Everything matters.

When it comes down to it, that’s what MLB 14 The Show makes clear above all other things when it comes to the much under-appreciated but still just as revolutionary game feature which allows you to take your saves with you to next year’s game.

Everything matters. The moves I make today in my franchise mode could be felt years down the line as I advance in years through the mode. The decisions I make to build my franchise could be felt well into the future, if I miss out on a key free agent signing — I could feel that mistake for years to come in many future editions of The Show.

For sports gamers, this is a watershed moment which I hope many other games in our genre latch on to — the ability to take existing saves into a new title is something which is revolutionary as much as it is obvious. It changes the way you should approach playing the more long-term franchise/career modes within sports games, and in a game like MLB 14 The Show, it means missing on draft picks or free agent signings or trading away a valued prospect for a dud of a star are things which you could feel the sting of for quite awhile.

Perhaps the biggest thing which makes the transferrable saves so awesome is that it makes every effort I put into a mode feel like its not wasted. In every other sports game not named MLB 14 The Show, you will lose all of your progress as you jump from this year into next year.

That awesome draft you had, the awesome championship season, that incredible game you played will all go into the dustbins of history never to be seen again as you move to a new title in any other sport.

But not so in MLB 14 The Show. Not only are you going to get to keep those memories alive, but you will now be able to also create many new ones on the same timeline.

The invention of transferrable saves is something which makes so much sense, it’s amazing how long it has taken to get it into major sports titles up to this point. Some titles have changed enough year to year to make transferrable saves a challenge, but short of complete mode revamps I don’t see any reason why any major sports game couldn’t make this feature happen at this point to keep pace with what The Show is doing.

And the fun doesn't have to stop there.

Imagine being able to not only take your single player progress with you, but also online multiplayer progress.

Why shouldn’t you have a combined win/loss record for the entire Madden series in your online profile? Why can’t you have a year by year breakdown of your online performances? Why can’t you take your efforts in ultimate team with you?

Let me put it in a way a businessman might understand it: Does a product with a nine month shelf life get more people to invest into it, or does a product with a potentially unlimited shelf life get people to put more money into it?

Not that I’m advocating paid DLC, but even from that standpoint — transferrable saves make a lot of sense for both gamers and publishers.

In a world where your decisions mean something as you go from title to title, it makes sense that sports gamers will feel even more of a desire to invest time into the game. In a sports gaming world where you can take your saves with you, every move means something and every game is part of a timeline which stops, not because of time constraints of a new title hitting store shelves, but because gamers chose to stop playing that timeline in favor of something new.

In that sports gaming world, every move you make within the game matters.

And when everything matters, everyone wins.