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College baseball has returned to the video game realm, albeit in a limited form.
The first gameplay trailer for MLB The Show 25 dropped Tuesday and it introduced the inclusion of amateur baseball as part of the long-running “Road to the Show” mode:
A small handful of colleges will represented in the game:
MLB @MLB
JUST IN: College teams and metal bats are in @MLBTheShow 25 🤯
For the first time in the game’s history, players can start their baseball journey at the high school level and continue their Road to The Show career at select colleges pic.twitter.com/giv97Q6pEL
Fans were tipped off that college baseball would be featured in The Show 25 in some form after the cover athletes were revealed. LSU’s logo is featured alongside Pittsburgh Pirates ace and former Tigers star Paul Skenes.
According to San Diego Studio’s Ramone Russell, the revamped “Road to the Show” includes between two and three high school games and three to four college contests as players work their way to the pro ranks.
EA Sports produced dedicated college baseball games in 2006 and 2007. Nobody picked up the baton after the company’s license with the NCAA expired in 2008, and college sports games altogether disappeared for a time in the wake of Ed O’Bannon’s class-action lawsuit.
Prior to the revival of College Football 25, gamers were offered a small taste of how things used to be. As with The Show’s “Road to the Show” mode, the NBA 2K and Madden franchises have in previous years allowed players to compete in a limited number of college games as part of their respective career modes.
Perhaps this is just the start of a larger integration of college baseball into MLB The Show that will evolve in the ensuing years.
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