File this one under That's Interesting, and also, Could Set A Precedent. According to a fresh report from the ever-excellent VGC, PlayStation will do something it's never done before in 2021, by publishing a game on an Xbox console.
It's not like we haven't seen several limited-time exclusives drift from an initial release on PlayStation to other platforms in the past; and both Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn made the leap from PS4 to PC in 2020. But this is really something else - a game that's published by PlayStation Studios releasing for 'rival' platforms at the same time as its PlayStation release.
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And that game is MLB: The Show 21, a baseball game in a series that's previously only been available for Sony systems, developed as it is by the SIE-owned San Diego Studio. Since its first release in 2006, The Show games have been released for PlayStation 2, PSP, PS3, the PlayStation Vita and PS4 - but the arrival of the 2021 entry will break that exclusivity in a big way.
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It was already known (with news coming out back in late 2019) that MLB: The Show would eventually be multi-platform - but now we've seen the box art for the Xbox One version of The Show 21, it sure is weird to spy a PlayStation logo beside all of that traditional green. Very strange, indeed.
Strange, but potentially (positively) precedent-setting because once the long-ago built walls that divide the major platforms start crumbling, who knows what we'll eventually see crossing over? I'm not saying that this means the likes of God of War or The Last of Us will ever show up on an Xbox - but broader-appeal titles, like those in the sports genre? Gran Turismo on Microsoft's machine? If the money from sales is going into Sony's pockets, as it is with MLB: The Show 21, you have to think: maybe.
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MLB: The Show 21 will release on April 20 2021, cross-platform play included, for PlayStation 4 and PS5, and also Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and even Nintendo Switch, eventually, possibly. Multi-platform includes the Switch, so, we'll see. It's a celebrated series so reaching more players can only be a good thing for this all-American sports sim.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation