It’s hard to carve out a place in the crowded video game market, with so many incredible games released each year which you or I never even hear about due to the sheer volume of new games on the market. When a smaller developer manages to break through the noise and make a name for itself it can feel like a minor miracle, so how did one of the most-beloved indie sports game series of all-time seemingly come to an abrupt end despite no signs of dropping of?
It’s a story that is sadly all too familiar to gamers around the world.
What Is Super Mega Baseball And Why Do Fans Love It?
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You can be forgiven if the Super Mega Baseball series slid under your radar. After all, for the majority of its existence, it was not developed or published by a major studio; instead, it was the byproduct of an independent developer, Metalhead Software. If you have heard of Super Mega Baseball, however, it was likely in the context of a whole lot of praise, whether it was your own firsthand experience or simply what you’d been told.
That’s because the series has been nearly universally beloved with every game that its released and because the game’s action stands out from more traditional modern sports games. It would be inaccurate to say that Super Mega Baseball was an entirely new interpretation of baseball in video game form. Instead, it’s more accurate to say that it was an anachronistic throwback to a prior generation.
At a time when major sports franchises were doing battle to be as realistic as possible, a time when more realistic sweat could conceivably be used as a pitch for why a game was worth choosing, Super Mega Baseball went the other way. The game relied on a more arcade-focused playstyle, evocative of earlier baseball games when systems and PCs didn’t have quite as much power to accurately recreate their real world versions.
The thing about older sports games, though, is that the best ones are still really, really fun, even years or decades later. By leaning into a more fast-paced and frantic playstyle the series filled a niche that had been left behind and created a brand that fans would come to associate with high-quality gaming.
Three Beloved Arcade Titles Establish The Brand
When you look at the final product released to the public, it becomes pretty clear that whenever possible, developers on the projects seemed to ask themselves one question: what would make this game more fun? Freed from the confines of hyper-realism and leaning into its retro feel, Super Mega Baseball provided gamers with a playground to run free in.
One of the major appeals of the franchise was the customization, which allowed you to edit the players and teams in the game to your heart’s content. A gamer with the time and interest to do so could create their own virtual baseball world, stocking teams with friends and family and making custom teams complete with homemade looks.
As for the gameplay itself, the operative word that kept coming up when gamers and reviewers discussed the game remained “fun.” When designing a game with simplified mechanics, it’s important to absolutely nail them, as you have fewer additional bells and whistles to provide cover. It would be an understatement to say that Metalhead Software crushed it.
In total, the studio released three versions of the game: Super Mega Baseball in 2013, Super Mega Baseball 2 in 2018, and Super Mega Baseball 3 in 2021. The gamers were consistently a hit with both gamers and gaming media alike. Each game scored highly, and it was not uncommon to see major video game sites hailing it as a contender for baseball game, or even sports game, of the year in their December look-backs.
EA Swoops In And Releases Super Mega Baseball 4
As is often the case for smaller studios that prove capable of consistently putting out popular and profitable games, a bigger name in the industry came calling in May of 2021 in the form of EA Sports, as big a name in sports gaming as you could ask for. The acquisition came shortly on the heels of Super Mega Baseball 3, and with the developer sitting at three-for-three on successful releases, the major player decided it was time to bring them into the fold.
Anytime a smaller game developer is purchased by a larger one it can cause trepidation among fans of the smaller company. While gaining access to the increased budget and resources that comes with being a major developer, the fear is that it will also come with creative sacrifices which harm the overall product. Often major sports game franchises are accused of playing things safe and sticking too close to their formula, which does not vibe with a standout game that is off the beaten path.
Fortunately for fans of the series, there was no cause for immediate concern as it was announced that the team from Metalhead Software would still be working on a fourth game of the series. That fourth edition would arrive in June of 2023, and once again, the consensus was that they had delivered yet again.
The game carried a uniformly “Generally Favorable” rating on Metacrtic from both journalists, 79, and gamers, 7.9, while it has “Mostly Positive” reviews for the PC version on Steam. With the team on the project once again showing they could deliver it would have been easy to get the ball rolling on Super Mega Baseball 5.
A Change In Projects Seems To End The Franchise
That is sadly where the good news ends for fans of the Super Mega Baseball franchise. Despite the release under EA being generally well received and certainly good enough that there is no shortage of discussion to be found online from fans who loved the game and want to know when to expect Super Mega Baseball 5, the answer appears to be never.
It’s believed that the team responsible for the series have now been reassigned to work on different sports game projects and not another game in the franchise. The decision is particularly frustrating for fans who note that the series is the only baseball game the major developer has access to, with MLB: The Show having fully taken over the reigns as the game of choice for gamers looking for a baseball simulation, a frustration further compounded by its system exclusivity.
While it seems pretty clear that the market for another Super Mega Baseball game exists and that the team who would be responsible for making it could deliver a product that ultimately pleases that market, it also appears EA has decided that is not in the best interest of the company’s bottom line. With the delisting of some of the earlier games in the series, even trips into history are not available if you didn’t get your hands on them previously.
