MLB The Show 22 Developer Reveals Vision For Franchise Mode (Emmdotfrisk)

Great interview. Thanks Frisk!
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Good stuff. I always saw MTO as an easy onboarding tool for franchise mode. They are just building it out as they go. Who knows, maybe it will blend into franchise mode or maybe we get the option like NBA 2K where we can select what aspects we want to use in our individual franchise modes. It's cool to hear from devs themselves what their vision is. Great job, Emmdotfrisk!
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Clearly the logic stuff they are improving is a foundation thing. It helps with MTO because 90% of that mode is CPU with 10% user input. And with bad logic that mode is not enjoyable past year one.
Judging by his answers, there’s a roadmap for Franchise improvements but there just isn’t enough time to truly be innovative without laying the groundwork (improved logic). Hopefully this momentum he kept talking about means in 1-3 years from now Franchise will see a much needed facelift

My favorite part...
Nick absolutely loves Tim Barnes and wishes he could clone him. It’s safe to say Franchise Mode is in good hands.

Thanks for the pro OS make over. LOL
Yeah i agree. Feel a lot better about The Show moving forward.

Just finished the interview. It's good to hear directly from an SDS dev as opposed to community speculation. There was still a fair amount of "corporate-speak"/repeating similar phrases, which is certainly understandable since they are in the middle of marketing this years game. The repeated phrases were also things I would like in a single-player-team-management mode. So I am glad that those are things that the are emphasizing in the present/future.

Good stuff here. I hope this puts to bed the narrative that they are getting rid of Franchise mode. Even if we see some elements of MTO combined with Franchise, I think that can work.

Great interviewer BTW…. Good questions straight to the point. Congrats.
Little deception on the other side with very evasive answers in general. CBA? We’re looking at it. Lot of PR pre-made answers. And he showed his real vision at the where he says his main motivation to play MTO is to get rewards for DD. When the creative director thinks that way…..it’s the direction the boat will be heading.

I think its clear that MTO is their focal point. Great interview, but honestly its not exactly what I wanted to hear.

I hope for all of our sake they fixed the day game issue in franchise.

What was the day game issue ?

I was starting to wonder if Nick was still with SDS. I don't care for the faceless deep dive videos.
Excellent interview. Unfortunately, he forgot to ask about SOTS...:(

4 teams (Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and Giants I believe) had pretty much all day games in year 1. We kept waiting and hoping for a patch to fix it but never did.

Wish he asked about SOTS!!! Lol

Yeah SOTS brought such a cool new level of realism when I started using it. Last years game was great, but it definitely felt a bit generic without custom music.

I want to be optimistic. I want to take away snippets from the interview that make me think the game will meet the potential it has. I am an offline franchise player and like most of us, I do feel like little effort is put to it. Well, any effort put to it basic things that should have been better established long ago (like trade logic).
Trying to get the game to its potential where (as he said), the game is making everyone happy for every platform, seems impossible. Unless the team is willing to release different versions of the game every year (a normal edition, a franchise only edition, a DD edition, and so on) I keep thinking the game is going to keep running into data problems where they have to decide what to include and what not to). And I don’t think my idea is feasible anyways. The game is wonderful but franchise mode lacks so many basic customization things other sports games have that it’s almost embarrassing. And I hate to say that.

Was it just in year 1 of franchise? Year 2 and on it was back to normal?

Yeah, it was just year 1. Year 2-4 we’re back to normal. 5 was back to day games.

My take is that March to October is the new name for Franchise mode. ‘Franchise mode’ is really generic and not enticing.
The implication was that MTO was built on a new foundation that will eventually be the foundation that Franchise mode features transition to.
So rather than ‘express MTO’ (current playable format) being the focal point, the engine/platform is the focal point and express MTO is currently the only mode that uses it. Eventually we will be able to play 162 games in full in MTO.
My only concern if that is true is that when current Franchise mode platform is switched off and the new one is switched on, which features won’t have been migrated?
I reckon the community here on OS should start ranking (like on ranker.com or something) the features of current franchise mode in order of priority of most important to keep to least important. Could be a useful MoSCoW tool for the devs.
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Loved the interview. I'm passionate about baseball and art my specialty is faces. If you can't at the very least offer created roster transfer please  do something about the stick on the hand controller it jumps around on the up and down selection when creating a player. 
My suggestion is to use the up and down  controls to the left of controller. 
This would allow  fast movement of numbers or one click at a time and the numbers will stick. 
In the 3 month  endeavor of  transferring my created players this simple thing could save me weeks of work.
Thank you

