Mlb 2K10 Developers Insight #3: Mlb Today

[Maestro23]

http://community.2ksports.com/community/insights/ (Pics Included)

*For those that play NBA 2K10, you will be familiar with this. It is a nice feature.

MLB Today

By: 2K Admin Ron | Friday January 29 2010

Hi 2K Sports Fans!

My name is Asif Chaudhri and I work on all the presentation elements for Major League Baseball® 2K10. We previously introduced a ground breaking new feature this year in NBA 2K10 called NBA Today. This feature was very well received and was named “Most Innovative Feature in a Sports Game” by Operation Sports this year. Well Major League Baseball 2K10 is getting an expanded version of this feature.

MLB® Today incorporates actual MLB stats from the real games being played every day and uses it to drive the commentary and other presentation elements in the game. In the past you have booted your Major League Baseball 2K game and landed at a team select screen. When it came to commentary, overlays, and overall presentation, your game was happening as an absolutely independent event. It was a fantasy matchup that had no real-world context aside from the players, team uniforms and stadiums. There was a limited list of subjects the commentators could discuss. They could talk about what was happening in that particular game and they could talk about what happened last season.

That’s all changed. In Major League Baseball 2K10 you can go to the MLB Today landing screen and select an actual Major League Baseball game that is being played that day. You can sort the games by National League or American League and, if the team you want to play with doesn’t have a game that day, you can simply select the Quick Game option and create your own match-up as you always have.

The MLB Today screen has several sub-pages of stats from the real life Major League Baseball that you guys watch and love. It’s like having your favorite sports website integrated into your Internet-connected console playing your MLB 2K10 game. The main view shows you the starting pitcher for each team and two other key players for the game you have highlighted. Other sub-pages include a team leaders page, a team comparison page and a yesterday’s scores page. The team comparison page shows the current series results, which team their next series is against, and team performance info such as “BA of .308 over the last 6 games”. And if that’s not enough, from the MLB Today screen, you can access the MLB Today nav screen and access box scores, player stats, team stats and league standings. All this data will be real-world Major League Baseball data from the 2010 and previous seasons.

Awesome, right? But that’s just the start. Now that your game and your league are synched up, the door is thrown open for dynamic commentary and presentation that’s based on what’s happening in the real Major League Baseball. Throughout the season you’ll experience intelligent commentary that not only keeps you informed on the ACTUAL latest league happenings, but also keeps track of your team info as well. Examples include knowing your team just swept a three game series, knowing your third baseman went off for five hits and a couple bombs in the road win against the Dodgers Thursday night and that he’s hitting a cool .313 this season, knowing this is the first of a four game series between the two teams, and that your season series stands at an even 4-4.

A big difference between NBA and Major League Baseball is the importance of splits data in Major League Baseball. That’s why we have TONS of splits data available. Examples include vs. lefties/righties, road/home, month, pre/post All-Star break, situational (bases empty, runners on, RISP, RISP with 2 outs, and more), by pitch count, vs. individual teams, by stadium, and vs. individual pitchers. So, the commentators will discuss the career and season splits for most pitchers and batters in the game. The commentators now have the knowledge of what’s happening league-wide and will reference the most up-to-date information possible in their conversations. But it’s not just talk (there will be a future Insight that dives deeper into the commentary, so look out for that soon): a lot of the topics the commentary team will discuss have overlays that coincide with their analysis.

During the batter introductions you’ll see player stat lines from yesterday’s game and career and season splits vs. the current pitcher. You’ll also see the batter’s career batting average by pitch count as the plate appearance progresses, league leaders overlays in various stat categories and promos for upcoming games. As the Postseason approaches, you’ll get the standings for both the Senior and Junior circuits and Wild Card race updates. The commentary and presentation will constantly be changing throughout the season to coincide with the real league and transition from Spring Training to regular season and, finally, to the Postseason.

For the few days during the season where there are no Major League Baseball games taking place (or anytime you feel like playing your team), you can simply use Quick Game to create your own fantasy matchup and all the MLB Today commentary and presentation will still occur. And yes, the MLB Today commentary and presentation will also occur in your Franchise and My Player games (once you reach the Major League Baseball) but it will be your Franchise or My Player data that drives the commentary, not the real league data.

I would be remiss not to mention yesterday’s huge announcement about the 2K Sports Million Dollar Perfect Game Challenge, where the first gamer to throw a verified Perfect Game in Major League Baseball 2K10 on Xbox 360 or PS3 prior to May 2, 2010 can win $1,000,000. The contest will use the MLB Today mode , so pay special attention to the details I have discussed in this Insight . We've made selecting the appropriate settings easy for you by having a toggled option within each MLB Today match-up that will enter you in the MLB 2K10 contest with the parameters automatically set for you. More information will be coming on the contest when the full rules are released so make sure to check back often on the 2K Sports Million Dollar Perfect Game Challenge website: http://www.2ksports.com/perfectgame.

This feature was a huge hit in NBA and we’re looking forward to seeing how the baseball community responds to it. The Million Dollar Perfect Game Challenge should be fun to monitor as well, so good luck to all gamers out there!

- Asif Chaudhri

Presentation Producer

NEXT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K10 DEVELOPER INSIGHT: “Online,” by Jay Iwahashi– Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

[JoeRudi26]

I agree, pretty cool features.  I especially like the stat bar of Longoria at the plate, showing his numbers from the night before.  Cool stuff, let's hope it holds.

[Maestro23]

I agree, pretty cool features. I especially like the stat bar of Longoria at the plate, showing his numbers from the night before. Cool stuff, let's hope it holds.

This feature works great in NBA 2k10 inside your franchise too. Really keeps your franchise/dynasty fresh over the long haul.

I like what they are trying to do this year, but it all has got to revolve around some good core gameplay. We shall see. :popcorn:

[DonSPa]

i agree maestro, all these features mean nothing if u cant play the game but i have the feeling with all the stuff they are doing that they are coming up with a quality game.They know that more people are leary and they are gonna want to do it right this time because if they dont, they know they will never be able to make another mlb game.Its going to be hard enough to sell this year until people buy it and they get good reviews then thats when the sales will rise.If they bomb again they know no matter what added features they install they will never be able to sell to the public

[GEOLINK]

I like the overlays, they look neat.

but the crowd looks lost, what are they looking at? the OF? what are they looking at?

they should be looking at the game, the batter or the pitcher.

[Trues]

The overlays do look very nice.

[emath2432]

I said it once before. It looks like it'll be better than last year. Problem is, this is all based off of words I read on a page, and not actual game play footage, or a bunch of independent reviews of the game play (like they did with The Show a week or so ago, with guys from Operation Sports).

If early reviews are good, I will give it a go (at least on the PS3, as my 5 year old PC will not be able to handle it). If it turns out it is good, or looks like they are close (as in, maybe one year away from being great), maybe a new PC will be coming by the time 2k11 rolls around.