For those who pick up both the PS3 and Vita versions, we’ve further enhanced the cross-platform connectivity. In addition to being able to save your season on one device and continuing it on the other, you can also now play HR Derby online against competitors on either device using cross-play functionality.

Before I go, I wanted to show you two of our TV spots for The Show that we are really proud of. We’ve focused on how PlayStation and MLB 13 The Show give you the opportunity to create your own baseball world where anything can happen. Did Andrew McCutchen clinch a World Series victory for the Pittsburgh Pirates? Did Jose Bautista help bring the World Series Trophy back to Canada? Maybe not if you ask Andrew or Jose, but according to The Show, they just may have.

With the baseball season right around the corner in April, check out this exclusive offer from Walmart where you can get a free month of MLB.TV Premium when purchasing The Show.

A few things that we want to make sure you are aware of:

The fielding and baserunning cameras have been completely revamped to give you a more accurate and realistic on-field perspective. New fielding controls have been added to give you more of a challenge (if desired) and more to do at certain positions. A new simulator screen has been added and will display in between your player’s appearances. You have the option to choose from three different simulation speeds, as well as power to skip, or “Complete,” the simulation to get to your next appearance instantly. You can even “Watch” the game from your player’s location, so if you want to jump in and watch your team from the dugout while they are rallying, you can do that.

We really tried to focus on the presentation in RTTS as you are now placed in a first-person audio perspective. What that means is you are no longer going to hear commentators during the play. Instead, you are immersed in the sounds around your player, including other on-field players, coaches, dugouts, umpires, the crowd, and your own player’s sound effects.

On the menu side of things, you now have the ability to fully customize your player’s batting animations in the Create/Edit Player menu. This means you can now choose things like his follow-through, walk-up, stride, home run swing, and more.

To give you a quick rundown of what wasn’t covered, here’s what else we added:

You will be given training points for certain major achievements in your career, such as your first Major League home run or if you hit for the cycle. Advancement Goals have been reevaluated in some cases to prevent some common complaints. For example, pitchers will no longer have any batting goals, and some statistical expectations have been lessened to make them slightly easier to achieve. If you are playing as a catcher, you will experience a much quicker and more streamlined pitch-calling system. Lastly, if you are watching the game from the dugout, the camera will no longer cut to the broadcast fielding camera when the ball is put in play. Instead, you will watch the play unfold from the dugout perspective, just like real life.

We are really excited about all of these additions and improvements to Road To The Show, and we cannot wait for you to play it yourself on March 5th.

The Show Live allows you to play any games from the 2013 MLB schedule with the most up-to-date rosters, lineups, and statistics, fed directly from MLB.com. Whether the game is starting in an hour, or was played a month ago, the presentation and commentary in The Show Live is dynamic to the landscape of the MLB on the date the game was scheduled. Relive a player’s 40th Home Run, clinch the pennant for a team that choked it away, or play along with the game you’re watching or listening to. The Show Live is a mode for the truest of MLB fans.

Please note that the video footage is of a work-in-progress, and many things will update before we hit the shelves.

Lastly, here’s a look at the PS Vita version of MLB 13 The Show. We can’t wait for March 5th, 2013. Can you?

Training is now done on an individual player basis, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want. You can go in and custom set training drills for every one of your players, or have the auto-trainer handle this for you. If you only want to set drills for a couple of your players and the rest set to auto, you can do that too.

Scouting has received a major overhaul. The main goal was to give it a “human element,” to mimic the fact that there are “busts” and “diamonds in the rough” in every draft class. The scouting system itself boils down to first discovering players, and then scouting them individually to get a more accurate report of their attributes and MLB ETA.

In an effort to add personality to each club, we’ve incorporated Team-Specific Player Valuations. These numbers are based on each team’s historical tendencies, their stadium and league. For example, teams from the AL will not value bunting as highly as teams from the NL, while certain teams like the Yankees will value on-base-percentage much more so than the average team. Teams with home stadiums that suppress power will tend to value speedy contact hitters over slower power hitters. These changes affect every facet of a team’s decision making process, from drafting, to promotions and demotions, to trade decisions and free agent acquisitions.

