OOTP 16 - Now Officially Licensed

[Nefaro]

Wow.  Never thought that would happen. 

Looks like we won't be forced to download official logos now, unless we want to.  O0

Out of the Park Baseball 16 - Officially Licensed by MLB.com, Available in March 2015!

That's right: Out of the Park Baseball 16 is the first entry in our 16-year-old series to feature official MLB.com and Minor League Baseball licenses! That means as soon as you launch a new game, you'll enjoy official league logos, 30 MLB team logos and jerseys, over 150 MiLB team logos, and even historical MLB logos!

[bbmike]

That's great news!  O0

[sandman2575]

That's reason enough to buy.  I played a ton of 14 but barely touched 15... regardless, I'll preorder 16 without question.

I'm already starting to get the 'when does spring training start?' midwinter itch...

[Grim.Reaper]

Although having the license is a nice addition, nothing really earth shattering since the previous versions made it pretty easy to download/install the mods.  Still nice to have and maybe if more people but the game because of it, further advancements will be made.

Not sure that I will pick this up during the pre-order process, I have always done it in the past, but each year my actual playing the game has decreased.  To be honest, probably only played last year's version a couple of hours, if that.  Think this might be the year I wait for year end sale and by then all the major issues will be worked out as well.

[Bison]

Wow.  That's awesome.

[MetalDog]

I always open an OOTP thread, reading about what goes on in the game.  Not sure I would like to try it, but, I would love to hear what it's like to play it.

[Grim.Reaper]

I always open an OOTP thread, reading about what goes on in the game.  Not sure I would like to try it, but, I would love to hear what it's like to play it.

If you are a baseball fan and you think you would enjoy a game about being a owner/general manager/coach of a baseball team, its the best game on the market for that.  It has tremendous amount of depth of features and options which makes it a very robust experience.  It can be really fun and rewarding to take your favorite baseball team from being a basement dweller all the way to being a yearly threat to win the world series.  It has tremendous amount of stats and such that will keep you busy.

The only two issues that hold me back sometimes is the fact when it is released, it usually receives big patches through August and I am a stickler for wanting to start my coaching career after all the patches have been released.  Don't get me wrong, the game is very playable out of the gate, but just a quirk of mine about waiting:)  The second issue is the fact the game has a ton of options/configurations you can make and sometimes can be daunting determining how you want to setup your baseball universe.  It does have some quickstart setup options to aid this.

Again, if you enjoy baseball and like the idea of managing a baseball franchise, you will not find another better game.

[JudgeDredd]

I saw this and was going to post about it but as a casual player of the game with no real knowledge of Baseball I had no idea it wasn't officially sanctioned.

I mean - Anaheim Angels is in there...and that is a Team, right? So what's changed? I presume if they weren't officially sanctioned before, they wouldn't have been able to include real teams, no?

I do know players photos were missing - but that wasn't a deal breaker for me because I didn't know any of them anyway.

But - it's always good news to have a game officially recognised and licensed...helps with immersion.  O0

[Grim.Reaper]

I saw this and was going to post about it but as a casual player of the game with no real knowledge of Baseball I had no idea it wasn't officially sanctioned.

I mean - Anaheim Angels is in there...and that is a Team, right? So what's changed? I presume if they weren't officially sanctioned before, they wouldn't have been able to include real teams, no?

I do know players photos were missing - but that wasn't a deal breaker for me because I didn't know any of them anyway.

But - it's always good news to have a game officially recognised and licensed...helps with immersion.  O0

In the last version of the game, they took out the real team nicknames...but you could get them back in there with a workaround.  Being officially licensed allows them to include things like team names, logos, jerseys, hats, etc. without you having to install mods to include them.  Those stuff were never included.  Plus they can market the game as being MLB official which means a lot to people and likely will increase their sales.  I am sure more can be done in the future if they choose with stadiums, player photos, etc. and I am guessing they might have more access to official baseball roster/stat information.

[Grim.Reaper]

Beyond the official license, these are the additional enhancements planned.....

2015 Opening Day Rosters
Our brand new 2015 roster sets include all Opening Day MLB rosters, as well as the complete minor league system down to the rookie leagues. All major league (and certain minor league) player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' industry-leading player forecasting system, PECOTA. The thousands of remaining minor league players are carefully rated by hand by our established research team.

Will San Diego's offseason frenzy pay dividends? Is this finally the year the Blue Jays return to the top of the American League East? Find out for yourself!

