The MLB The Show 24 day-one information drop was mostly by the book with the cover athlete, release date, and FAQ all being updated for the ’24 cycle. One change though was the feature premiere schedule was left as an open mystery as we only got dates and no specifics.
However, it’s relatively easy to guess what’s in the mystery box (for the most part). For reference, last year here was the schedule:
- February 9 – Storylines: The Negro Leagues Season 1
- February 14 – Gameplay
- February 23 – Diamond Dynasty
- March 2 – Road to the Show & Face Scan
- March 9 – Franchise, MTO, Presentation & Commentary
- March 15 – Development Team Tournament
- March 23 – Early Access, Live Content
For comparison, here is this year’s schedule:
We’re getting off to a later start this year and there are going to be fewer feature premieres as the game is coming out slightly earlier than last year. In other words, we’re just going to get a more condensed schedule where more things are likely to be combined. By this breakdown, we have four feature premieres this cycle.
There are a few different routes SDS can go here, but my guess is this tightened up schedule is to make each feature premiere feel bigger, or at the very least give one feature premiere to the “biggest” thing SDS wants to highlight this year while everything else goes in groups.
There’s a couple different ways they could go about doing this but I’m guessing we’re still going to get a gameplay day and a Diamond Dynasty day. With two other dates left, we could get a modes-focused day, and that is more likely if presentation and graphics get their own day.
What it really comes down to is how SDS wants to highlight its game modes. Last year, the Negro Leagues was a new feature and got its own day. We know we’re getting Season 2 of that feature, but maybe it doesn’t get its own day this time. In the past, there’s also been some backlash when “franchise mode” hasn’t been listed as its own bullet point (people then assume no changes are coming, which is generally incorrect), and so this is just a way to avoid some of that noise.
Regardless of how it breaks down, I assume SDS will give us a heads up during the week before each scheduled day, and of course we’ll cover everything SDS shows off on Twitch/YouTube after their presentation each week.
