For 15 years Xbox owners couldn’t play the best sports game on the market. MLB The Show has been a Sony exclusive for its entire history, an in-house job by the first-party San Diego Studio, so it was legitimately shocking when it was announced earlier this year that MLB The Show 21 would be coming to the Xbox. Xbox fans can finally see what they’ve been missing out on, and even play their PlayStation friends online across platforms.
Well, it gets even more surprising: not only is MLB The Show 21 coming to the Xbox, but it’ll be a part of Xbox Game Pass on launch day, Microsoft announced today. If you subscribe to Xbox’s monthly subscription service, you’ll be able to download and play MLB The Show 21 on April 20 at no extra cost. That’s a better deal than PlayStation owners are getting, as the game won’t be a part of PlayStation Now or PlayStation Plus at launch.
If you’ve never played MLB The Show before, get ready for the most realistic baseball sim you’ve ever played. Don’t expect to mash 60 dingers before the All-Star Break, like you might be able to in other baseball videogames. The Show is a slow, serious, almost overwhelmingly deep simulation of America’s pastime, packed with the same kind of tension and excitement found in the real game. At its best it’s basically a role-playing game, but with Shane Bieber’s knuckle-curve as the final boss.
MLB The Show was already the first major baseball sim coming to the Xbox since 2K Sports dropped out of the game in 2014. Now it will also complete Game Pass’s set of major sports games; subscribers will be able to play the top games on the market for MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, and FIFA. At just about $15 a month, that’s one heck of a deal.