MLB 12: The Show - 3/6/12 - Featuring Adrian Gonzalez as the Cover Athlete

Today it’s my pleasure to announce that Boston Red Sox All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez will be the cover athlete for MLB 12 The Show, which will hit store shelves on March 6, 2012 for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, just in time for Spring Training. A candidate for this year’s America League Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, Gonzalez is a four-time All-Star (2008-2011), three-time Rawlings Gold Glove winner (2008, 2009, 2011), and 2011 Silver Slugger Award winner. The Show has been and continues to be the market leading and highest ranked officially licensed baseball title of this console generation and the number-one rated sports video game over the past four years, so we’re psyched to have one the best all-around players in baseball representing MLB 12!

The first overall pick by the Florida Marlins in the 2000 MLB Draft, Gonzalez has really come in his own, both on the field and at the plate. A little history on him…in 2010 while playing for the San Diego Padres, he was named team MVP for the third consecutive year and fourth time overall. Then after the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Boston Red Sox last offseason, he enjoyed one of his best professional seasons to date, which included his 1,000 career hit, fourth consecutive All-Star selection, third Gold Glove, first Silver Slugger Award, and a top five finish in batting average (.338) and RBI (117) in all of baseball—not too bad!

I also want to stress that MLB 12 The Show will be coming to PlayStation Vita and will utilize all of the core gameplay features found in the PS3 version. So, players will be able to take the same big league baseball experience on the road with them, anytime, anywhere. We’ll have more info to share soon, but trust me when I tell you that MLB 12 will have a ton of new features (PS3 & Vita) that we’ll be detailing over the course of the campaign so keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog, TheShowNation, and our MLB The Show Facebook page for more info as we get closer to launch.
Welcome to The Show!

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Despite my bulging pectorals, rippling six-pack abs, and chiseled physique, I’m honestly not much of an athlete. But I don’t need to be a sports expert to see the appeal behind MLB 12 The Show, the slavishly faithful baseball simulation that consistently ranks as the sport’s most respected gaming franchise. At a holiday showcase event in New York City last night, I took a few swings with an early build of MLB 12 The Show, including the PlayStation Move-enhanced PS3 edition and the all-new PS Vita iteration.

The game’s community manager, Ramone Russell, described how the San Diego team began development with a gruelingly in-depth focus test. The goal: to suss out what core players didn’t like about last year’s edition. “The key feedback we heard involved our presentation and commentary, so that’s our number one focus this year.” Russell described a new feature called True Broadcast Presentation, which accurately recreates broadcast camera cuts and other presentation signatures you’d see in a televised MLB broadcast. “We’re trying to blur the lines between baseball simulation on your PS3 and what you’d see on MLB.TV sitting on your couch,” Russell explained. “When a batter strikes out, the camera will cut and you will see his face, his anger.”

Commentary, which Russell specifically described as the “number one complaint” from last year’s game, is seeing a similarly massive overhaul. “You’ll hear more season-specific commentary, more conversation pieces,” Russell explained. “The commentators are going to talk about the MVP race, the Cy Young race, the series that you played in two days before. They’re going to talk about how your pitcher is having an awful year because he’s 5 and 15.”

Expansive PlayStation Move support is another key upgrade this year, being tightly integrated into almost every facet of the game, from batting to pitching to fielding to baserunning. Then there’s the hotly anticipated PS Vita version, which will mirror virtually every game feature, mode, and mechanic from the PS3 version and displays graphics that sparkle on the system’s 5’’ OLED screen. You’ll also be able to share your PS3 save files to the cloud, then pull them down on PS Vita and pick up your progress seamlessly.

I sat down with Russell to dig into the all the new details. If you’ve got further questions, let us know in the comments and we’ll do our best to get you answers.

PlayStation.Blog: What’s your personal favorite addition this year?

Ramone Russell, Community Manager: I think it’s our new ball physics. Our programmer ripped out every line of last year’s code and completely re-invented the way the ball acts. It’s a nerd feature, but it adds so much to the game. The baseball gains and loses energy like a real baseball, and if you go into replay, you can count the rotations – that ball is going to spin the way it’s supposed to. This opens up the game because we have bloopers, ricochets off the bases, balls going into no man’s land….it’s much more dynamic and engaging.