Thank you for posting this interview. For me it was as important as the presentation on Thursday as I learned that ideas like Y2y saves and the ability to customize the league structure are ideas that are not forgotten or ignored but rather remain in mind. I was left with the feeling that the MTO and Franchise team are really doing there best to make these parts of the game as good as possible.
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I enjoyed the interview and look forward to more and even though Nick seems like a good guy and the kind of person you'd genuinely enjoy drinking a beer with, I still don't really know anymore about the direction and vision of franchise today than I did yesterday lol
I guess what I do know is it is the Studio's intention is to keep including franchise and improving it for the foreseeable future however long that is whatever that may include and that will be kosher w/me

This has been a gripe of mine too when it comes to editing players and, especially, batting stances. Using the sticks to manipulate all of that is insanely imprecise and frustrating.

I too find it very difficult to use the stick to get precise values when editing players faces.
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While it was great to hear about the vision of franchise mode, it was sad to hear that y2y saves don’t appear to be returning anytime soon.
I’m really happy to hear they’re continuing to tune player value to more accurately represent real life, but y2y saves is the only other thing I’m really looking for in franchise mode. It has really killed the motivation for me to play franchise, which is the only mode I play.
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yeah, the Y2Y carry-over was something unique in the video game world that made it easier to want to purchase the next years version of the Show. Y2Y was a friendly unit shifter, I'm actually surprised it isn't priority number one w/Sony to get it back on line. it must be a tricky thing to pull off because it's definitely something all yearly sports titles should strive to have, not just the Show IMO

Y2Y saves of rosters is for me the most important missing piece of both MLB 21 and MLB 22.
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Just rewatched the interview. I'm glad that things like Year to Year saves and league customization were mentioned and/or on Nick's mind. But, a lot of the answers he gave about the long-term vision for Franchise (especially as it relates to MTO) were fairly uninspiring.
I wish Frisk had brought up Sounds of the Show as well. I know it's not explicitly a Franchise feature, but I feel safe in assuming there's a strong correlation between people who heavily utilize that feature on PS4 and people who devote most of their time to offline modes.

I don't see Y2Y saves returning, at least not any time soon. While it is disappointing to have lost the carryover ability, we should congratulate SDS for making that a reality for years, when no other sports game has attempted to pull this off.
Franchise isn't going anywhere, and while I don't play it a ton, I do enjoy M2O as it gives me a chance to try out teams I wouldn't normally play with in a franchise-like setting.

I seen this interview. And all I could do is laugh. SDS hasn't touched Franchise in years. They had all this time to do something, but didn't. MTO is 100% just a way to get people into DD. If it weren't.. they would allow us full control. But they won't do that, cause they don't want people just building a super team and winning the awards with easy. And now RTTS has been ruined over this garbage online DD crap.
They've been using this ground level, back to basics excuse for years. They said the same **** with MLB the Show 17 or whatever it was when RTTS went to this narrative storyline. Since then they done nothing but take the mode backwards.
Since everything is "ground level" we should only be paying ground level prices right? $20 sounds about it. If baseball weren't my favorite sport, I wouldn't even consider this game. But sadly I'm stupid and pay for a game that gets worse every year just cause I love baseball.

Y2Y saves is the main reason I may not purchase 22. I don't really want to start my franchise over from scratch.
The other big thing for me would be if they could implement something like Player DNA from 2k. I use a custom roster from the community in that game as well, and there's been a couple of times where I wanted to add a player who wasn't on the roster or my radar when I started the franchise, but I was able to add them seamlessly. So for example, Lance Stephenson signed with the Pacers, and there was a facescan version of Lance Stephenson in the 2k "vault", which I quickly imported on top of a CAP in the free agents list. I have Shogo Akiyama on my 21 franchise and would've loved to import his scan as his appearance like I could if it was 2k. Instead I went with the closest CAP in the Vault and edited his appearance manually. Would be great this year with people wanting to start their franchise but also wanting to wait for a Seiya Suzuki scan. I'd 100% import a scanned version of him from the Vault on top of a FA CAP if we could import in season and if we could edit free agents.

