For several logistical and monetary reasons, the absence of San Diego Studio’s MLB The Show series on PC is something that Sony should fix.
In recent years, Sony’s approach to the gaming industry has expanded beyond its traditional PlayStation console borders. The acquisition of studios like Bungie, PlayStation Productions’ expansion, and explorative ventures into mobile gaming, are all moves designed to widen the publisher’s reach beyond the PS4 and PS5. Some of its strategies haven’t been entirely voluntary ones though, as evidenced by the arrival of MLB The Show on its direct competitors' platforms.
Thanks to a mandate by MLB’s governing body in 2019, Sony’s San Diego Studio has effectively become an internally owned third-party developer. That’s because in order to keep a hold of the lucrative sports license, the publisher has to also make the franchise available to players on platforms like the Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch. What’s curious though, is the fact that despite this agreement no MLB The Show installment has so far made its way to PC. For several reasons, that's something that Sony should be looking to fix in the future.
While the idea was once thought unimaginable, Sony’s expanded gaming strategy has seen the publisher look further afield from its internal ecosystem in recent years. Arguably the biggest example of this in action is the growing list of first-party games that have been ported to PC. In relatively quick succession, games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and 2018's God of War, have all become available on the platform. Thanks to a leak by Nvidia, it looks highly likely that things won’t stop there either. If the leak continues to be proven accurate, PC ports of titles like Ghost of Tsushima and 2016's Ratchet and Clank are also being worked on behind the scenes.
The fact that Sony has embraced the PC market on this level, makes the continued absence of MLB The Show on the platform all the more confusing. Logistically it makes too much sense for Sony to ignore the platform going forward, to the point that the series' PC debut is likely still a matter of when, rather than if.
What adds into this sene of inevitability is how San Diego Studio has spent the last few years getting up to speed with development for Microsoft and Nintendo’s consoles. Based on the apparent quality and cross-console capabilities of the upcoming MLB The Show 22, it looks as though the studio has got a good handle on that. So much so that, adding a PC port for 2023’s release should be the next comparatively simple step forward.
To add to the sense that MLB The Show’s arrival on PC is something that Sony is probably already exploring, the publisher has made some behind the scenes moves that should streamline the process. Last year, Sony announced that it had acquired Nixxes, a studio famous in part for porting games like Marvel’s Avengers and Shadow of the Tomb Raider to PC. With this specialized studio now on board to help the publisher’s other first-party outfits, most of the development groundwork has been done for a future MLB The Show installment to be released on PC as well. Even if Nixxes doesn’t handle the port itself, there’s now a group of experts on hand to advise San Diego Studio instead.
Beyond the fact that the groundwork has been done to make a PC MLB The Show port a relatively straightforward task logistically, there’s another significant reason why Sony should be exploring the idea. Considering how the series has often been a system seller for baseball fans since its debut on the PS2, any MLB The Show release on PC would stand to make Sony a sizable amount of money.
The publisher only has to look at the success that all of its previous first party PC ports have had on the platform, to get a taste of what could await it. While it’s unlikely that it would reach God of War's sales figures, the fact that PC players have been denied a baseball game on the levels of The Show for years, would likely generate some considerable buzz.
MLB The Show 22 releases on April 5 for PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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Ben is writer with a serious passion (obsession) with all things PlayStation, Pokemon, and motorsport.
