MLB 12 The Show: Online Everywhere, Unified Settings, Play Now Plus

For years there’s been somewhat of a line between the online areas of MLB The Show and the rest of the game…sometimes that line was faint, sometimes it was distinct. Coming into the development of MLB 12 The Show, we really wanted to eliminate that line so this lead to the idea of Online Everywhere.

The game modes in the main menu of MLB 12 The Show now have all game modes, offline and online in the same list. As you can see from the image below, Home Run Derby is listed in game modes, once selected you’ll be able to select offline or online. You’ll also see Diamond Dynasty, which is an entirely new mode that mixes offline and online components and includes elements never before seen in a sports game (more info on both of those modes to come soon).

Moving over one click to the right from the main menu, there’s now a community menu with the online features available.

Unified Settings
Nobody wants to manage more than one set of user settings. In MLB 12 The Show, you set how you want to play in one spot: Options > User Settings. Regardless of whether you’re playing exhibition, Road to The Show, or an online league game, you’ll use your set of user settings. There are online game negotiated settings to keep the playing field even, but beyond those select few items, you play The Show how you want to play it.

Play Now Plus
Play Now has always been the best place to find an online exhibition game quickly. The single biggest request from the community with Play Now is the ability to customize certain user settings. Play Now Plus offers just that. Under the User Settings > Online Challenge Settings you can select those important settings you most care about and guarantee you find a game that matches those settings. If you’re an avid Guess Pitch off user, set it to Off, go to Exhibition > Play Now and you’ll be matched up with another user with Guess Pitch set to Off.

The best thing about all these features is that they’re available on both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Thank you for reading and we hope to see you on March 6, 2012 when MLB 12 The Show hits stores exclusively on PlayStation. Welcome the The Show!