If you enjoy the GM and/or managing side of things the most, look at Out of the Park. It has had carryover saves for years and offers a franchise mode experience that I wish The Show devs would attempt to replicate. Other sports games have done Y2Y saves. We shouldn't congratulate them for once having the feature. It's disappointing they've removed it and listening to why it has been gone, they've never provided an actual clear answer.
I finally listened to the entire video. To me, I still believe March to October will be the new franchise mode eventually, and I'm not against that as long when that time comes all features in the current Franchise mode make it over and then some.
The developer continued to say that the current franchise mode is nearly 2 decades old and built on an old foundation that can't be updated easily. He said MtO is built on a new foundation that's much easier to work with. It only seems natural MtO is being built from the ground up to become the new franchise mode.
It makes significantly more sense to me for that to be the plan than it does for them to have what is basically two franchise modes competing for resources when they've admitted already that one of the modes is archaic and difficult to add to while the other is new and easier to work with.
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I don’t understand how MTO is a way to get people into DD. Could you explain? I would have thought that the MTO incentives/rewards were a way to get DD people into MTO.
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You get DD rewards for playing Mto. Because of this, they've massively limited the creative scope of Mto to keep it "competitive" for the DD rewards. That's why there are no sliders, no custom rosters, no saving the game when you want, etc etc etc. The mode is hamstrung by it's links to DD, so it's pretty obvious that DD is in charge of the link up, rather than the other way around

MTO gives you points towards your team affinity. You actually get more rewards grinding conquest if your motivation is to get more packs or cards I think.
My point is that DD players who are uninterested in MtO or franchise have no point to invest in MtO for rewards. Plenty of cards available elsewhere in the game.
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If anything, I'd say putting DD rewards in MtO was a move to get people to try the mode out, not to move them to DD.

As someone who has primarily played DD the last few years, you can’t be more correct. There is no point in playing M2O for the rewards. I can see how a DD player who also wants to play a season-like mode would want play it. But nobody is playing M2O just for the rewards when more efficient ways of getting TA points exist.
They really need to have the option of turning off rewards for people who don’t care about them so they can customize the way they want to play with sliders, rosters, etc.

I agree with everything you’ve said in this post, but I just feel that it doesn’t support the claim that MTO is there to get non-DDers playing DD.
I do however agree with what Canes has said between our posts; if anything, the incentives are there to get DD people to grind through MTO. There is no incentive for non-DDers to switch to DD.
I 100% agree with your assertion that MTO’s potential is limited by being tethered to DD rewards, so much so that I asked in EmmdotFrisk’s Twitter post if there was any plan for MTO to be freed from DD rewards for that exact same reason. Unfortunately the question wasn’t asked or answered in the interview.
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Honestly this entire interview sounded like one big, "wait til next year" schpiel. It's been the same thing for years. He offered almost nothing in the way of future improvements or vision.
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Well the feature premiere was the ‘wait til this year’. The interview was always billed as a discussion about ‘future of franchise and MTO’.
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One thing I'm going to say is people need to stop saying "go play OOTP" when they complain about franchise mode.
It's not same. Myself, and I assume many others, like the experience of actually playing games with the teams we assembled. Seeing the guys we drafted perform on the field. Their batting stances, throwing motions, etc.
They're more than numbers on a spreadsheet.
It's just like whenever people complain about NASCAR games and suggest iRacing. It's not what everyone is looking for and is just straight up unhelpful feedback.
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And while OOTP is definitely deeper and more Frenchise feature rich, the logic aint great in that game either. I remember starting a season last year and there were like 40+ transactions on day one of the season where all teams were mass waiving the 30+ year old players like Brock holt.

