RBI Baseball for the XBox 360

[ryno]

I think the old timers have to sign off on using their likeness.  Some of the new baseball games have all time greats and some of them are obviously missing.

[chicobo329]

I happen to own RBI '94 (it's on the Genesis) and it still doesn't have an MLB license, just an MLBPA one.

What the RBI games after 3 did was for old teams, they would just give initials and their position for players that had retired. For example if you choose the '87 Detroit team, you get 'DE. First' instead of Darrell Evans. But you KNOW it's him because it's his initials, it's his position, and he still creams the ball like no other. However, sometimes some players do get the axe, likely on their own request or for other unforeseen reasons: Reggie Jackson is NOT in the '86 California team in RBI 3 and that leaves a depressing, gaping hole in the lineup (his replacement is Miller who has 0 homeruns).

By RBI '94, when most of the players from the vintage teams had retired, there were a LOT of players that followed the initials/position scheme, but they continued to have the same statistics.

My best guess is that if RBI for the 360 contains classic teams, even with an MLBPA license, they'll follow this scheme: proper stats, just initials for the old guys. Let's just hope that if they have the '86 Angels that they put in 'RJ. Right' instead of 'Miller' :^P

[TempoGL]

i imagine that the reason Reggie Jackson isn't in RBI 3 is because he had his own game on the Sega Master System (Reggie Jackson baseball)...so his name/likeness was probably under license by sega.  My guess is that when RBI came out in 1987, nobody really thought that this might create a conflict, given that it was the first console baseball game to have real players.  I would bet that Sega/Reggie Jackson's lawyers barked about it for the sequels, and hence, no Reggie Jackson.

[chicobo329]

That is a very good point, very understandable. Still, would it have been so much trouble just to put in 'RJ. Right' than no Reggie at all? Ah well, no big deal now!

[fathedX]

I don't think this has been posted, but the RBI update is mentioned in this ESPN article.  The mention is about 2/3 of the way down.  I didn't read the rest of the article, so I'm not sure it's worth your time, but there is hope for an updated RBI and 2K Sports has taken the reins apparently.  This is good because they have the MLB license, but potentially bad because their reputation for making good baseball games has been damaged.

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=4031526

[BeefMaster]

I'm trying to figure out what version of RBI Holliday is talking about - he claims that is favorite team was the A's, and he goes on talking about all the all-stars they had (which would jibe with RBI 2 or 3) but including Reggie Jackson in that list.  Best I can figure, he's talking about the arcade version - all the guys he mentions (Rickey, Canseco, McGwire, Jackson, Carney Lansford) are on the arcade A's.

I am still holding out hope that the new RBI will eventually be downloadable for the Wii in addition to the XBox... does anyone know if many downloadable games are multiplatform?