PSB: Let’s talk turkey on PlayStation Move. It’s not just for batting, right?

RR: Last year was just Home Run Derby mode, but this year it’s used for batting, pitching, fielding, and base running. There is a learning curve to all of this, but we wanted to make it more fun than just flicking your Move at the screen over and over. That would get boring!

Batting’s much better. Last year, you just saw a floating bat, which created a disconnect. This year, you see the full batter on screen and he’ll move his bat around as you move your bat around. Pitching is really simple: you grab the Move, draw it back, and “throw” it like a real baseball. For fielding, you’ll actually catch the ball when you’re playing with Move, then flick it over to throw it to first base, flick it up for second base, or down for home plate. When you’re running bases, you’ll play as the base runner coach. To signal to your runner to advance, you swirl the Move clockwise; to stop him, you hold the Move straight up. We wanted to be creative with the motion control support, so we hope people like it.

PSB: What was the overall goal for the PS Vita version of MLB 12 The Show?

RR: We started out with a prototype phase. We had to decide on what kind of experience we wanted to give PS Vita players – it’s a handheld, so the play sessions are usually quicker. We thought about doing something totally different, maybe an arcade version of baseball. But we ultimately thought it made the most sense to recreate the entire PS3 experience on PS Vita. The Vita’s powerful enough to do that. So every single feature this year, from MLB 09, 10, 11 are all in the PS Vita version.

We’re also taking advantage of the unique hardware. You can use the front touch to navigate menus or select pitches, and you can use the back touchscreen for fielding and pick-offs.

Have you designed any special modes for PS Vita to accommodate those quicker play sessions?

Yep, that was important because research shows that handheld players play for 15 to 30 minutes, tops. We give you the ability to fast-play through a game by cutting out a lot of the presentation, the camera cuts, to shorten the length of games.

Will PS3 and PS Vita players be able to compete with each other online?

Not this year. It’s something that’s on our radar and we’ll investigate for next year.

Will the PS Vita version include multiplayer at all?

In some way, shape or form, yes. We’re still in the works on that.

What’s the release timeframe for the PS Vita version?

It’ll be release in a similar timeframe as the PS3 version. We haven’t nailed down the exact timing yet for either game, but you can expect it around the same timeframe as the PS3 version this spring.

Graphically, how would you say the PS Vita version stacks up to the PS3 game?

When you see it, I think you’ll be surprised. Vita’s a powerhouse. We have it locked at 30 frames per second, and the visuals are very comparable to the PS3 version. That’s something we just couldn’t accomplish on PSP.

You’ve been suspiciously quiet about multiplayer modes so far – you’re probably still ironing out the details, but can you give PlayStation.Blog readers a sneak peek of what’s in store?

For PS3, we have a brand-new mode that is really, really innovative. Nobody has every done a multiplayer mode like this in any sports game, ever. We’re going to reveal it in early 2012. So in addition to the other features I told you about, there’s still this secret feature that we’ll be talking about soon. We think people are going to love it.

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“This economy’s been down for the last few years, and it’s hard to ask somebody to spend $60 every year,” Russell concluded. “But we never want anybody to have to think twice about that, we want it to be a no-brainer. There’s so much content here that you’ll never want to touch MLB 11 The Show ever again.”

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Freddy Sanchez just got spiked.

That's right, the Giants second baseman took the flip, touched the bag, but before he could rifle the ball to first and turn two, he was taken down by a hard-sliding Matt Kemp.

Just another chapter in the Dodgers/Giants rivalry, but a great day to be a gamer as Sony has finally added not only player collisions, but collision awareness in "MLB 12: The Show."

Amazing news for anyone who has followed the franchise, as we're not just talking about canned animations at the plate or when a player is breaking up a double play. It's all around the field, complete with all new tag and sliding animations, making gamers feel like the action on the virtual diamond is more real than ever as you will no longer see the random player-through-player ghost-like animations that have plagued the series for years. And since cyber athletes will not only collide, but be aware of the potential collisions, players react in a much more realistic manner, sliding around tags from all angles, dropping the ball more often when going for the sweep tag, and even giving the occasional spike when necessary.