People also need to remember OOTP can have all minor league systems and all this cause they dont need to focus on graphics for people playing the game.

Yes they do this every year to get everyone hyped up. How much has actually changed or been improved in franchise in the last 5 years?

This all sounds like lip service to me. He says a lot without actually saying anything about what the actual “direction” is for the franchise.
Every year it’s the same buzzwords “logic improvements” and “under the hood adjustments”. These are great. But he show’s franchise mode is staler than floor mat potato chips. They haven’t tried to innovate in years. While the mode works just fine, it’s the same mode it was 5 years ago and is just not fun to play anymore unless you are one of those people who just plays all 162

Could not agree more. I can't even compare OOTP and MLBTS, the only thing they have in common is it's baseball.
OOTP is very cool for what it is, but on field experience is priority 1, 2 and 3 for me in any franchise mode.
I'd also like to see this retort go away with the community.

I always hate this argument. The OOTP team is much smaller than The Show team. The Show has individual teams that all work on different parts of the game.
The franchise team doesn't work on gameplay, graphics, audio, etc. Their job is to flesh out franchise mode adding features, improving logics, etc.
The Show having gameplay on the field isn't an excuse for not having multi-team trades, expand rosters, revamped scouting, revamped progression/ regression, cash considerations, and so on.
NBA 2k has a franchise mode that is the closest thing to what OOTP has in terms of depth and customization. The Show doesn't have a franchise like OOTP because it has on field gameplay, it's because that isn't their vision for the mode. It's as simple as that.
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Let us also remember they have taken out a lot more than they have put in. Some of this stuff shows promise I will admit that. But this is not a full price day one pick up anymore for a lot of people and is actually a pretty empty fair unless you partake in the DD/UT Card collecting stuff.

Great, it’s nice they want to improve it 3 years, this just hammers home the fact that sports games are released to frequently, should be releasing a new title every few years, with 20$ roster updates once a year, but I know it’s profit over product

Agree but they can't do this as per contract with NFL MLB or whoever it is they have to release it per year.
I would be all for a sports game coming out every 3 years with just roster updates.
problem is MUT and DD modes as well they would lost millions of dollars by skipping 2 years of those mobile modes.

Apologies! Let me see if I can ask to see if he'll sneak in an after interview freebie.

I respect this take. I will say I learned something really big that I had a hunch about but I think it's still a bit confusing. I'm considering making a video to try and find a way to say bluntly what Nick is really saying. And beware, I'm not sure we are all going to be happy with the answer but it at least is something to look forward too. I made this graphic last year on a hunch but after talking with Nick I'm 100% sure this is what they are doing...

That's very cool of you, Frisk! Much appreciated.
I know it's not a Franchise feature per se, but Sounds of The Show is still very much beloved by the offline community in general. It'd be nice to hear a dev acknowledge the passionate fanbase it has. If Nick could actually speak to its possible future/re-introduction as well, that would be gravy.

Frisk,
That graphic looks like a great objective for the MTO/Franchise.
As far as using MTO with custom rosters that ought to work. Presumably MTO scales objectives based on how your team measures up against the other 29. Such scaling happens even with custom rosters.
As far as Y2Y franchise saves, I can understand how changes to Franchise under the hood could make such saves not possible. Also, in regard to Y2Y roster saves I could also understand how expanding the roster sizes would make that not possible between MLB 20 and 21. However, unless changes were again made in the size or composition of rosters, I really do not understand why it was necessary to not allow Y2y saves of rosters between 21 and 22.
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Am I the only one who watched the interview and came through it feeling very optimistic about the future of franchise mode?
They have no reason to dumb it.

No...I'm liking the approach they are taking although I do wish that it didn't nullify Y2Y saves, but thus far I'll take the tradeoff.
What they are doing now is something they were going to have to tackle at some point for the quality of life of franchise mode. I'd rather them do it now, before they start advancing the mode, as its been long overdue.

It’s a step in the right direction. Past few years have been all about how to simulate games easier (phases, quick manage). Under the hood fixed have been necessary but I wish to see more impactful improvements in the coming years.
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Exactly and on top of it factor in new announcers to give it some fresh. Very solid

I think we are headed in the right direction

https://twitter.com/i/status/1506254375060226049
Were these animations or celebrations in the game last year? The curtain calls and tipping of the cap?

