The OOTP franchise celebrates 25 years in 2024, a historic number that most gaming franchises can only dream of reaching. Since its release, OOTP has been considered by many the best baseball game in the market, and one of the best sports simulation video games, being the only game to win "Metacritic’s PC Game of the Year" on two separate occasions.
With OOTP 25 celebrating such an important milestone for the Franchise, the game wants to provide players with the most realistic and immersive experience ever. To do that, it's introducing many new features while adjusting some already existing ones.
I had the privilege to speak with Rich Grisham, Director of Business Development, who explained why OOTP 25 is so important for the franchise and talked us through all the new features in this year's edition.
A game that wants to leave its mark
OOTP 25 aims to take the franchise to a new level, introducing several major improvements.
While most franchises would play it safe for such an important edition of their game, OOTP 25 takes the challenge to substantially improve the game and bring to players everywhere in the world a realistic baseball experience like never before.
OOTP 25 wants to make justice to its name, hitting the game out of the park and providing a great experience for newcomers, while still challenging veteran players.
What makes OOTP 25 so special and unique?
OOTP has reached the silver jubilee, and there aren’t a lot of gaming franchises that have reached this amazing milestone, what does this mean to you and everyone involved in OOTP 25?
Do you believe OOTP will still be going as strong as ever 25 years from now?
Is it fair to say OOTP 25 is the most realistic and immersive baseball simulation game ever?
What new features is OOTP 25 introducing?
Why did you decide OOTP 25 was the right time to introduce the Tournament Sandbox feature?
Some new players have a hard time picking up OOTP since it’s a complex game, at least compared to other baseball or sports games. Do you think OOTP 25 is friendly to new players?
What did you do to make the game feel more accessible to new players while still feeling challenging for veteran players?
What are the main goals of the Player Development Lab feature?
Do you expect players, especially new players, to have trouble figuring out how this new Player Development Lab feature works or will it be very easy to pick up?
How important is the partnership with the Baseball Hall of Fame?
If you had to give people who aren’t familiar with baseball a reason to play OOTP 25 what would it be?
You mentioned you have two new partnerships with leagues outside of North America. One in the Netherlands and the other in the United Kingdom. So do you think that OOTP can help captivate new fans for the sport, and help promote baseball in continents such as Europe and South America where the game isn’t that popular?
How would you describe OOTP 25?
Is there anything you want to say to the OOTP community Richard?
I hope this interview answered all of the questions you had about OOTP 25, a game that is very important for the franchise and everyone involved in it.
So if you are looking for a baseball simulation game, make sure to check out OOTP 25.