And while that's far from the biggest feature added to this year's game, it's one of those little things that just adds so much to the overall experience as Sony attempts to blur the lines between what's seen on TV and what you're controlling in "MLB 12: The Show." It's an experience that I had the chance to play recently during an afternoon in Sony's San Diego studio, and I have to say, I was blown away by how those lines are now more blurred than ever.

One of the biggest improvements "Show" fans will notice right away is the improved ball physics. In past games, there wasn't the amount of hit variety you'd expect from a baseball simulation, and that had to do mainly with the fact that the game's math was off. So this offseason, one of the more hard-core members of "The Show's" engineering team took up the challenge and rewrote the entire ball physics code based on the actual math for how a spinning object reacts when it strikes everything from the bat to the playing surface to one of the bases. The results? Incredible. The ball speed off the bat has now been increased to MLB levels, while the spin off each hit now comes into play more as you'll see grounders with topspin actually scoot through the infield faster for base hits. I even had one play where I launched a ball 400 feet toward the wall, and the computerized Matt Kemp jumped up to rob the home run, but as he hit the wall, the ball bounced off his glove and rebounded back onto the field. It was just one of those plays that made everyone in the room shout, with the producers smiling at each other knowing how much a moment like that rocks.

Another big gameplay improvement comes in the form of the new "Pulse Pitching" dynamic. If you're not a fan of last year's analog pitching, you can go back to the old-school buttons, only with a new level of intensity that really helps up the challenge of pinpointing pitches. Basically, after selecting your pitch and location, you'll need to hit X to pitch the ball (same as classic pitching). Only now, there is a giant pulsating X on the screen in the location of your pitch, and you need to time your button press when the X is at its smallest point in order to throw the ball accurately. The more you're off, the bigger the X will be when you throw the ball, making your pitch wild, or even worse, hanging right over the plate for someone like Albert Pujols to crush over the fence. I was a fan of the analog pitching last year, but I have to say, after about four games of switching back and forth between the analog and the pulse, I ended up playing the rest of the games with the pulse pitching and I don't think I'll go back to the analog once the game ships. It just feels right to me.

But don't think this year is all about the mound as a new way to hit has also been added to the game, even if it's strictly for the hard-core. Sony calls it "Zone Analog Batting," and it combines what gamers loved about the old way to hit with the newer analog approach, as gamers manipulate the right stick to control stride and swing timing, while at the same time using the left stick to control where the batter swings in the zone. So if you see a slider breaking outside, you'd pull back on the right stick to stride, the push forward on the right stick to swing while moving the left stick to your right in order to make contact with the ball. "The Show's" producers say this is the kind of depth the game's community has been begging for when it comes to hitting, and there is one gameplay designer who swears this is the best way to play if you want a pressure-packed, more realistic turn at the plate, but for me, it was a bit too much to handle and I ended up switching back to pure analog controls without the zone. Maybe I'm just getting old, but man, I had a rough time at the plate trying to adjust to using both sticks at once.

Big Ticket Features

And while the gameplay improvements is what will interest "The Show's" hard-core community most, there are a couple of huge new features and technological advancements that will also be of interest to gamers. First and foremost, "MLB 12" will be shipping, not only for the PlayStation 3, but for Sony's new handheld gaming device, the Vita. And the game looks absolutely stunning on the system's eye-popping screen. Everything gamers want in "The Show" is now coming to handheld, complete with Exhibition, Season, Franchise, Road to the Show, and Home Run Derby. You can challenge other gamers online, and even better, you can share save files between your PS3 and Vita games. That means you can start your season at home on your PlayStation 3, play for a couple of weeks, then save your file to the PlayStation cloud, and resume your season on the Vita as you take your game on the road. Sure, that means you need to buy the game for each platform, but for people who commute on the train or are heading out on vacation, this will be an ideal way to stay connected to their favorite franchise. Only downer is the fact that you can't save mid-game on one platform and pick right up on the other. In order to save to the cloud, it needs to be between games, not between innings.