I'm personally disappointed in the additions to franchise. I feel the types of logic and under the hood tweaks they're making should be made every year behind the scenes and other more significant changes should be happening and be what's talked about. When the talked about changes are just minor tweaks they've made to the logic and under the hood stuff, it just comes off like they've barely touched the mode doing the bare minimum to it.
That said, the new commentary and presentation changes look absolutely amazing and will freshen up playing the games inside of franchise mode. I'm pumped to experience them. If done well, like it seems, the presentation can tell stories and really enhance the game in ways nothing else can.
Simply seeing quality presentation with banners popping up showing stats all year, seeing stories in the ticker about league leaders, hot and cold teams/players, etc. will bring life to the mode when it needs it the most.
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It's a great game and Nick's a great guy.  I don't intend to buy the game this year because year to year saves didn't return and I don't want to throw away my franchise.
My biggest issue is they act upon poor advice as to what to upgrade and what to ignore.  They placated people too shallow to correctly manage the budget in franchise by only having the MLB roster salaries apply.   People will be able to gimmick the system.   That and trade logic seem to be the changes for 22.  
Meanwhile some issues with manage mode continue year after year and I've stopped sending bug reports because it's a waste of time.  Year to years saves were a fantastic step forward and they made the decision to discontinue that so they can spend developer time on less important things.  
I don't see the attraction to MTO.  It seems they are taking developer time away from franchise to push MTO and that logic is probably why year to year saves aren't in the game.  
Great game, developers are great people, I think they have made some poor decisions regarding franchise mode and therefore I'll take a pass on mlbts22.   

Yeah I tend to agree with you. Offline franchise mode is the only thing I play, especially since they changed RTTS. I used to dabble with that back when it was just playing the games, not all this RPG and forced narratives BS.
Anyway, I’m cautiously optimistic that they’re using MTO to build a new franchise experience from the ground up. My thought is that they’ll continue to add to it each year until it’s a fully fleshed out franchise experience and will replace the current offering, but will allow you to customize it.
I’m definitely not holding my breath, but that’s what kind of hoping for. And once the new “single player team management experience” is complete, they’ll be able to add y2y back.
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I really, really wish that the interviewer had taken the time to ask something along these lines:
"We understand that players who play every pitch of all 162 games are less common, but for those guys, who play that mode and absolutely nothing else, can you give a hint of what's coming down the road?"
He kept taking the conversation in the direction of MTO, which I have zero interest in. And they basically mocked the older owner mode stuff which I always enjoyed.

Frisk asked all the right questions but it felt like Nick knows he can only say so much (probably because of Sony corporate honchos). I mean, if Nick said something along the lines of ''in 2023 Y2Y will be back, in 2024 league expansion is coming and in 2025 rosters will increase to 150 players per team'', and then one of those projects is delayed, you have all these people complaining ''but you saaiid...''
as for M20, it's an interesting concept but as it stands today, w/o custom rosters and the ability to jump in and stop the prescripted path to play any game on the 162 schedule you want to, I'm afraid the mode isn't for me. what I really hate about M20 is being forced to play a player lock game. I hate those, they're the worst IMO
yeah, I'd like to see owner type things come back, like setting ticket prices and deciding how to spend a marketing budget to get fannies in seats, all that stuff just doesn't fit into the GM mode franchise has become

I work in the software development industry and "under the hood" adjustments are minor tweaks here and there or tightening things up. It's merely a last ditch effort to "fix" something or get it working decently with the hopes of not having to re-do or overhaul the entire system. So, when SDS tries selling us on these, it's not much...
I think all directions point to Franchise and MtO merging at some point soon. I just hope it means that custom rosters, custom sliders, etc. come with it. I like the idea of MtO being sort of a test drive for features, but at some point SDS needs to make a decision and go all-in rather than half-assing two modes.

