MLB The Show 21 continues the popular baseball franchise this year, though there are some changes from previous iterations. Chief among what San Diego Studio is offering in MLB The Show 21 is that this year’s version isn’t a PS4/PS5 exclusive. Xbox One and Xbox Series X players will be able to get their hands on this franchise for the first time. If users are looking for a ton of other additions to 2021’s iteration, though, they might be a bit disappointed. It doesn’t appear there is a ton of new features or options from what Sony fans have seen in the game for the last few years.
One could even argue that the game offers fewer features than previous versions. This iteration of the long-running MLB The Show franchise doesn’t even allow users to import saves from previous years, a feature that’s been offered for several years previously. Those who purchase the game aren’t even going to be getting a free upgrade from the previous console generation to the current one.
As is the case with other sports games on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, if users want to play MLB The Show 21 on the newest generation of consoles, they are going to have to pay a bit extra. With so few special features offered this year, there is one way in which Sony could mend some fences. It could bring a feature that sports gamers have been asking for, repeatedly, on all kinds of different series. This should be the year that the long-running series offers a full expansion franchise mode.
It’s not as though adding an expansion franchise feature is something that is completely unheard of in this genre. In fact, being able to create a team, find a place to put it, and drafting a roster is something that previous generations of sports games got right. One of the older games in digital baseball games even managed to lay out a kind of roadmap on how to do this right. MVP Baseball 2005, a game that was released nearly two decades ago, is the last to really hit the nail on the head when it comes to the expansion franchise feature. That no baseball game since has managed to follow in the title’s footsteps is a real travesty. Now that MLB The Show 21 is arriving on a platform other than the PS4 or PS5, it’s time to really tread new ground. It’s time to offer the ability to truly build a franchise from the ground up, and allowing expansion franchises would do just that.
Make no mistake, the series has already made some incremental steps towards an expansion franchise feature. Last year’s iteration allowed players to rename an existing team. It even allowed MLB The Show 20 players to put that newly created and relocated team in an array of new (or very old) stadiums. However, this isn’t anything close to a real expansion franchise; replacing a name just isn’t it. This means that if someone create a team in Omaha, they can make their uniforms and rename the franchise, but if someone builds it on top of the Florida Marlins, then the Florida Marlins will be no more. The new team will be decked out in a new uniform and playing in a different stadium, but they will be playing with the Florida Marlins roster.
MLB The Show 21 takes another step forward in creating a brand new team. There are rumors floating around the franchise that players will be able to do a bit more when it comes to a replacement team’s stadium. Rather than having to use a pre-rendered layout, it’s said users will be able to decide exactly how they want their home field to look. There’s also the fact that the game is now allowing users to take their created players into other modes, and both of these new features would seem to be a nod to allowing more creativity in the game. It doesn’t seem like it would take a massive step to go even further and allow for teams built from the ground up.
MLB The Show 21 has long offered the ability to build a team from the ground up. Whether using a team’s established minor league teams, or trades and free agent signings, players are able to make teams like the Royals or Orioles into juggernauts despite their real-life struggles. But that’s not quite good enough. If players want the chance to truly build from scratch, to put a roster together from other teams’ castoffs, there’s not a quick and easy way to do that.
Clearly, there is some kind of roadblock when it comes to offering expansion franchises in recent baseball video games. MLB The Show 21 isn’t the only one that has long ignored requests from the gaming community to include this feature in recent releases. The newly resurgent RBI Baseball series offers no ability for expansion teams either. The fact that video game baseball, in general, has worked around or completely ignored the ability to make an expansion franchise is even stranger considering the feature is not unheard of in other sports games.
The most recent example of a sports game doing expansion franchise features right started with NBA 2K19. Not only can players create their own teams, in whatever city they’d like the league to expand, but they can design the arena and the uniforms. There’s also a full-on expansion draft that allows players to build their team with a combination of highly paid veterans and young untested cheaper options. It feels like it wouldn’t be all that hard for MLB The Show 21 to have copied this model and applied it to baseball.
The bottom line is that without a real leap forward on the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, the franchise runs the risk of being compared unfavorably to Madden NFL 21. Gamers in that community have long blasted EA Sports for simply pumping out a reskin of the game and charging $59.99 for a roster update. If MLB The Show 21 doesn’t shake things up and offer a real and tangible feature like the ability to draft an expansion franchise, it runs the risk of irking its dedicated players to the point of leaving the series behind.
MLB The Show 21 will release April 20 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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