We’re taking our first steps towards a bold new direction for Road to the Show, the third-person baseball RPG that ships as a part of the full MLB The Show 17 experience on March 28. Let’s get into it.

Prepare for an Epic Odyssey

Road to the Show is generally considered the most popular of our three main modes of play. In this mode, you’ll guide a baseball player on a personal journey through the professional baseball world, going from a newbie in the minors to becoming a legend in the majors. Within this mode, you’ll be able to:

• Create a player from scratch. How tall is he? Freckles? Don’t forget the facial hair! We have 22 new facial hair styles, 35 new hair styles, 49 new head shape archetypes, plus a larger palette of color this year to give your guy extra style.
• Prove yourself in the Minor Leagues and earn training points along the way. Use the training points to make yourself stronger, faster, and more capable. New interactions can kick off 2x Training Point Earning periods that help you get stronger, better, faster. Want to be a bomb hitting fireball pitcher? No problem.
• Unlock and activate Perks, which can help with hitting more home runs, putting the ball in play, and more opportunities to steal a base.
• Earn and equip various stat boosting equipment, and rituals to also help you perform better each game.
• Leverage your abilities to rise through the ranks in pursuit of the dream of playing Major League Baseball. Get a sports agent to represent you and put him to work to help pave your path.
• If you have what it takes to make the big leagues, you’re one of a select few, but you’re not done yet. Turn your sites on the record books. Build yourself into a true legend, one epic moment to the next, to be exalted in the halls of Cooperstown.

Nothing is a Promise on Road to the Show

But this story isn’t all about you. Professional baseball is a big world, and you’re just a speck on the map. Each organization has unique needs. And coaches, scouts, agents, the media — they have their own responsibilities, too.

This year, Road to the Show will now sprinkle in true-to-life interactions in a documentary-style presentation. As your career unfolds, you will occasionally interact with coaches, managers, representatives, and more, facing choices that can influence your future path and your road to the show. Your actions, their effects, and the narrator’s insights explore beyond not only your on-field performance, but also your off-the-field aspects of being a professional ballplayer.

One Door Closes, Another Opens

During interactions with other characters in your baseball world, you’ll make choices on how you engage in dialogue. Bluntness or honesty is up to you and the possibilities are vast, but your future at your position, the public’s perception of you, and your role with the team hang in the balance. Will you help the team out and change positions to fit an organizational need, or stick to your guns on your personal mission to be the best left-handed shortstop of all-time?

As you play and make choices, a documentary style voice will narrate the twists and turns as though you’re watching a baseball documentary unfold live before you. To make the experience as realistic as possible, these interactions take place in settings never before seen in Road to the Show, like team locker rooms and managers’ offices.

This is just the beginning of MLB The Show’s non-linear narrative with Road to the Show. We’re looking forward to players enjoying all that this mode has to offer, and we can’t wait to see all the paths that you’ll blaze through our baseball world.

Share with us which paths you chose in your road to the show by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram when the game comes out on March 28, and join us for our livestream on these new features and more this Thursday at 2:00 PM Pacific Time on Twitch!