Yeah, they almost need to come to the fork in the road and decide on what way they want to go. I would rather have them focus on trying to get MTO to accommodate everything that Franchise has instead of trying to accommodate both features. If they go that route, I hope that now that they got the presentation and announcers done, this can be their next project. It is frustrating if this will be a multi-year effort where we see MTO gradually become more customized while franchise gets some minor logic updates and we talk about the same stuff next March.

I just want the ability to play less games in a season. I don't like simming but I also don't have time to play 100+ games a season. I want to play like 30, and then the playoffs. 
I don't feel like that would be a hard feature to add. 

There's one part of the interview I really think is interesting that folks aren't discussing - the piece where they talk about how to provide feedback.
For issues:
Detailed feedback is good. If trying to resolve something, the more details we can offer, the better. I think this is obvious, but given what I've seen both here and elsewhere over the years, people still don't understand the concept.
For future suggestions:
This was the interesting one to me. He basically said (and I'm paraphrasing a bit), "tell us the 'feel' of what it is you're looking for". I love this, because I think WE all get hung-up on our own designs without really a) understanding the game's build and b) without ever really articulating what exactly we want to see accomplished.
For example, I have this whole idea of how to improve minor league development, allow for positional changes, pitchers to learn new pitches, etc. and I could provide a laundry list of HIGHLY-specific details as to how I would want this to be implemented. BUT, let's be real, I truly have no idea if any of MY ideas would be achievable. However, what if I said something like this....(and I plan on sending this through via SDS' site once I have it fleshed out - but this is the high level gist)
"I want a franchise system where players don't stay positionally stagnant their entire careers. Currently, the only way to move a guy to a new position is to manually edit them...which is pretty non-immersive. What I want a system where both the AI and user can continually evaluate players, their strengths/weaknesses and make decisions as to their optimal fit positionally. Many draftees get moved to a new position in the minors, many MLB players change positions as they outgrow the position or due to age. I want to see them go through the pains of learning a new position that is reflected on the field but have it pay-off over the long-haul"
As I read that paragraph, I can appreciate what they're talking about....this is a fleshed-out idea but one that could be designed and achieved in a myriad of different ways. I think we, as a community, should take a step back as to how we relay feedback and how we articulate ideas.
Someone might say that some things are "simple" (like asking for laundry lists of stats from your franchise). But even there, I'd argue that isn't really good feedback...what I think should be said is that you "feel disconnected from past seasons in your franchise as soon as you advance to the next season and want a means of being able to re-visit the history of your fictional universe." This is a MUCH more open means of communicating what you want; one that gives devs the ability to be creative and help provide a means of presenting our ideas to the higher ups that isn't a sterile, uninspiring and bland, "the users want more stats".
Just food for thought....

Usually what I do is take 2 or 3 starters in the rotation and I play all there games and quick manage the other ones. I wind up playing about 95 games and quick manage the other 67 each season

I feel like franchise will be going away at some point, but that MtO will become the mode. Them rebuilding Franchise, as stated, would be too cumbersome and has its current limits. If they keep building MtO up, and then the term franchise goes away, I am ok if the MtO world becomes fully customizable. This could be run as a mode where you get a choice or choices when you setup your game. “Moment mode” as it is now, franchise like a full play mode, or a free world that you can do as you wish.

That’s a great and all. But we have been giving feedback and constructive suggestions for years. Instead of giving people what they’re asking for they keep creating things no one asked for, and then gaslight us by telling us “see. You all asked for more features to be added to franchise mode. So we took those things and put them in a new mode called March to October”.
The people who like playing one season with roster management features were fine with season mode. So their was no reason to replace it with March to October. If they are trying to eventually scrap franchise and make March to October the “team management” mode, that is fine. But at least give us the ability to run March to October without all of the March to octobery stuff like player lock, forced simulation, etc.
I am all for including as many modes to please each fan base, but you can only spread your resources so thin, and unfortunately franchise mode has become the biggest victim