Another feature that Sony is going to be pushing hard this season is the inclusion of full Move support in "The Show." Last year, you could hook up the Move and use its motion controls during the Home Run Derby, but this year you can actually hit, pitch, catch, run and throw -- making the Move an integral part of your "MLB 12" session, if you have enough room in your house, that is. And the room is important as you're taking full swings with the move while at bat, and the harder you swing, the harder you'll hit the ball. Same goes for pitching, as you actually get in your windup and throw the ball, timing the release of the Move's button in order to release your pitch, with arm speed factoring into how fast you throw.

To be honest, I thought this was going to be terrible, but I actually had a lot of fun playing through a couple of innings with the motion controls. I hit a home run with my second batter, and I felt way more satisfaction here than I did when I hit a home run minutes earlier using the analog controls. Maybe the Move tricked me into thinking I actually hit the home run, not Brandon Belt, but whatever the case, I started grinning like a Major Leaguer who just went yard. I also had a surprisingly good time pitching, although that definitely had more of a learning curve to it. It also made my elbow hurt after a couple of innings (no joke), so I think I might just stick to batting.

"MLB 12": By the Numbers

There's just so much added to "MLB 12: The Show," the only way I could do it justice is a breakdown some of the stats:

500+ new presentation animations
300+ new fielding, throwing and baserunning animations
150+ new batting stances
75+ new pitching animations
14 new umpires complete with their own personalities
2 new training techniques in Road to the Show (baserunning, fielding), as you're now a Double-A starter who is the most touted prospect on the team

Add to that the addition of Season and Franchise mode in co-op, new pitcher confidence logic, and franchise improvements that include new contract logic, improved trade logic and an all-new free-agent signing process, and you have the baseball game "Show" fans have been waiting for.

But that's not all as the game's producers are working feverishly to make "MLB 12" the best online product the franchise has seen to date (including an all-new HR Derby with up to eight players simultaneously swinging), and if the online mess of last year gets smoothed out the way they're hoping, we could have the makings of a classic.

Just remember, if you're playing against me online, please stop spiking Freddy Sanchez. Last thing the Giants need is another injury

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Next up on our MLB 12 The Show developer blog tour is our Franchise mode and the improvements coming to players this year. One of our goals going into this development cycle was to enhance the trade logic for CPU teams to better mimic their real-life counterparts. In order to do so, we had to examine the current system and identify the faults to then build and improve upon it. This year we are considering more factors in each trade offer, with the end result being more realistic trades. Teams are valuing their rosters much higher this year, and they aren’t going to ship out prospects so easily, nor will they offer up too many players to fill a positional void. You’ll also see more trades that better suit the teams’ current strategies (i.e. playoff push vs. rebuilding strategies).

Another addition to the trades system is the interface itself. We’ve revamped the trade screen to bring you more detailed information about the players involved and the likelihood of the trade offer being accepted. All of this is aimed at providing more information to help you make sound moves. Here’s a look at this feature on PS Vita. As we’ve said from the start, MLB 12 The Show on PS Vita will utilize all of the core gameplay features found in the PS3 version, and this is no different here!

I know there’s a lot of interest out there about our PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita integration this year so I wanted to make sure I touched on our Cross-Platform Saves functionality. This feature allows you to take your Franchise, Season, and Road to The Show save files up to the cloud where you can then access those files from either your PS3 or PS Vita. You are limited to one file per mode per PSN user account, which can be overwritten as many times as you’d like.

Moving on to other areas of change, we’ve gone back through the player generation logic to bring you more realistic skill sets for the CPU generated players. You will now see more authentic pitch repertoires, with velocities to match, and less overall balanced players (more speedsters, good hitting/average, below average fielding, etc.).

After addressing the player generation issues, we dove into the team lineups and how they slot players. We’ve come up with a more accurate system that better mimics real Major League lineups. This enhancement is carried throughout all of our season-based modes, including Franchise, Season, and Road to The Show. Once again, here’s what this feature will look like on your PS Vita screen!

After we addressed the important player logic issues, we looked at areas of the user interface to further improve your Franchise experience. The Franchise home menu has been enhanced, bringing you more team and league content, including…adding in your next game information, displaying the current standings, and showing you the current league leaders for batting and pitching. These additions aren’t limited to the Major League ball club, and are also accessible to your Triple-A and Double-A teams.

