thatMLB The Show 21is essentially shirking its PlayStation exclusivity by releasing on Xbox, it would make sense for the game to follow Sony’s established strategy and release for PC as well.
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Sony’s Relationship with PC Gaming
The history of Sony releasing PlayStation exclusives on PC is relatively short, but it’s already had a substantial effect on the industry as a whole. Just last year, Sony announced that it would be releasingHorizon Zero Dawnon PC. At the time, there was some contention about the larger ramifications of breaking the exclusivity of a game. Console exclusives are part of the reason why some gamers buy the consoles they buy after all, but ultimately this decision helped Sony more than it hurt. The success of Sony’s PC experiment has since encouraged the company to release yet another console exclusive on PC in the form ofDays Gone, which is set to release in May.
Continuing the Hype
MLB The Show 21has proven to be one of the most highly-anticipated sports games in recent years, and it’s this excitement that should give Sony more of a reason to release the game on PC. The game has already conjured up a huge amount of hype due to its release on Xbox, and the fact that the game is coming to Game Pass on its official launch day should provide a decent boost toThe Show 21’s player base. Even ifit wasn’t Sony’s decision to bringThe Showto Xbox, the excitement of it all should motivate the company to double down and get the attention of PC players.
Looking Forward
If Sony is hesitant about releasingThe Showon PC for whatever reason, it might be best to think of the decision as an investment in the series' future. Sports games hardly see any major changes year over year, and as console generations progress, development only continues to get more expensive.The Show 21has demonstrated thatSan Diego Studiowants to keep building up the franchise into one of the best sports games on the market, and putting the game on PC would likely provide a massive boost in revenue for the studio. Even if it does clash with the perception of what a “console exclusive” is, the priority should be making sure players get the best game possible year after year.
MLB The Show 21’s introduction to Xboxcould serve as a bit of a litmus test for Sony and how they want to approach bringing the game to PC. There’s no official word on it, but if the game does well enough on PlayStation’s rival it will likely gauge whether or not the franchise gets a PC port. Sony has already established that it thinks putting exclusives on PC as more of a financial opportunity than a risk to its integrity, and it would be missing out on a pretty sizable amount of profit if it didn’t putThe Showon PC. Fans will just have to wait and see ifMLB The Show 21performs well enough between two consoles to justify putting it on a third platform.
MLB The Show 21is available April 20 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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