This is why I assume MtO has to be the franchise mode of the future, they simply don't have it fleshed out enough yet to remove the franchise mode that is in the game.
MtO is on the new foundation that's easier to add to. They've confirmed that.
Franchise mode is on a legacy foundation that is difficult to work with. They've confirmed that.
Both modes are essentially franchise modes, or team management modes as they call them. Having both longterm makes absolutely zero sense.
I don't see any other logic as to why they're doing what they're doing other than they're working towards building MtO up to the point it can be played like it is now or like franchise mode can be played now. Once that is possible I imagine franchise mode is removed in name only and we are left with a MtO mode that can be played like it is now or like a traditional franchise mode.
Then from that point on we should expect the mode to continue to progress as it is literally being built on a new foundation that's easier to add to, their words.
This is all assumptions, though, because they refuse to clear anything up.
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Kinda the same way NBA 2k combined mygm (which has all the rpg things like having conversations with the gm and such) with myleauge which was the franchise equivalent. You can select what options you want to turn on before you start.

If MtO gives SDS the easier code foundation to build on for Franchise, I sort of empathize with that. However, if that is indeed the long-term plan, then the pace of improvements/customization options for that mode needs to pick up. I mean, this is year four of the mode and we still can't even use custom rosters in it, which for me (and I'm sure this is the case for more than a few others) makes the mode dead-on-arrival.
I've long-maintained that MtO/Season Modes are better fits for classic roster use than a traditional Franchise save. It's a shame that that's still not possible for MtO.

That’s a good perspective. Never really thought about it that way

I'm not a programmer by any means but my work's IT Dept mentions our platforms now are modern and we can customize it easier than our older programming.
But like another poster said that this is the 4th year already for MTO and we aren't able customize much yet. But I'm sure when they built franchise that was the modern platform. And now there is a more modern platform that they are using for MTO. By the time they get everything on MTO (if they do), will that platform be obsolete like franchise is now?
Granted, maybe now we will see more aggressive movement on MTO than a couple of years ago if they do have a direction on where they want to go.

Have any of you ever seen an ejection in franchise mode take place and if so how do i get one to happen? Like arguing balls and strikes and such or any from people beaning someone?

I believe it is only from intentionally throwing at someone
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Back a long time ago, you could get ejected from arguing at call at first base if my memory serves me correctly.

I've never understood the season mode people. Why not just play franchise for one season?
I suspect you are correct. The lack of work on franchise is glaring. Trade logic and a dumbed down budget for the math challenged are the changes. They will move to a more shallow MTO and call it franchise. Failure to include year to year saves which they already have the code for is glaring.
As for the claim that input needs to be more detailed I've submitted bug reports with very detailed problems with manage mode - specifically the cpu taking over for the cpu manager on some occasions - and nothing gets changed. Simple things like typos in the menu are ignored after bug reports.
I'd prefer to see MTO eliminated and put those developers in franchise but I suspect they are moving in the opposite direction. Fortunately franchise made it to the ps5 platform and I'll continue to play mlbts21.

Because season mode also allowed you to set 82 games or even shorter (don’t remember the other season lengths exactly) For those who like to “own” their stats and not sim any games.
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“Dumbed down budget for the math challenged”
Actually the budget is the most realistic this year versus any previous version. And many have complained it’s cumbersome versus “dumbed down “
And I’m not quite sure you understand the complexity of Y2Y saves. It’s not simply a code
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Though I don't really miss it since I didn't use it, season mode had several advantages. One, you could set season length. This is important to some. Second, you only had 40 man rosters and didn't have to worry about injuries in the farm system. Third, it is great for single season historical replays as some of those rosters only have 26-40 active players and the rest are fake.
All it boils down to is each their own.
And just because they have the code for y2y (which I miss) doesn't mean it can be easily applied each year. I am sure that under the hood changes impact this and it was mentioned somewhere it was hard to code. There is likely also more to it than copy and paste code.

I was going to say the same thing. It might have been a while, but this was absolutely in the game. Managers would get thrown out, and another coach would be pointed out as having taken over for the rest of the game.
It might have been since the PS3 days that this was a feature, though.

I still play Show 14 (ps4 version) and ejections are in 14. you can turn them on/off in the general game settings. I'll check to see if they are in 15 then 16 then 17 and so on

There was one game long time ago that if you push X to raise the level. The higher it goes the higher chance you get thrown out. If you get thrown out, you wouldn’t be able to manage your bullpen in that game.

