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Xbox Trusted Sony With Pre-Release Xbox Series X Hardware For MLB the Show 21

To get MLB The Show 21 ready for its Xbox debut, Microsoft trusted its industry rivals with its latest console technology before it even launched.

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MLB The Show came to Xbox for the first time this year, and to get the latest version of the game running on its then-unreleased Xbox Series X|S consoles, Microsoft sent PlayStation's development team some of its top secret hardware at the time. Speaking to Axios via VGC, head of game creator experience and ecosystem at Xbox Sarah Bond called the move a "real sign of industry trust" when it entrusted the consoles to its main rivals in the video game industry.

"The Show always came up," Bond explained. "We always said, 'We love this game. It would be a huge opportunity to bring it to Xbox'. It was a real, real sign of industry trust."

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Now Playing: MLB The Show 21 Video Review

Microsoft would later announce that MLB The Show 21 would be free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, a bold move that Microsoft says made it the biggest sports game of the past year on Xbox, as well as the second biggest sports game of all time on Xbox overall. Sony explained in April that its internally-developed game becoming a cross-platform title was MLB's decision.

"As part of the goal for this year's game, MLB decided to bring the franchise to more players and baseball fans," a PlayStation representative said in April. "This decision provides a unique opportunity to further establish MLB The Show as the premier brand for baseball video games."

In other MLB The Show 21 news, the first 3rd Inning boss has been revealed to be former Cleveland Indians Grady Sizemore, the 2008 Gold Glove winner.

Darryn Bonthuys on Google+

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Avatar image for SCImonTemplar
SCImonTemplar

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I'm sure before they sent it over, there were NDAs on top of NDAs with NDAs for the NDAs.

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Elranzer

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There was a time when the Coca-Cola recipe actually leaked, and a thief offered to sell it to Pepsi. Pepsi promptly had turned the thief to the police, and returned the unopened recipe to Coca-Cola.

I imagine when you’re as massive as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sony and Microsoft, you have respect and honor among your peers. Because that’s what they are, peers, not just rivals.

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starchaser19981

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@Elranzer: Pepsi's selling point has always been that if you don't like Coke, their brand of Cola tastes somewhat different. Paying the thief wouldn't have done much for them since Coca Cola was probably already well-known by the time.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Elranzer: Or because they knew simply being contacted by the guy could be seen as participating in corporate espionage, which carries a nasty sentence by the way, so they had to turn the guy in.

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GalvatronType_R

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Edited By GalvatronType_R

There’s industry trust and then there’s industry foolishness. Microsoft must have really wanted MLB on the Xbox to sent a dev kit for their gen 9 hardware to Sony. Unsure if that was a good long term move.

Ferrari would not send the specs for their upcoming hybrid flat plane crank V8 engine to Lamborghini. I don’t think Sony would reciprocate and send a dev to kit Microsoft for any of their games.

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Warlord_Irochi

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@GalvatronType_R:

In my experience, dev kid are seldom representative of how the final machine will be; the closest one I've seen to an actual retail console was the PS3 one, and it still had more RAM and a secondary OS

Console manufacturers are very dependent on third party tittles, in some cases it's not worthy for them if a third party is not releasing a tittel at all because they can't make it work on both platforms (in some companies, that is a guideline for some franchises, in fact). I can see why this could have been necessary.

By the end of the day, making Sony sign an NDA is more than enough. As long as they don't use code/component of the competitor there is no legal issue.

I bet that the first thing Sony and MS did when they released their consoles, was buying a console of the competitor to disassemble and check what's inside.

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sladakrobot

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@GalvatronType_R:
Sony had to sell PS4 devkits to Mojang (Xbox Studio) which made Minecraft and MC Dungeons for the PS4 already and since these games should work on the PS5,Sony had to sell them PS5 kits aswell.



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GamerBum

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Microsoft were not worried because they knew they had the most powerful console ever made and knew there was nothing Sony could do about it.

Microsoft absolutely made the correct decision by waiting for AMD so they could implement full RDNA2 in the XseX/S while playstation went earlier missing out on key features. There was rumours that ps5 was supposed to launch in 2019.

The Xbox dev tools might not have been quite ready at launch but in the long run it’s going to benefit Xbox.

Just look at Forza 5 and Flightsim. Best looking next gen games so far. And I think people are going to be surprised at how good Halo Infinite looks once they have it in their homes and are playing it.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@gamerbum: Ignore this guy. He ran around for months spreading all sorts of lies and has been proven wrong about damn near everything. He was even saying the PS5 didn't have RDNA2. Now he's backpedaling to say it doesn't have full RDNA2, lol.

And the reality is DF articles have proven there is no significant difference between the two consoles. The differences are usually negligible, with a 50-50 difference of which games perform better. Heck, I just read a Metro article that states the PS5 actually performs better.