One last interface area we expanded upon was the player card. We’ve revamped the display to bring you more content in a sleeker package. The player card is also now available during games. You can access a player’s card in any game screen that allows you to highlight that player.

As you can see a lot of focus has been placed on improving the Franchise mode experience this year, enhancements that can be found on both PS3 and PS Vita! Don’t forget, MLB 12 The Show for PS3 and PS Vita will be hitting store shelves in just a few weeks on March 6th. Be sure to keep an eye on the PlayStation Blog and TheShowNation.com for more information in the coming days and weeks on this year’s game.

Welcome to The Show!

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Zone Analog Batting is a by-product of our original Zone Batting hit mechanic and our most recent Analog Batting feature so we wanted to give users the best of both. From talking to our community, we found that some of our Zone Batting players weren’t using the Analog Batting because they couldn’t choose the zone they wanted to swing at. So, we decided to mix the two features and came up with ZAB (Zone Analog Batting). We went through many prototypes before we ended up with what we think may be the most realistic way to bat, ever, in a baseball game.

The concept is both intuitive and challenging at the same time. Getting your stride down with the right stick and simultaneously using the left stick to choose your zone was difficult at first. The key was getting your foot down early (stride with the right stick) to give yourself time to read the pitch and use the left stick to push in the direction of the ball. It’s the most organic and satisfying way to hit and dangerously close to feeling what it’s like to hit a CC Sabathia fastball!

We have five levels of ZAB to choose from, starting with Rookie, where you can get your stride down extremely early without getting penalized, all the way to our most challenging level, Legend, where you get to hit just like a true Major Leaguer.

Pulse Pitching spawned from our first ever pitching style for The Show, Classic Pitching. We like to keep the “classic” features around since we know there’s still a lot of people out there who use them. Pulse pitching is a more interactive and challenging way to pitch, combining both user skill and pitcher attributes that creates a unique way to deliver a pitch. There are five levels of Pulse Pitching, all the way from Rookie to Legend. The better pitchers will have a smaller pulse ring based on the command they have with that particular pitch. Alternatively, the worse command a pitcher has, the bigger the ring and the harder it is to hit your spots. It’s a really fun way to pitch, you may never go back to what you were using before! Here’s a look at our video…

Don’t forget, MLB 12 The Show for PS3 and PS Vita will be hitting store shelves in just a few weeks on March 6th. Be sure to keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog and TheShowNation.com for more information in the coming days and weeks on this year’s game. And for our Canadian fans, if you haven’t seen yet, we recently announced that Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista will be gracing the cover of MLB 12 The Show in Canada. Here’s a look at our announcement video featuring Jose in action!

Welcome to The Show!

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NEW FEATURES IN MLB 12 THE SHOW:

MLB The Show on PS Vita (PS Vita) – MLB 12 The Show is available on the PS Vita this year so users can enjoy all of the core modes of play found in the PS3 game, including Exhibition, Season, Franchise, Home Run Derby, online play, and Road to The Show, for users who want the personal experience of taking control of one player through his career starting in the Minors all the way to the Majors. PS Vita users will have the ability to use new touch screen controls within MLB 12 The Show using the front touch screen and the rear touch screen controls to throw the ball to specific locations, make pitch commands, and run the bases. MLB 12 The Show for PS Vita will provide a big league experience that players can take with them on road, anytime, anywhere.

Cross Platform Saves (PS3 & PS Vita) – New to MLB 12 The Show is the ability for users to share save files between PS3 and PS Vita. Players can now take their Franchise, Season, and Road to The Show save files up to the cloud where they can then access those files on either platform. Users are limited to one file per mode per PlayStation Network account, which can be overwritten as many times as you’d like. At home on PS3 or on the road with the PS Vita, fans can continue their seasons anywhere!