It appears to be a way to gimmick your budget if minor leaguers don't count toward the budget.
They are moving in the direction is a simplistic franchise mode which I suppose appeals to a lot of people who don't want to replicate MLB.

I don't suppose you plan on replying to any of the other many responses you got about your question that also make a lot of sense for why people like season mode?

You do realize that is how it works in real life?
The budget comprises of the players on the 40 man roster, injured reserve and other player benefits (deferred money)
Team salaries/payroll tgat are mentioned don’t include players tgat don’t fit the aforementioned status
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They like it because it doesn't replicate actual MLB. That is clear. They could just as easily put the option to shorten the season in franchise but they chose to create an entire new mode full of gimmicks.
Did I misinterpret what people said about why they like MTO? They don't want to play 162.

IRL if a team signs a player for a huge bonus they don't have to pay the money if he is in the minor leagues? I didn't realize that.

That’s not what I was saying.
A teams budget/payroll that counts towards the CBT is comprised of the AAV of all players on the 40 man roster, players on mlb injured reserve and any additional player benefits (ex deferred money)
That is what mlb 22 is doing this year meaning it’s more realistic and not “dumbed down for math challenged people “
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I would say the opposite here. Your statement about it not replicating real MLB is off base. If I play a single season replay from a previous seasons, the CPU runs the risk of calling up a player that didn't play that year or is a fake player. So I would say in these scenarios they care a lot about replicating what happened in the past in baseball.

Believe that was MVP baseball.

Was a thing in 2k also.

This is supposed to be franchise mode. You are running a MLB team and A, AA and AAA. Are you aware of that? The name literally is franchise.
This new budget format will allow people to cheat and manipulate the system.
In 12 months they announced 2 new developments. Trade logic and making franchise budget easier to manipulate. No year to year saves which is entirely possible because it was in the game previously. I wonder if these full minor rosters they spend time producing are the reason they don't value y2y saves.
Either way I'll take a hard pass on mlbts22. First time ever I haven't bought the game.

So in real MLB, a teams payroll is based off of the 40 man. It now is in the show. If you watch the video, it is only a difference of about $6m between the 2 numbers when they compare.
If people want to cheat and manipulate the system to their advantage, they can. They bought the game. If someone wants to cheese the system and make crazy trades in franchise, why can't they?
But the difference of $6m a year isn't going to let a small market team go out and trade for Trout and afford his contract. SDS removed the franchise budget buying with stubs last year.
As far as y2y. It sucks it is gone. But like the schedule, it is more than simply reapplying the same code each year. It is more than Ctrl c then Ctrl v. It is a big loss. I miss it. But the rosters aren't the cause. Sds knows it is a popular feature that is unique. I am sure they want it back too.
And for the record, it took me a while to decide on 22. I disliked 21 and made that clear on here. I thought the budget and trade logic was bad last year. They seemed to have improved it. They do deserve credit for addressing it.

What are you talking about? They updated it to be more realistic, now the big league club's team salary is based off the 40 man instead of counting players off the 40 man, too.

I’m done discussing your ignorance
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yeah, there have always been ways to manipulate budgets. 1 out of every 6 seasons I play, I like to do a little ''creative bookkeeping'' and see what some unscrupulous GM'ing can get me. but the rest of the time I'm straight as an arrow. best of both worlds I always say

By poor advice you mean that they did not act on your suggestions and the suggestions of other hardcore franchise people?
I assume there are a lot of variables that make it so it is not that cut and dried. The amount of information we don't know in regards to how they make their decisions is vast. Everybody has theories and suspicions but that is all they are.
I appreciate Nick doing the interview. It does not sound like franchise is going away anytime soon, even if it does not progress as quickly as many would like. I also understand that he had to be careful with what he said. Nothing bites developers in the backside these days more than making promises of features and time lines that they end up not able to meet.

Yeah, these two posts sum up the entire "argument". Some people can't handle it when someone does something differently than they would, be it designing a feature or even simply playing the game.

Was it mentioned anywhere whether they had fixed the issue in franchise at the end of the season where the game would automatically send down and call up players?