Until now we’ve only revealed a portion of what’s to come with the launch of MLB The Show 17 with our Playback Trailer of the PlayStation Experience gameplay video.

Today, we’re excited to dig a little deeper into the new Retro Mode in MLB The Show 17 with a video from our team in San Diego. We’re also highlighting the regional cover athletes for Canada and Taiwan, we’re outlining what you get by making the jump to our Season Starter Packs, and — last but certainly not least — we’re revealing the Twitch livestream schedule leading up to launch.

Retro mode is pretty much a one-button mode, but with surprising depth, and all the new animations, gameplay additions, and improvements found in the regular version of the game.

For example, in an effort to simplify the batter vs. pitcher battle, we’ve taken all the pitching attributes out and boiled them down to velocity, break, and control. Because there is no high and low in the strike zone, you have three pitches at your disposal that you can trigger with the touch of one button. To throw a fastball you hold down on the left analog stick and press X. To throw a changeup you hold up on the left analog stick and press X. And to throw a slider you press to the left or right on the left analog stick after the pitch is released.

One of the wrinkles we’ve added is that velocity is controlled by holding down or up on the analog stick just before the pitcher releases. In closing, you choose velocity before the pitch is thrown and you can affect movement (left or right) after the pitch is thrown.

MLB The Show 17 Regional Covers

For our friends in Canada, we’re excited to finally reveal the regional cover athlete for this year’s game.

2016 American League All-Star Aaron Sanchez graces the Canadian cover this year. Aaron was a key part in the Blue Jays returning to the post season for the second straight year.

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen once again graces the Taiwan cover of MLB The Show.

When you pre-order MLB The Show 17, you will receive 10 bonus Standard Packs and a Ken Griffey Jr. Card for The Show 17 when you pick-up or download the game. Pre-order at GameStop/EB Games and receive an additional 5 Standard Packs bringing your total to 15.

Lastly, if you pre-order on PlayStation Store in addition to the 10 Standard Packs and Ken Griffey Jr. card, you will instantly receive 11,000 Stubs for The Show 16.

A few more clarifications on the content included in the different skus:

• Gold Season Starter Pack Contents: Includes one item for a mission starter that leads to a Gold player.
• Sponsor Pack Contents: 5 pieces of equipment to use in Road To The Show/Diamond Dynasty (RTTS/DD) and 3 Franchise sponsorships.
• Diamond Season Starter Pack Contents: Includes one item for a mission starter that leads to a Diamond player.
• Digital Deluxe Pack Contents: Includes 4 players, 1 guaranteed Live Series Gold player, and 1 guaranteed Flashback.
• Standard Pack: 8 total items, 6 Players, and 2 items (either RTTS/Diamond Dynasty Player equipment or Franchise Sponsorship).
• Stub(s): The universal currency used in MLB The Show.

2017 Twitch Livestream Schedule

Some of the most fulfilling moments in game development are when we get to show our faithful fans what we’ve been working on to make each year’s game the best baseball video game on the market. Over the last two years we’ve started to show off some of our work-in-progress updates in a series of video blogs and Twitch livestreams. We love hearing your feedback while we’re still tweaking some of the features and we hope you enjoy getting a sneak peek at what’s in store for the year.

The 2017 video blog and Twitch livestream schedule can be seen below. Don’t forget to call in sick or clear your calendars accordingly! And don’t forget that there are 6 exclusive weekly Game Stop Monday’s video blogs that start on February 14.

Stay tuned for the next video blog on February 7 that focuses on all things gameplay and our first Twitch livestream on February 9 that takes a deep dive into all the new changes to game play!

Please make sure to watch The Show Nation, our Twitter and Facebook accounts between now and March 28th for the latest updates.