You’ll get to experience all of this, and more, when MLB 13 The Show is released on March 5th for both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

For more information about MLB 13 The Show, visit www.facebook.com/mlbtheshow and @mlbtheshow on Twitter.

We really want to make hitting more streamlined for players. Beginner mode allows people who have never played The Show — or have struggled with it — to learn the fundamentals of hitting. It’s meant to teach you the basics of Plate Discipline, Pitch Recognition and Timing.

This mode uses adaptive A.I. that only advances as you do. If you take longer to get the hang of hitting in The Show, you won’t be forced to advance. The A.I. will only advance once you’ve passed a certain threshold at each level.

In regards to the Push/Pull hitting Trajectories Engine, MLB.com gives us spray chart data for all current MLB players. This data is then imported into a program, which tells us what type of hitter the player should be in game. All hitters in the game fall under one of five hitter types: Push, Pull, Balanced, Extreme Push or Extreme Pull. Both A.I. and human players will now hit more balls to their preferred side based on this attribute. Generated players in franchise and Road to the Show modes are given a random hitter type. However, it’s a weighted random number so you won’t see a ton of guys in the draft from year-to-year who are labeled as extreme push hitters etc…

Furthermore, the timing window across all difficulty settings has been increased to allow everyone more time to react to the ball. While this change will lead to more offense, it’s relative to each difficulty setting. For example: if you hit .220 on All-Star last year, and you play the exact same way this year, you will probably hit in the .260 range.

We’ve detailed what was in the video, now here’s some info about what wasn’t in the video: There are a total of 16 batting views, and you can even create your own. Every batting view in the game has been re-created to increase pitch recognition. You will see more variability between gold glove type fielders and those players who aren’t known for their fielding prowess. Lastly, there are now less ground rule doubles in the game, and wind will now have less of an effect on the ball.

Let us know in the comments which enhancements to The Show you’re most looking forward to testing out!

Tons of feedback from TheShowNation.com has driven us to expand, improve, and fine-tune the systems that make up Diamond Dynasty. Take a look at the content below for a preview of what you can expect from Diamond Dynasty in MLB 13 The Show. Please note that the video footage is of a work-in-progress, and many things will update before we hit the shelves.

We’re really excited about how the Dynasty Card has evolved. They now display more information about the player’s abilities, which will give you an idea of what you are getting right away, but more importantly how good a player can get. Be aware that each Dynasty Player has maximum thresholds that he can reach in each attribute, so picking which cards you want to activate to your team has become much more important. We really want to drive the point home that cards now distinguish between Starting Pitchers, Relievers, and Closers. This is one area where we really took fan feedback to heart to improve this year’s version of The Show.

One issue we had last year was with players quitting. We want you to know that all systems are now compatible with partial games. For example, any systems that earn you Budget for playing a game are displayed and resolved on a per inning basis. We’ve made a number of efforts to encourage players to finish games without dropping out. For example, the Mercy Rule is in play (10 runs after three innings). Of course, someone is going to want to quit if they are getting obliterated. Now you just need to grin and bear it for a little while, and mercy will be had.

So, you saw what was in the video. But, what improvements weren’t covered?

Well, we decided to introduce the Designated Hitter in MLB 13. Users can choose whether they want to play by American or National League rules. Are you a baseball tactician who wants to use small-ball tactics and challenge your opponent to make strategic substitutions? Or will you stack nine sluggers and let your bats do the thinking?

If you love customizing, the Logo Editor got a handful of new tricks and a boatload of new samples. The Expand tool allows you to expand the borders of selected layers without skewing the core of the layers. This is perfect for quickly making borders, or altering fonts. Easily choose between MLB Team primary colors to exactly match your team with the team you love.

And finally, Diamond Dynasty Home provides at-a-glance information about the status of your team to help you stay on top of your managerial responsibilities.

