College Baseball As A New Mode In MLB The Show 25 May Lead A New Baseball Landscape

On March 18, 2025, MLB The Show 25, as a benchmark for baseball simulation games, officially landed on PS5 platform, and simultaneously covered platforms such as Xbox Series and Switch. The game not only took a bold step in its distribution strategy, but also redefined the immersion and freedom of baseball games through technological innovation and gameplay upgrades.

New Mode

MLB announced before MLB The Show 25 was launched that college baseball would be included in Major League Baseball (MLB The Show) for the first time. Let more student players start their careers from high school until they enter college and aspire to join MLB. And in the new mode of the game, I believe players will definitely have a different gaming experience and earn more MLB The Show 25 stubs and rare player cards.

This move improves Road to the Show mode, providing fans and gamers with a more immersive experience. For example, in the game, players can customize the player's physique, body shape and even personal character, and then attract more students to create their own virtual life. And the newly introduced attributes of the game make the player's improvement no longer confined to the traditional linear improvement. For example, completing a difficult catch can unlock exclusive defensive skills.

According to previous promotional materials, in simple terms, players can start your professional journey by playing two or three games in high school, and complete three or four games in the amateur stage, and finally complete the college stage with the clanging of metal bats.

The game features eight notable NCAA Division I programs:

• LSU Tigers
• Texas Longhorns
• UCLA Bruins
• Vanderbilt Commodores
• Tennessee Volunteers
• South Carolina Gamecocks
• TCU Horned Frogs
• Cal State Fullerton Titans

These teams have long been renowned in baseball circles for their rich history and for producing generations of great baseball players for MLB.

Tennessee was favored to win the first national championship in program history, so it only made sense to have the defending national champions participate in the first-ever MLB The Show game featuring a college program.

EA's College Baseball Experience Gives The New Mode A New Direction In The Game

College baseball has a long history of appearing in games. As a developer of sports games, EA has a high reputation in this field. With rich technical experience, it has opened up its own path and occupied its own place. It is precisely because of these experiences that the addition of the college baseball mode to MLB 25 is more logical and more popular, because there have been predecessors who have demonstrated and laid a certain market foundation long before.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, college baseball accounted for a large part of the sports video game genre. At first, EA's historical journey in college baseball video games was not smooth, but it also had satisfactory results.

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, Triple Play Series was mainly dedicated to creating and providing players with arcade-style games with real MLB teams and players.

During the two-year period of 2003-2005, MVP Baseball 2005 was praised for its realistic gameplay and depth, and is often considered one of the best baseball video games ever.

MVP 06 and 07 NCAA Baseball, these games focus on college baseball, feature real NCAA teams, and provide a unique experience different from MLB games.

EA's college sports games were suddenly discontinued mainly due to legal issues such as name and image deals with players.

EA's college baseball video game history has allowed MLB 25 to learn how to operate better and how to avoid these risks. On the other hand, with the recent changes to the name, image and likeness (NIL) regulations, college players are allowed to return to video games. This may mean that with the inclusion of college baseball, people's interest in college sports games is gradually reviving.

Quite a number of players believe that with the continuous development of NIL and licensing agreements, dedicated college baseball games may return, and perhaps MLB The Show 25 will lead the industry and create a new landscape for baseball games.