RBI Baseball for the XBox 360

[TβG]

i hope kissie comes back with the design team.

humm baby!

[clyon81]

Scrapping project for my own 2k9. 

[ultimate7]

Somehow this is the first time I am reading this thread, and while there was some initial excitement, I am a bit concerned about the rewrite.  I will not be the first to dish out the money to test it, but if others like it I may make the plunge and get my first new game system since I got a GameCube so my wife could continue with the Zelda series (was it 8 years ago?)

[fathedX]

Beef built a rapport with the developer, I vote that he send a follow-up e-mail to make sure this is on track. 

[BeefMaster]

Done.

[japetus462]

 

[JoeDirt]

Just curious, Beefy...what'd you say?  Did you get a response?

[BeefMaster]

Haven't heard anything back yet.

I basically just asked if there was any news he was at liberty to share about the new RBI, or if it had been delayed/canceled.

[chicobo329]

Wow I forgot I had an account on here! Good thing I remembered my password.

I did find an achievements page for RBI Baseball on XBLA, so presumably it's still ongoing, unless there was a last minute abort.

http://www.achieve360points.com/game/rbibaseball/

Interesting (and challenging!) achievements! Note the icon which uses classic graphics. Also note these achievements are pasted elsewhere in other sites: my best guess is that they were leaked, or released under the notion the game would come out earlier but was instead delayed.

In fact, IGN notes that RBI may have been delayed because of another similar game out already (Stickball). They have a small section of RBI Baseball down here:

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/947/947225p2.html

It looks like 'TBA 2009' which is not really specific but at least it's this year for sure and at very least, from how I'm looking at things, it's not canned either.

[BeefMaster]

Interesting... Take Two bought the publishing rights.  Maybe this is why that developer never got back to me - they're under the thumb of a big publishing house now, with a tighter flow of information.  That is a good sign from a "will this have real players?" perspective - Take Two owns 2K Sports, which has an exclusive MLB/MLBPA license (although I don't know what it means for the classic NES teams).

I'd still love to see a WiiWare release, but I probably shouldn't hold out too much hope, even though it makes sense, since the original was released on the NES.  I would also feel more comfortable believing this was real if they'd released so much as a screenshot.

[chicobo329]

It does make a lot of sense, getting those sports licenses are tough, and nowadays it's usually only one or two companies that hold them.

I still think it's better off on XBLA, because it has a MUCH more robust online scheme than the Wii: if this has some good online play, it'll be miles ahead of any WiiWare version (imagine trying to wade through all those annoying friend codes if it had that!).

I know it doesn't seem to 'fit', since the original is an NES game (although I'm fairly sure we're not dealing with NES graphics in this version anyway), but it hasn't stopped developers from doing stuff like this before, such as Megaman 9's release on XBLA.

[BeefMaster]

It does make a lot of sense, getting those sports licenses are tough, and nowadays it's usually only one or two companies that hold them.

That's why Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, the recent DS game, doesn't have real NFL players (and why the NFL2k series basically died) - EA has an exclusive license with the NFL.  2k basically got the MLB license as spiteful retaliation.

I still think it's better off on XBLA, because it has a MUCH more robust online scheme than the Wii: if this has some good online play, it'll be miles ahead of any WiiWare version (imagine trying to wade through all those annoying friend codes if it had that!).

I know it doesn't seem to 'fit', since the original is an NES game (although I'm fairly sure we're not dealing with NES graphics in this version anyway), but it hasn't stopped developers from doing stuff like this before, such as Megaman 9's release on XBLA.

Oh, I know XBox live is a way better multiplayer scheme, but that isn't my concern - I just want it on WiiWare because I have a Wii (and no intention of getting an XBox).

[chicobo329]

I really hate the monopolization of sports licenses these days, it really kills creativity and healthy competition among the games. I remember on the Genesis, I had four games with licenses MLBPA alone each made by a different company (RBI 3, MLBPA Baseball by EA, World Series Baseball, Hardball '95) and they were each great in their own way.

[BeefMaster]

Agreed.  It especially sucks since, from what I'd read (I'd only played the EA games), the company with the inferior game (Madden and MLB 2k) was the one that got the license.

The lack of a league license is an absolute killer for a sports game - I'm much less likely to buy the Wii version of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff if it doesn't have a license (I'd just as soon play an old copy of Tecmo Super Bowl with players and teams I already know), and I don't know of anyone who has even played All-Pro Football or Blitz: The League.

[Burnzky]

what about for the ps3?

[chicobo329]

So far it looks like just an XBLA exclusive. Maybe depending on sales of the game, the company may be inclined to make ports to Wii or PS3, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

[TβG]

who's to say they would actually need mlbpa licensing for rbi?  they never had it to begin with.  they could still change the names to take away a few letters or whatever, but still make the names recognizable.

[TempoGL]

who's to say they would actually need mlbpa licensing for rbi?  they never had it to begin with.  they could still change the names to take away a few letters or whatever, but still make the names recognizable.

i think they did have MLBPA rights...i distinctly remember the RBI commercial saying "THE ONLY BASEBALL LISCENSED BY THE PROS FOR YOUR NINTENDO!"

[TβG]

you're probably right, but there wasn't notation in the game itself.  that's why i don't remember it.

[BeefMaster]

The NES version had an MLBPA license; the arcade version did not.  No version of RBI had a MLB license (at least, no NES version; not sure if something like RBI '94 on the SNES had it), which they got around by just using cities and not team names and not having uniforms detailed enough to display anything besides colors.

I don't know what they'd have to do if they wanted to use classic rosters for the new RBI - I would doubt that an MLBPA license covers retired players.  They'd probably just go the virtual console Tecmo Bowl route and replace their names with numbers.