New International and Independent Leagues Added
Last year, we introduced 7 international leagues in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Cuba, Italy and The Netherlands. This year, we added the Australian Baseball League to that list, along with several independent leagues in the US and Japan. All of those leagues feature real rosters, of course, with countless hours of work invested in researching realistic bio info, statistics and ratings for thousands of real players.

New Team Owner Goals
Real-life GMs may not want smarter owners, but we think you'll appreciate your new team owner, who won't just tell you to go out there and win as many games as you can. Now he'll give you short- and long-term goals, which may include: winning the World Series within X seasons; fixing a certain weakness on your roster; extending the contract of a star player; and much more. Your ability to meet those goals not only decides if you'll be fired but also determines if your contract will be extended at a higher salary, which is another new feature this year.

Improved Team Finances and Reporting
We have redesigned large chunks of the team finance system, including new season ticket sales, a team finances screen based on widgets, a new accounting screen, and much more. You'll be better at the money-related part of your job than ever before. On top of that, we have recoded and improved the entire AI related to finances, resulting in more realistic player contracts and negotiations and more stable long-term team finances.

Completely Redesigned Manager and Coaches System
One of our favorite new features this year is the redesigned coaching model. Managers and coaches now have certain personalities and special skills or preferences, which will result in plenty of interesting choices. Do you want the manager of your team (if you decide to play GM-only) to be an easy-going stathead, or do you need a veteran hard-nosed manager who is able to cope with the disgruntled players in the clubhouse? Do you want a pitching coach who is an expert in working with power pitchers, or is your staff based more on control artists who could benefit from a coach who knows how to work with finesse pitchers?

Recoded Team Strategy System
You spoke and we listened: We agreed that setting your team's in-game strategy was a tedious task, so we've completely redesigned that part of the game. Now you can quickly set your preferred strategies and move on to more important matters. Beware, though: If you play GM-only, you'll find that some managers won't let you dictate certain strategies.

Better Playoff Coverage
The race for playoff berths is the most exciting part of every baseball season, so we added a new Pennant Chase screen that displays the strength of the remaining schedule and the chance for each team to make the playoffs. We also improved the related news coverage. Who will win it all?

Improved 3D Ball Flight
Last year we introduced support for 3D stadiums and realistic 3D ball flight, which was a big step-up for the series. OOTP 16 improves on that 3D presentation and includes great-looking 3D models of all 30 MLB ballparks.

Much More
Of course, that's not all. Every year we offer many smaller features, and OOTP 16 is no exception. It includes:
•New play modes (Manager only, GM only, and GM + Manager), so you can decide exactly how you'd like to run your team
•An improved simulation engine that incorporates the latest research and trends, such as infield shifts and pitcher usage
•Rainouts with automatic rescheduling, adding the realism that comes with rain-shortened and cancelled games. Is your bullpen strong enough to handle those late-season double-headers?
•Better in-game sound
•An enhanced interface, such as a player info pop-up when resting the mouse pointer over a button which links to a player, or automatic syncing between lineups and depth charts when making changes to either of them.
•A great new Find-A-Player feature: Define certain criteria (ratings, stats, salary etc.) and find exactly the player you were looking for
•Recoded All-Star Game features with real voting (including online league support)
•Realistic OOTP Hall of Fame selection process, including simulated voting and new stats like JAWS, HoF Standards, Black & Grey Ink Tests
•More player awards, for example Most Valuable Player, Playoff Series MVPs, best hitters by position and Reliever of the Year
•Better playoff history tracking, including career playoff stats for all real players in the database and playoff leaderboards
•Alternate currencies (Euro, Pounds Sterling, Yen, etc.)
•The option to define background pictures for teams and leagues
•Much more

[bbmike]

I was hoping for a bit more progress in the 3D area.  :(

[sandman2575]

It does seem like Markus and co. seriously underestimated how big a project the 3D transition was going to be -- since that was announced as one of the big additions to 15, and it still seems like it's in a fairly 'embryonic' stage even with 16.

I'm impressed by little features like 'rainouts' that are actually not so little -- my sense was that OOTP wouldn't feature this for a long time to come, if ever, because the generating season schedules for 30 teams / 162 games a piece is itself very complex, and rain delays wreak complete havoc with rescheduling.

[Bison]

The list of features is going to make this an easy decision to purchase this year. 

[MetalDog]

The wallet doesn't always hold enough coin for the things I want, but, this looks like a buy at a sensible price.

[sandman2575]

$35 for the preorder is a complete steal, imo.  Already pulled the trigger myself.

I honestly rank OOTP as the best computer/console sports game I've ever played, going back to, I dunno, TecmoBowl.