The PlayStation 4 had an incredible range of exclusives but looking forward to the PlayStation 5 it appears Sony will lose the exclusivity of one important title. MLB The Show has been a PlayStation title since the 90s, and it has been an incredibly fruitful partnership for both parties. However, it has been announced that MLB The Show will be leaving its exclusive contract and become available on other consoles.
MLB '98 debuted on the PlayStation in 1997 and has remained a consistent seller for the console. So much so that three different MLB The Show titles were included in PlayStation 4's top 10 selling exclusives list. Clearly the game has a solid following and is a title with a lot to offer consoles, and this has been reflected by Xbox and Nintendo's tweets after MLB Communications made the announcement that it was leaving its exclusive status.
The original announcement outlines that Sony Interactive Entertainment and San Diego Studio have committed to continue developing the series, however, as of 2021 the game will available on "additional consoles beyond PlayStation platforms." MLB The Show has been one of the best baseball games available and has had a monopoly on video-game iterations of the sport. It will be interesting to see if Sony make any additional statements about the change of strategy.
Naturally other consoles were excited by the news and Nintendo of America's official account and Xbox retweeted the statement. Xbox added to the original tweet, "No more away games", clearly the consoles have been negotiating to share the title for some time. Yet the next game will be a PlayStation exclusive and the statement also confirmed Javier Báez as the cover athlete for MLB The Show 20. It appears that Xbox and Nintendo will have to hold off their celebrations for at least 12 months.
MLB The Show was one of the best selling games in March 2019 and its consistent sales undoubtedly helped PlayStation in this generation's console war. Exclusives were a huge part of PlayStation's strategy for this generation and it will be fascinating to see if this is changing, or whether MLB pushed this new kind of deal. Either way, players will be happy that in 2021 they can hit home-runs as their favorite baseball stars on any console they want.
MLB The Show 19 is available on PlayStation 4 now.