True Ball Physics (PS3 & Vita) – MLB 12 The Show now incorporates realistic ball physics and proper spin for balls that bounce off the bases, the pitcher’s mound rubber, and other surface on the field. The baseball now bounces realistically using actual math for a spinning ball hitting these surfaces. Therefore, the way the ball bounces in MLB 12 has changed a lot from previous versions. In order for hits to get through the infield, the ball counts on having top-spin so the spin of the ball off the bat is now accurate with realistic RPMs. The ball also bounces and loses energy like a real baseball does and is launched with the correct spin. This results in more hit type varieties, rising and sinking liners, more choppers, balls tailing away from the outfielders, and balls hitting off the bases.

TruBroadcast Presentations (PS3 Only) – Baseball fans demand an accurate simulation of reality and anything that detracts from this can shatter the feeling that you are playing in a real game. MLB 12 The Show makes the biggest leap forward EVER in this regard, truly blurring the line between reality and the in-game experience. With completely refined presentations combined with enhanced artificial intelligence (AI), revamped cameras, and expanded audio, MLB 12 is poised to deliver the most realistic baseball gaming experience to date.

Diamond Dynasty (PS3 Only) – Diamond Dynasty juggles aspects of team management, player progression, and online competition, with more creative freedom than any sports game to date. Gamers create a custom team complete with Team Name, Colors, custom Uniforms, and fully customizable Logos with up to 1000 layers of detail. Once created, the team is given a handful of MLB baseball cards and Dynasty baseball cards that, when activated, add the players to your team roster.

The fundamentals of Diamond Dynasty revolve around the difference between MLB and Dynasty cards and the unique reward systems that support each type. A Dynasty player is a long-term investment that requires training similar to that of a “Road to the Show” player. Dynasty players are supplemented with an award/achievement system. In contrast MLB players are short-term investments that slot into your roster ready to play at their current attribute levels. Completing collections of MLB players will reward you with Budget bonuses. Budget is used to train players, purchase Card Packs (Dynasty or MLB), and to purchase cards from other users on the Marketplace. Most of your Budget is earned by playing either Head-to-Head online games, or VS. CPU against MLB teams. Head-to-Head games are matched and ranked using an ELO system that most competitive online games now use some form. Every fifth game played, your team is re-evaluated for placement into one of five competitive divisions: Spring Training, Season Series, Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series. What will define your dynasty?

Full Move Support in The Show (PS3) – Control all aspects of The Show with the PlayStation®Move motion controller, including pitching, hitting, fielding, and running the bases. There are also custom meters on screen to compliment the experience. Imagine being at the plate and seeing the batters hands moving as you move. Move gameplay can be used in all modes.

Zone Analog Batting (PS3 & PS Vita) – MLB® 11 The Show™ introduced analog controls, now this year, MLB 12 will bring a combination of the old and the new with Zone Analog Batting. The right analog stick will still be used for the stride and swing, but now, if you choose to, you can control where you swing in the zone using the left analog stick. All the other analog controls are also being improved and enhanced.

Pulse Pitching (PS3 & PS Vita) – This is a new interface to the classic pitching style. Players still pitch using a simple “X” button press, but users must time the press with an on-screen display to ensure pitch accuracy. All other pitching methods are also being improved and enhanced.

Franchise Improvements (PS3 & PS Vita) – MLB 12 The Show introduces a number of Franchise mode improvements, including player generation logic has been tuned to provide more variety inside draft classes and more realistic pitch repertoires. The lineup logic has also been updated to give you closer to real-life rosters while in your Season, Franchise, and Road to The Show modes. Finally, the trade system has been revamped with improved logic based more on the real-life club’s strategy. Small market teams will behave as such, while the bigger fish will continue to go after the top players in the game. Also, highly touted prospects will remain just that and won’t be showing up in trades early on in their careers.

Road to the Show Improvements (PS3 & PS Vita) – This generation of Road to The Show brings a new assortment of training modes for base running and fielding to round out your Road to The Show player’s training experience. Also, your created player will now be “that” highlighted and touted prospect you think he is, by starting his career as a Double-A starter. The player creator has seen improvements as well, by offering a slew of new accessories to compliment the already extensive system.

Situational Collision Awareness (PS3 & Vita) – Players will now know where they and other players are on the field and understand when to avoid other players and how to react when other players are near. Although this sounds like a relatively simple concept, but it’s very important and makes the game experience feel more true to life.

