MLB The Show 17's development has produced at least two abominations that would fit in any modern horror game, as shared by developers at SIE San Diego Studio. The Sony Interactive Entertainment developers were doing a livestream showing off some of the core facets of this year's iteration of The Show. During the "Graphical Improvements" section of the stream, they decided to show off how their hard work can often have surprising results.
Like Doctor Frankenstein before them, it's doubtful these developers understood what eldritch horrors they'd be releasing into the world. All they wanted to do was create baseball players with realistic hair and facial structures to match their real-life counterparts. Instead, two loathsome creatures now haunt the diamond. The hair monster, which has no face and instead has jagged tangles leading from what could be its horrible maw. And then what some are calling the Lumberface, whose head seems like a stacked pile of lumber in the facade of a 2D human head. Chilling.
According to the developers, both of these glitches occurred through relatively normal means. It's not like they went out of their way to create insane-looking baseball players. In the first character's case, it was just a matter of the player's hair stretching over areas it shouldn't have – namely, its face. They noted that the hair had in certain circumstances stretched across the whole field. While the second character's birth is somewhat less explainable, a, "compute phase was out of sync."
Odds are no players will every see these two glitched baseball players within MLB The Show 17. They're just two random creations found through various development glitches. They've long since been fixed or patched over. Maybe they still exist in-game, wearing the faces of different baseball players, just waiting for the right opportunity or home run to reveal themselves once more. Don't worry, there will probably be plenty of fun glitches in the launch game beyond these two demons.
It's great seeing SIE San Diego Studio taking the opportunity to share these fun events with their fans. The current online climate surrounding video games is particularly hostile regarding the topic of glitches and visuals. San Diego is probably wondering if releasing these images in the current climate was a great idea. Hopefully they embrace the positive aspects of their community, the people who enjoy and encourage developers to have fun and not stress over the consequences of interacting with the public.
MLB The Show 17 is scheduled to launch on March 28, 2017 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. Sony has yet to announce any events where Hairball and Lumberface will be signing autographs, but stay tuned.