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RBI Baseball 14 slides to Xbox One and PS4 next week, updates this summer
We're over two months into the MLB's 2014 season and MLB Advanced Media is now re-re-introducing the RBI Baseball series next week on Xbox One and PS4. RBI Baseball 14 launched digitally on April 9 for Xbox 360, PS3, iOS and Android, and now it'll arrive on the next-gen platforms on Tuesday, June 24. MLBAM also announced plans to update the game "later this summer." The update will bring a new competitive multiplayer mode and a "special alumni pack" for all console versions of the game. The pack will add "60 former Major League stars from the earliest days of the RBI Baseball brand" to RBI 14. First announced in early January, RBI 14 is an arcade-style baseball game with unlockable retro jerseys and a simple two-button control scheme. Along with iOS and Android, the next-gen versions of the game will receive updated rosters to reflect roster changes this year, such as Emilio Bonifacio (Chicaco Cubs), Brandon Hicks (San Francisco Giants), Masahiro Tanaka (New York Yankees) and Jose Abreu (Chicago White Sox). It will cost $19.99 on Xbox One and PS4. [Image: MLBAM]
Feedback Loop: Fire TV questions, remembering Windows XP, Chromebooks and more!
Welcome to Feedback Loop, a weekly roundup of the most interesting discussions happening within the Engadget community. There's so much technology to talk about and so little time to enjoy it, but you have a lot of great ideas and opinions that need to be shared! Join us every Saturday as we highlight some of the most interesting discussions that happened during the past week. This week, we took a closer look at the Fire TV and answered your questions about Amazon's latest gadget, reflected on the end of Windows XP, discussed options for coding and writing on a Chromebook and shared our impressions of RBI Baseball 14. Head on past the break to find out what other Engadget users like you had to say and then join the conversation in the Engadget forums!
RBI Baseball 14 swinging for XBLA's fences on April 9
Following a previous report that listed April 10 as RBI Baseball 14's opening day, an Xbox.com page has confirmed the series revival is up to bat on Xbox Live Arcade on April 9. RBI Baseball 14 will channel the design elements of the previous RBI games, assigning players to one of three body types and limiting the input to two face buttons. The new season will include stops on the PS3, Xbox One, PS4, iOS and Android platforms. MLB's Advanced Media division is developing and publishing RBI Baseball 14, but a price of admission to its ballpark has still not been revealed. The series debuted on the NES in 1986, but beyond RBI Baseball 14, its last outing was RBI Baseball 95 on the Sega 32x. [Image: MLB]
Two-button slugger RBI Baseball 14 goes retro with unlockable jerseys
In 1986, Namco launched RBI Baseball for the NES (Famcom in Japan), and it grew into a household name before Time Warner Interactive's RBI Baseball 95, the heretofore last game in the series. Now, the MLB will publish RBI Baseball 14 on April 10, and MLBAM Vice President of Games Jaime Leece expects the game will remain faithful to the treasured series. Much like those classic games, the developer created three body types and preset batting stances for those character models as opposed to painstakingly differentiating every batter. And while NES games in the late 1980s were naturally restricted to two face buttons and a d-pad, Leece's team intentionally opted for two-button controls for the modern take on the baseball game. Leece believes that these decisions immediately separate the game from other sports games in the genre. "When you take away the barrier of control, it leaves the competition pure," Leece told Joystiq. "It's you against me, it's not your dexterity versus my dexterity. Having to deal with button combinations and things like that creates an extra challenge that's, I think unnecessary and certainly gets in the way of the enjoyment of the product itself."
Report: RBI Baseball 14 takes the current-gen mound on April 10
RBI Baseball 14 will reportedly launch on April 10, according to a tweet from ESPN Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell. Rovell noted that the launch date applies to the game's Xbox 360, PS3, iOS and Android versions, though there's no word on the Xbox One and PS4 versions as of yet. The resurgence of the RBI Baseball series was first announced in January, and is in development by MLB Advanced Media, the baseball league's in-house interactive entertainment division that handles mobile games and broadcast tools like MLB.TV. We've reached out to MLBAM to confirm the game's release date and will update as we learn more. [Image: MLBAM]
RBI Baseball returns this spring to consoles, mobile
After being absent for two decades, a formerly long-running sports series is returning this spring in RBI Baseball 14. Developed by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the MLB's in-house interactive entertainment division, the game will launch on all current and next-generation consoles in addition to smartphones and tablets. RBI Baseball 95, a Time Warner Interactive-developed game for the Sega 32X, was the last entry in the series, which began on the NES/Famicom. The timing of the announcement is appropriate, given that 2K Sports officially canceled its own baseball series just one week ago, putting an end to its exclusive third-party licensing agreement. The MLB currently has a landing page with a spiffy logo set up for the game, though no other details are available at the moment.
Rumor: RBI Baseball swings to XBLA
We might as well have called this post "create your own baseball-pun headline!" An update to the ESRB website suggests that the classic Tengen baseball game R.B.I. Baseball might be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in the near future, delighting retro sports gaming fans everywhere.R.B.I. was a MLB-branded game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, first released in 1988. Still notably absent from the Wii's Virtual Console service, the game is being developed by new studio Six Degrees Games, according to the ESRB. We're personally thrilled to see classic sports titled revamped for XBLA, and would love to see even more. Blades of Steel, anyone?
RBI Baseball to grand slam on XBLA
Most of us have fond memories of the sports games of a simpler time: making little Wayne's head bleed in NHLPA Hockey '93, proving Bo knows almost everything in Tecmo Super Bowl and the hit-n-run ambulance in Madden '92. With so many awesome experiences you'd think someone would bring back sports games to their glory on XBLA. Well, according to a listing on the ESRB website someone is.On Friday, the ESRB website added a listing for RBI Baseball by upstart developers Six Degrees Games. While the new development team does not list the game on their website, their job listing section notes the team is "inventing a new generation of vibrant, mass-market gaming applications for the internet," which lends weight to the game being an Arcade release.While we're on the subject, here's a free tip to EA. Take the classic Madden and NHL source codes, add new teams and updated rosters, sprinkle in some online play, watch XBLA monies pour in.Your classic sports game history lesson available after the jump.
Have you heard of Famista DS?
Famista DS (Family Stadium) -- not to be confused with Famitsu, the magazine in which Famista DS was first announced -- is the latest entry in a series of baseball titles that go back all the way to the Famicom. The franchise has gone by other names the few times it has popped up in western markets -- RBI Baseball and Super Batter Up.Developed by Namco Bandai, Famista DS combines retro graphics with modern video game elements (e.g. unlockable uniforms/stadiums, online support, and gratuitous cameos from Namco mascots), while keeping with the simple A+B controls you remember from your NES days. You can view a short commercial and a minute-and-a-half trailer at the movie section of the game's official site.Famista DS arrives in Japan this November 15th, and while it's possible that Namco Bandai will eventually bring this one to the states, we're not getting our hopes up. Consider it your punishment for not buying enough copies of Rebelstar Tactical Command.