New Tag Animation System (PS3 & PS Vita) – Players can now branch out of any tag throw animation and branch out of a tag animation to avoid it. There are also more animations and ways to tag runners out at the plate. This new system allows for more results (dropping the ball, new swipes, etc.) and the addition of new standing and run down tags, which creates a more dynamic and organic player integration on the base paths and at the plate.

Online Everywhere and Unified Settings (PS3 & PS Vita) – Online everywhere and Unified Settings will minimize, if not remove, the obvious line between offline and online in The Show via PSN. One of the most notable changes is the inclusion of online features and components in the main menus, especially the Exhibition > Team Select screen. That’s now the launching pad for offline Exhibition and online Play Now games. Users will also now be auto-logged in to The Show servers, making online features more accessible. Unifying user settings is a minor, but important feature. Users no longer have to set their offline and online settings – there will be one!

Play Now Plus (PS3 & PS Vita) – Similar to Play Now, Play Now Plus can be used through custom settings. This is as easy as selecting Play Now, setting your Play Now settings, saving these settings, then selecting Play Now type. There’s no need to set you Play Now settings again, unless you want to change them up. You’ll then be able to find an opponent to match your gameplay settings, without having to go through the challenge process.

SimulView™ Functionality with PlayStation®3D Display (PS3) – MLB 12 The Show will incorporate SimulView™ technology that allows two people to play head to head without seeing each other’s screen while playing on the PlayStation®3D Display. It uses the same technology as Stereoscopic 3D, but instead of sending image A to the left eye and image B to the right Eye, we send image A to player 1 and image B to player 2.

New Tutorial Movies (PS3 & PS Vita) – With all of the new features this year in MLB 12 The Show, we felt that it was essential to provide more tutorial movies to educate our fans. For example, these tutorial movies showcase and explain the new PS Move implementation for all facets of gameplay (hitting, pitching, fielding, and throwing). In addition, the five tutorials explaining the Pure features implemented in MLB 11 The Show have also been updated an improved, including Pure Hitting, Pure Pitching, Pure Throwing, and the fake throw system. Watch them in the frontend menus or the in-game pause menu.

The Best Gets Better! MLB 12 The Show includes over 50 more enhancements, new features, and improvements!

Over 500 new Presentation animations
Over 300 new Fielding, Throwing, and Base running animations
Over 150 New Batting Stances
Over 75 New Pitching Animations
Improved load times
Completely new bat, ball and glove sounds
New Bullpen Management options
New player accessories (new sunglasses, protective gear, hat bills, etc…)
New Pick off logic
New player card including advanced baseball stats
New Batter/Pitcher Attribute snapshot OSD (D-Pad Left)
More fluid organic fielder animations from start to end of play
Improved fielder routes on balls off the wall (more variety of pursuit angles)
Dynamic fielding results and reaction (balls can now be dropped or missed by a fielder
anytime)
Improved button fielding with difficulty levels
New Pitcher Confidence Logic
Increased and improved conversation among Matt, Dave and Eric.
14 New umpires
Updated uniforms and stadiums for new and updated teams
Updated jumbotron movies and stat layouts (still team specific)
Updated LED Ribbon board art and movies
Focus on interface and display presentation and flair
Uniform select in all modes
Frontend sound preview when assigning audio
New Player Generation Logic
New Trade interface and screen
Improved Lineup Logic
Co-op available in Season and Franchise modes
Road to the Show career begins as a Double-A starter
Move video tutorials
New in-game tips
Did You Knows on Loading screens
15 new player specific home run swings.
Base Running Training in RTTS
Fielding Training in RTTS
New Base Runner Awareness
Online Gameplay Gets a Boost (better reaction, better experience) (PS3)
www.TheShowNation.com Community Web Site Revamp
Operating System supported Virtual Keyboard
New Online Gamer Card (more information)
Swing Analysis OSD Improvements and Profile Display Options
“Free” 1st inning quit in Online Games removed
Online Profile to use PSN Avatar
PSN Profile utility support on Vita (Friend Requests)
Game History showing XP gain/loss)
Play online with your full profile settings (minus negotiated settings)
Challenge of the Week is now free
Online League Schedule improvements
Online League Playoff improvements

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