MLB The Show 25 Raises the Bar with Realism Upgrades and Game-Changing Features

Pitchers and catchers have already been at camp for over a month. The traditional "best shape of my life" comments have been said by every team. Hope springs eternal for some, while others are grieving the latest injury news.

These are just a few checkmarks as winter turns to spring and the dawn of a new MLB season inches closer.

The next step for many fans counting down until Opening Day is the release of the premiere baseball video game: MLB The Show 25.

The 2025 edition from developer San Diego Studio enters its fifth year on next-gen consoles with Tuesday's official launch. The game is playable on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S and features a history-making cover.

For the first time, three players are on the cover: Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz and Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Skenes also becomes the first pitcher ever to grace the cover.

The developers took feedback from last year's edition to heart, and that will be felt in a variety of ways.

"When fans say we want developers to innovate, you have to accept that sometimes they may get the equation wrong," said Director Ramone Russell. "That's the cost of innovation. And then next year, you have another opportunity to right that wrong."

There are a wide-variety of new features to sink your teeth into that make this year's version completely different from last year.

More Realistic Than Ever

One of the biggest themes for 2025 is a more true-to-life portrayal of America's Pastime. Beefed-up graphics featuring the most detailed dirt you've seen in a video game. Players' jerseys now fit how you see them on TV—whether baggy or tight. The crowds have more unique attributes than ever before.

There are more Quick Time Events (QTE), including swim moves when diving into bases. Infield reaction times have been improved to fall in line with each specific player's defensive metrics. The widely used sweeper is now available in the game for all 150-plus pitchers who utilize it, including Skenes.

Ambush hitting allows players to sit on a pitch either inside or outside the plate, with a bigger Plate Coverage Indicator (PCI) and better timing window as your reward.

A more robust and comprehensive franchise mode includes the Front Office Experience, which offers free-agent salary negotiations and a more realistic system for accepting and rejecting trades. In other words, it will take a lot to trade Shohei Ohtani away from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Ohtani's trade value is going to be more in line if he was ever traded in real life," senior game designer Clayton Read said. "The type of serious packages it would take."

Call it the Ohtani trade metric.

Realistic AAV contract proposals for free agents, arbitration-eligible players and contract extensions are provided along with details such as what motivates a player and overall market conditions. Rival teams bidding up the value of a player.

It all adds up to the most realistic offseason process the game has ever had, per Read.

Ratings

Here are some of the most notable ratings for MLB The Show 25:

—99 club: Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto

—Cover athletes: Henderson (94), Skenes (93), De La Cruz (93)

—Other top ratings: Bobby Witt Jr. (96), Mike Trout (96), Ketel Marte (96), Bryce Harper (95), Francisco Lindor (95), Mookie Betts (95), Jose Ramirez (95), Tarik Skubal (94), Fernando Tatis Jr. (95), Ronald Acuna Jr. (93), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (90), Freddie Freeman (90).

Ratings guru Ruairi McCann confirmed they use fWAR when evaluating that metric, but it's far from the only number that is crunched when determining a player's rating.

"Anything that you can look at for a player, we're taking that into account for our ratings," McCann said, including the good ol' fashion eye test of watching games.

Defense is more finely tuned than ever this season. "We thought we could do a better job of really valuing the players who get to balls that most players can't get to," Read said.

With weekly updates during the season, no rating is set in stone for the entirety of the year. The San Diego Studio team pays close attention to the feedback but ultimately uses its own metrics to make the final call.

"We love to be proved wrong," McCann said.

Additional New Features

The Amateur Years are a new feature in Road to the Show mode that allow you to start your baseball career in high school, where you are looking to receive scholarship offers. You can develop your skills to shape your ballplayer just how you want to, focusing on certain strengths while masking weaknesses that will really pay off as you progress.

For the first time, you can play as one of eight college teams in Road to The Show mode: LSU, TCU, Tennessee, Cal State Fullerton, Texas, Vanderbilt, UCLA and South Carolina as you work your way up to the big leagues.

There will be over 200 legends of the game featured in Diamond Dynasty mode, including Ted Williams, Manny Ramirez and Roger Clemens.

Season three of The Storylines, featuring legends from The Negro League returns with James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell as the headliner.

With 16 additional throwback uniforms added this year, there are now over 320 throwback options in 25.

Speaking of customization, Road to the Show offers up a new system called Path to 99 that provides tokens for your player's progression so you can pick which skills are improved instead of following a set path.

Diamond Quest mode is a new spin on the traditional Diamond Dynasty where players move around a game board that offers different challenges such as winning a three-inning game, rewards and secrets.

A League of Their Own

MLB The Show 25 doesn't have competition in the baseball video game space right now, but that hasn't stopped them from continuing to set the standard for what a sports video game should look and play like. The strong reputation of San Diego Studio has been established, and MLB The Show 25 further enhances that.

It even added the first-person camera option that is a first for the series. Using the players' vantage point gives the game an entirely different feel. You are able to switch it whenever you want during the game.

From playing as a high schooler in Road to the Show to switching over to Storylines to play as "Cool Papa" Bell before settling in to your Franchise Mode team, there have never been more players and features to hold your attention.

MLB The Show 25 again raises the bar for sports video games in the modern era and has ensured you'll never run out of stuff to do inside of the game.