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Avatar image for Warlord_Irochi
Warlord_Irochi

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@gamerbum:

- N64 was more powerful than ps1: It did fall behind de PlayStation in sales.

- The first Xbox was the most powerful console of it's generation: It did fall behind the PS2 in sales.

- Xbox One X was more powerful than PS4 Pro: it did outsell the PS4 pro

- The Nintendo WII was not even capable of HD, yet outsold both the more poweful X360 and PS3

See the trend? clue: there is none. Maybe one day (soon, I suggest), you graphic fanboys, should consider getting off your cloud of "looks and power are all that matter" and start reading a bit about how the actual, real hardware market works.

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PrpleTrtleBuBum

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@Warlord_Irochi: there is. better graphics for sure help but all your examples have factors that impacted more.

but assume that 2 equally well known devices launch at the same time with equally interesting game lineup and no standout features then graphics can solve the gridlock.

but it seems like graphics are the kind of core gate that every company checks they arent too far from rivals. and sure its like that with ps5 and xsx too

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Warlord_Irochi

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@PrpleTrtleBuBum: "all your examples have factors that impacted more."

My point exactly.

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Judeuduarte

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@Warlord_Irochi: And you still forgot the most outrageous one:
Dreamcast was one generation ahead - Sega left the console race.

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Warlord_Irochi

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@Judeuduarte: Yeah, Dreamcast deserved better. At least it's decently emulated right now.

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itchyflop

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@gamerbum: yes im sure Sony thought that, oh no the more powerful xbox is coming to us to shame us and our inferior system.

Lets wait and see how Halo looks in the homes and cross platform.

Ill be playing my exclusives RIGHT NOW on my shiny inferior ps5.....

What are you playing on your powerhouse xbox?

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Warlord_Irochi

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@itchyflop: Games and offers are what sells consoles, indeed. I got a PS5 for the exclusives that PlayStation always has, I'll be getting a Series S/X eventually for the Game Pass.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Warlord_Irochi: Why? You don't need an Xbox to use GamePass. They're even talking about streaming for the X1.

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itchyflop

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@Warlord_Irochi:

ha yes i did indeed buy my Xbox classic for halo alone, the freedom and scale of that when in comparison to ps2 linear pathed games of that gen just couldn't compare, though i did enjoy my ps2 and the likes of medal of honour series very much.

Smart move buying the cheaper series s i think if its just for gamepass.

Is it me or do Sony just have that i dunno ,"feel" somehow "better", there's no denying the Microsoft power and before my 360 red ringed (all 4 of them) i was enjoying that too and I still remember how blown away i was with project Gotham on release, but it never felt quite as good as a six axis Sony pad in your hand.

And lets be fair the ps5 pad makes gaming so much better.

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Warlord_Irochi

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Edited By Warlord_Irochi

@itchyflop: Oh Yes! I love the Dual Sense. I use it on PC too (although right now only Steam seems to support it)

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itchyflop

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@Warlord_Irochi: Naturally when Microsoft redesigned the classic pads there were indeed a lot better but the Sony pads just feel better.

Also staying with physical changeable batteries in the Microsoft pads is well Victorian in nature, its like 3g now in phones !!!!

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Batman90

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Edited By Batman90

If I was Somy I would have leaked it for them having to bring their exclusive to a rival.

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xavier141524

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@batman90: thank God you are not with Sony. or as you say Somy....

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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Of course there was trust. Trust that one or the other would sue the pants off them if they tried anything funny.

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CJ_Topspin

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Edited By CJ_Topspin

Ugh...looks horrible.

...call me when you get rid of the modified PS3 game engine.

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fraga500

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this is pretty cool

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BloodborneLore

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Shots fired!

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Warlord_Irochi

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There is always respect and professional trust, or there is 99% of the time. I have been in the industry for over 13 years already, and the only place I saw brand zealotry and fanboyish hate was amongst some sectors of the gamer community.

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sladakrobot

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Edited By sladakrobot

@Warlord_Irochi: True that.

There is alot respect between Sony,MS and Nintendo and so much toxicity between "fans" of each products.

Sony and MS work in plenty of other business professionaly together.

Now,think about it...Bethesda Studios are making 2 timed exclusives for the PS4/PS5...that means MS has also PS5 devkits.

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Warlord_Irochi

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@sladakrobot: "Now,think about it...Bethesda Studios are making 2 timed exclusives for the PS4/PS5...that means MS has also PS5 devkits."

Very likely :)

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Carpetfluff

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@Warlord_Irochi: Several Bethesda studios were already making the PS5 games long before the aquistion went through. The PS5 and Xbox Series machines were basically out before it was finalised. I'm not sure what you think happened here that makes them having dev kits important? Plus MS were really late getting their dev kits out to anyone, so on the Sony side they probably only saw it relatively close to launch anyway.

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Warlord_Irochi

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@Carpetfluff: "I'm not sure what you think happened here that makes them having dev kits important?"

Nothing to do with what I said.

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