San Diego Studio

Founded in 2001, San Diego Studio is the first-party developer responsible for the MLB: The Show series. The annualized baseball game is the only IP they work on, meaning 5 MLB games have shipped on PS5 since 2021. All releasing in the same March/April timeframe.

This generation has been different though. Despite SDS being first-party, the MLB has forced PlayStation to develop an Xbox and Nintendo port since MLB 21 or they would lose the license. Furthermore, Xbox initially went around Sony and secured a deal with the MLB to have the game arrive day 1 into their Gamepass subscription.

Despite these enforced monumental changes to the IP's business model, clearly, they were the better alternative to losing the license as MLB The Show has continued to release annually.

My Analysis & Predictions

This one is easy to predict. San Diego Studio hasn't been the primary developer of a non-MLB game since 2016's Kill Strain. Rising development costs coupled with external economic factors then further make it unlikely that SDS would work on something new, even if they wanted to.

We're now also 5 games into the multiplatform MLB strategy and nothing has materially changed. Going into Gamepass was the one aspect that could've shifted SDS's focus, but considering Xbox didn't renew that contract past MLB 24, its ability to move PS5 owners to the Xbox subscription didn't happen in numbers for either Sony or Microsoft to care.

It's therefore safe to assume SDS will continue with MLB: The Show for the foreseeable future, with the only big change likely being a move from Switch to Switch 2 for MLB 26.