We hope you enjoyed hearing about all the improvements and additions in Diamond Dynasty. What are you looking forward to the most?

Don’t forget, you have until 5:00pm PST Friday, January 11th to cast a vote. Voting takes place at mlb.com/covervote, where you can send a tweet or make a Facebook post in support of your favorite player. You can also vote directly from twitter, just by including an athlete’s unique hashtag in any tweet.

All seven of the cover candidates have been getting the word out of why you should vote for them on their social platforms. Celebrities have even taken sides to get their favorite player to be on the cover of The Show including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, television personality Larry King, film director Spike Lee, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain, and Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant.

The current leader, Pittsburgh Pirates’ outfielder, Andrew McCutchen (#MLB13Cutch) hosted an ESPN chat on Wednesday to talk to fans about why he’s the best option for the cover of MLB 13 The Show.

New York Yankees’ starting pitcher, CC Sabathia (#MLB13CC), was at ESPN all day on Wednesday to talk about why he should be on the cover. He sat down with fans to talk about The Show.

Even Vibe has gotten involved pushing for people to vote for Los Angeles Dodgers’ Matt Kemp (#MLB13Kemp) to be on the cover.

Washington Nationals’ outfielder Bryce Harper (#MLB13Harper) joined PlayStation at CES this week in Las Vegas to tell everyone at the conference to vote for him.

Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers has even gotten his local beat reporter to get out the word on his campaign.

San Francisco Giants’ catcher Buster Posey (#MLB13Buster) and Milwaukee Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun (#MLB13Braun) both spoke to Jon Robinson of ESPN about how they have each dreamed about being on the cover a video game since they were kids.

Visit mlb.com/covervote to choose who you want to be on the cover of The Show. After you vote, you’ll get the running tally of who is currently in the lead. For more information about MLB 13 The Show, visit www.theshownation.com, facebook.com/mlbtheshow, and @mlbtheshow on Twitter.

It may only be the first week of January, but to us at San Diego Studios that means we are just two months away from bringing you the latest installment of the number-one selling and rated Major League Baseball video game franchise, MLB 13 The Show. We’ve been hard at work improving the best baseball video game on the market and we want all of you to check out our first trailer.

We can’t wait to show you more in the upcoming months. But, before we do, don’t forget to vote for one of these seven ballplayers to be on the cover of MLB 13 The Show next week by clicking here.

If you can’t get enough of The Show, you can visit theshownation.com, facebook.com/mlbtheshow, or @mlbtheshow on Twitter for more baseball coverage.

Which baseball superstar will be on the cover of MLB 13 The Show? For the first time ever, fans will select the cover athlete for this year’s title via a Cover Campaign in early January. Stay tuned — some of the top names in the sport will be announcing their candidacy in the upcoming weeks.

Nothing compares to Postseason baseball. That’s why The Show offers an All-New Playoff Mode, which includes an in-stadium atmosphere that replicates the excitement and tension of October baseball. The experience is unrivalled by anything The Show has ever exhibited.

Other new features include a completely new beginner mode and instructional enhancements that make The Show the best pick-up and play baseball experience available. In addition, the improved Play Now mode streamlines gameplay, for faster and simpler games. San Diego Studios has also revamped The Show’s Franchise and Road To The Show modes with expanded options and new gameplay experiences.

Taking The Show on the road? The PS Vita version of The Show features the same list of upgrades and new features as the PS3 version. As with last year, you can sync your Season, Franchise and Road to the Show saves between platforms to continue the action anywhere. MLB The Show also offers the opportunity to play with friends around the world at no extra cost on PlayStation Network.

These are just a few of the enhancements San Diego Studios have made to the 2013 version of The Show. All new features and game modes will be unveiled and detailed throughout the coming months.

The Show has been and continues to be the highest-rated officially licensed baseball title of this console generation (according to Metacritic.com), delivering true-to-life gameplay, authentic franchise and season modes, and incredible detail not found in any other sports game.

For more information about the MLB 13 The Show, visit www.theshownation.com and www.facebook.com/mlbtheshow.