MLB 12 The Show: How TruBroadcast Presentations Put You in the Game

When it comes to presentations, we’ve officially thrown caution to the wind. Why the risk? Well, we deem it a necessary one in our quest to blur the lines between a real baseball TV broadcast and MLB The Show. We know that series fans demand an accurate simulation of reality and we’re doing our best to deliver. On that note, MLB 12 The Show is proud to introduce TruBroadcast Presentations, which combine the best of broadcast presentations and Real Time presentations. Here’s a look.

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That description, however, would be selling short the full potential of TruBroadcast presentations. We’ve also restructured and refined upwards of 10,000 presentations and combined them with enhanced AI, revamped cameras, improved on-screen displays, and expanded audio to deliver the most realistic baseball gaming experience to date. Without question, this is our biggest leap forward in blurring the line between reality and our game. We realize that anything that detracts from this reality and requires suspension of disbelief can shatter the feeling that you are playing in a real game. To that end, we’ve worked tirelessly to create a single presentation mode that expands upon the emotion and variety that TV broadcast presentations offer while simultaneously improving upon the continuity of Real Time presentations. TruBroadcast presentations equal more baseball specificity combined with more realistic game flow!

Continuity, or game flow, is one of the presentation aspects that we focused on most while creating TruBroadcast presentations. We wanted to offer enhanced emotion and variety with a single presentation mode while at the same time avoiding disconnects in actor location. We don’t want a camera cut to reveal that an actor, or actors, had seemingly teleported across the field. We want to avoid disconnects that throw you out of the illusion that you’re watching an actual TV broadcast. With those goals in mind, we tirelessly studied countless MLB broadcasts and restructured thousands of presentations to improve the timing of the camera cuts, the framing of the camera shots, and the importance of who we cut the camera to. We hope all our hard work and improvements confuse you a little more as to whether you’re playing MLB The Show or watching a live broadcast.

To mimic a true broadcast feel for our on-screen displays, we’ve spent many hours researching regular season/playoff games and gained a lot of knowledge on what information an actual broadcast is passing to the viewer. We’ve also noticed how the on-screen displays transition on and off the screen and how simple and straightforward the look of it appears. When showing information on an on-screen display, showing little things like the pitcher’s pitch count and how many runners each team has left on base keeps you informed without overloading you with too much. We’ve simplified our on-screen displays by just showing statistical information and removing unwanted graphics. A good example of this is the removal of mug shots from the batter walkup display.

In terms of audio, the goal this year was the same as it’s been since we launched on the PS3 in 2007 – continue to grow the base and make the game deeper and deeper. To that end, we’ve added more than 70 hours of new recordings to the game this year, many involving both and sometimes all three of our main announcers. One main area of focus relates to season mode, where you’ll find much more content that centers around player stats, recent team performance, and both team and league leaders.

To further advance our idea of TruBroadcast, we’ve also added more detail to our jumbotrons this year. In MLB 12 The Show we took on the task of replicating each team’s jumbotron to have the exact design and feel of the actual team’s displays. Our jumbotrons now show actual batter and pitcher statistics, lineups, and previous at-bat info, just like at every real MLB ballpark. We’ve also added new HD-quality movies to be displayed on our jumbotrons so when the home team strikes out a batter or hits a home run, a movie will display to show the excitement and realism within our stadiums.

Lastly, we’ve added laser ribbons to each stadium that currently utilizes them. So you might ask, “what do we display on these laser ribbons?” Well, for starters all our movies, statistics, and anything that we feel will really bring the crowd to their feet in anticipation of what goes on in a real live baseball game. This attention to detail only adds to the realism that we strive for each and every year.

As you dig into MLB 12 The Show and get ready for MLB Opening Day on April 4th, be on the lookout for these improvements and see for yourself what TruBroadcast really means in The Show!