MLB 14 The Show: Online Play a Swing and a Miss at Launch

[RaychelSnr]

MLB 14 The Show had a lot riding on a smooth online experience for users this year, with several new online experiences in the offing giving baseball gamers a chance to have connected experiences like never before.

The problem with that is The Show series has consistently in the past been plagued with online server issues and this year seems to be no exception. A quick perusal through Twitter looking for people's comments on the online functionality yields few, if any, positive comments and reports.

Pasta Padre posted a report on his experiences experiences with regards to online play, with quite unflattering results. His experiences do seem to be the norm within the community though:

Quote:

"That was an hour spent playing a game to its completion with no apparent problems during or after and it was time wasted. In fact the “Franchise Events” page, which lists pretty much everything going on in the league, is riddled with those messages about the games not processing."

Sports gamers have now witnessed two otherwise stellar games hampered with online issues over the past six months -- with NBA 2K14 having major issues with it's online servers and in-game functionality around the 2013 holiday season and now MLB 14 The Show introducing major new efforts with regards to online play which, at least at launch, do not fully function.

This raises questions on why several titles have chosen to focus on online functionality only to have that functionality be non-functional when the game launches -- thus hampering a major selling point of the title. While it is likely The Show will have its online issues fixed sooner rather than later, you have to wonder if the future where online connectivity is emphasized is truly any better than the days where simply putting the disk in and playing local offline games was the norm.

What have your experiences with MLB 14 The Show online been like on PS3?

[areobee401]

This franchise has received a pass for far too long now for an unplayable online experience. Unacceptable that it is still in issue in 2014. I will be extremely disappointed if the PS4 version has the same issue. Though, I know it most likely will with the game's track record.

[HustlinOwl]

With PS Plus needed for online play on the PS4, come May 6th The Show better work as advertised.

[tolly444]

MLB is suppose to be the Playstation sports game flagship, I hope they get this fixed before the PS4 version comes out. Maybe thats why they delayed the release, work out the kinks with the PS3 version, I hope.

[aguero90]

I hate online play, I'm old school, nothing like having my best friend over and playing together with no lag or anything.

[areobee401]

Quote: Originally Posted by aguero90

I hate online play, I'm old school, nothing like having my best friend over and playing together with no lag or anything.

As you get older it becomes increasingly difficult to get together for a video game. Jobs, kids, life...

I was looking forward to online leagues. For me nothing beats a game of baseball against another human. The one on one battles the sport offers in game is what makes it the best in my opinion. Having not been able to compete in a league since 2K8, I was excited to get back at it.

Online play is not something everyone will use, but online should function properly for any game that is released these days.

[HustlinOwl]

please enough in time for PS4

Quote: Originally Posted by hizahowie

We are having server overload issues. We are currently adding more servers and getting them up and running asap. Thank you for you patience and we are working as fast as possible to fix all online issues.

[Chip1010]

I've never enjoyed playing games online, so this doesn't matter to me, but it's still pretty damn inexcusable at this point. My understanding is that online play for The Show has been broken since at least 2009, when I first began buying the game. You'd figure that one of these years they'd put the focus on fixing their online experience rather than concocting another unwanted new mode that maybe 200 people will ever use.

Give me a solid single-player experience and I'm good, and for that reason I'll buy The Show every year on release day, but I truly do feel for those of you who play online. This is getting beyond ridiculous.