Today sees Major League Baseball go where no major league has gone before with the first commercial launch of MLB Home Run Derby VR for Sony PlayStation VR and Steam. Leveraging unique motion controls, the title is developed and distributed by the Games and Virtual Reality team at MLB, making it the first console VR video game built by a US professional sports league. With an eye on potential esports activation, the game allows fans around the world to step into the batter’s boxes at three All-Star ballparks from 2017-19 (Marlins Park in Miami, Nationals Park in Washington, DC, and Progressive Field in Cleveland) to hit home runs and tally as many points as possible in the timed home run competition.
With the rollout, at least 12 MLB ballparks will host an in-venue setup of this VR video game for fans to play when they’re attending games in 2018: Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago White Sox, Houston, Miami, Minnesota, Oakland, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, and Washington. Cynopsis asked Jamie Leece, MLB Senior Vice President, Games and VR, about the launch, the league’s investment in gaming and what we can expect from the game.
Leece on gaming audiences: Our video games have long served a meaningful role in providing a fun access point to engage younger audiences, particularly early adopters of evolving technologies. As with other advancements in gaming hardware, fans will continue to expect and demand powerful visuals, immersive experiences, community competition capabilities and of course fun. It’s our job to exceed those expectations by building experiential games, like Home Run Derby VR, that we believe will continue to deliver positive impacts in a variety of ways.
On VR: We have been working with our Clubs to explore VR for a few years and have continued to find our fans increasingly embrace the immersive content experiences made possible by 360 degree technology. The popularity of the MLB All-Star Week bracket-style competition, along with the success of our Home Run Derby mobile game and encouraging hardware growth in the marketplace, made this a natural expansion to put the power and action of the Derby experience literally right in the hands of our fans through VR and motion control tech.
On building the game: We have been developing and distributing MLB gaming products for more than five years now, dating back to the first release of Home Run Derby mobile in 2013. We just published a major update to that title for 2018 that we’re also very excited about. The following year, we began publishing a re-boot of the iconic baseball game franchise, R.B.I. Baseball, for consoles. Home Run Derby VR represents an important extension of our previous developments in the gaming space. Building it ourselves allows us to drive both the optimal experience and technology in ways that are uniquely baseball.
On venues: One of the most exciting aspects of this VR game is its unique portability. Before getting to this commercial launch, we worked very closely with the Clubs and our League partners the past year or so to deploy this at a variety of MLB events. This year alone, we have at least 13 Clubs who will utilize a specially customized version of the game as an additional attraction at their ballparks. With the video game set in each of those ballparks, it makes for a really transformative immersion for a fan to virtually step into the batter’s box and hit home runs as their favorite players do. We’ve also seen how fans love just looking around the virtual environment and taking in the intricate details of their home ballpark. We’ve also had activations of the VR game at MLB’s international events such as MLB Battlegrounds in London last summer as well as the recent series in Puerto Rico and the upcoming games being played in Monterrey, Mexico.
On esports applications: There are many activations and new frontiers we’re considering for our video game titles, including exciting developments specific to Home Run Derby VR during this summer’s All-Star Week experience in Washington, DC. Nothing to announce at this time, but we’re excited about the fan reaction so far and the potential to build even more dynamic ways for them to enjoy baseball video games.
