MLB 2K11 News Post

MLB 2K11 Developer Insight #1 - Marketing Looks Back at MLB 2K10

02:41 PM - January 14, 2011 by jeffy777

2K Sports just posted their first MLB 2K11 developer insight. Not a lot of information here, just marketing looking back at MLB 2K10.

Quote:


	"Traditionally speaking, our Developer Insights are written by a member of the development team. But this time around 2K Sports is kicking off the year with an update from marketing on the heels of announcing that we have brought back the $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge. My name is Mike Rhinehart and I am a senior brand manager at 2K Sports. I am fortunate enough to have been working on our sports lineup since the launch of the Dreamcast in 1999 (yes that makes me one of the salty, old marketing guys here) and I can say hands down, 2010 was my absolute favorite year in marketing for 2K Sports. Specifically, the MLB 2K10 Perfect Game Challenge was by far the craziest, most challenging and rewarding promotion that I have ever been a part of. And, I can say without a doubt, we could not have pulled this off without tremendous help from several groups of people. So many, that if I listed everyone involved it would take up a good portion of this diary, so I�ll leave it as a huge thank you to everyone involved in making this happen, including Twin Galaxies for being our third party judging entity and to everyone that participated in the challenge to make it the success that it was."

Game: Major League Baseball 2K11Reader Score: 5.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: NDS / PC / PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 17 - View All

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Member Comments

# 61 AtlBraves09 @ 01/16/11 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker


	I will say that the entire Ronnie/2K info things is nothing short of a debacle. But it has gone on long enough now, that I just face palm myself when I see Ronnie announces something. I don't even need to wait to see how little, or how late the information is. And I agree, the answer is to just stop teasing altogether. I think they struggle with the fact that their competition starts cranking out info so early, when they would prefer to wait until February. And they have handled it poorly, to say the least. But the guys making all of these really poor decisions really have zero impact on game quality.

- I agree that it is a debacle, and it is disappointing at times to say in the least, but, if Ronnie/2k, get on here and see what is being directed at him and the company, I would be weary about showing or communicating ANYTHING. I know that if the dev. of the competition were treated the same way it would get really ugly really fast. I understand there is a lot more confidence in them but it doesn't excuse the fact of the disrespect that has been shown when it was probably out of his hands in the first place. It is just my opinion that the back hand and blatant attacks at Ronnie/2k have lessened our chances of hearing anything pertaining to information until they are absolutely ready to share. Just my .02

# 62 rudyjuly2 @ 01/16/11 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AtlBraves09


	- I agree that it is a debacle, and it is disappointing at times to say in the least, but, if Ronnie/2k, get on here and see what is being directed at him and the company, I would be weary about showing or communicating ANYTHING. I know that if the dev. of the competition were treated the same way it would get really ugly really fast. I understand there is a lot more confidence in them but it doesn't excuse the fact of the disrespect that has been shown when it was probably out of his hands in the first place. It is just my opinion that the back hand and blatant attacks at Ronnie/2k have lessened our chances of hearing anything pertaining to information until they are absolutely ready to share. Just my .02

What makes to think they aren't reading this? Sucking up is not the answer to getting meaningful changes. I prefer the open dialogue in this forum, even if it does skew negative.

# 63 CincinnatiRedlegs @ 01/16/11 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker


	That's fair. I'm not sure what you consider big improvements. I think they have to: -Improve the fielding by adding errors, and increasing the influence of the RS on throwing. I'd like to see this be modeled so that players' ratings will influence this appropriately. I would not expect them to drastically change how fielding is handled in terms of using more dynamic camera angles, as you suggest in my blog post. It's a good idea, but would take far more time and $$$ than I expect them to throw at this game right now. -Introduce a legitimate injury system that happens in-game, and not just during sim. -Improve the in-game interface so that the user can access the opponent's roster so that we can easily see who is left on the bench, who is left in the bullpen. And for god's sake, we need to see the what handed each of those players are. -Increase the variability of ball placement when pitching. Simply force us to center the pitches of worse pitchers, and let a pitcher's wildness rating affect just how close to center a pitch can land. If they just do all of this, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of the game. I suspect we will only see a portion of this done, and probably it won't be tuned as well as it needs to be. So I will still enjoy it more than last year's, but no one is going to be talking game of the year. I'd like to see an improved hitting model. But I really found a way to make last year's model work nearly perfectly for me. So they can leave it, as imperfect as choosing between power and contact is. Actually, if they just reverted to the 2K8 model for hitting and pitching, it would be a plus. I think VC altered stuff that did not need to be fixed from that game. 2K8's primary flaw was frame rate and tuning. While many complained about how hard it was to pitch and hit, it was mostly due to the newness of the interface. The complaint now is how easy it is to pitch. I would have even left the meatballs in. the two step hitting is more iffy. I think it is fair to call the current hitting model as nothing more than a glorified button press. But I do think the check swing on the stick was perfectly used in 2K9 and 2K10 (once it was patched in). There is no way that using button presses can simulate that. But there is a real problem with the timing required to step into a pitch in way that feels right. It's an important part of hitting, but I just don't think it can be duplicated in a video game that makes its mastery feel like it is improving the game. I would love to see the improved commentary that we see in NBA 2K11, but that is expensive, and I just don't think the game can afford that expense. An improved franchise mode would be nice, and I know it is much higher on many folks' priority lists. But MLB Today became my way to play the game. All I want would be for the stats I put up in MLB Today to replace the stats from real life. That would create the ultimate season mode. As a bonus, the ability to go back and play any previous game in MLB Today would be awesome. But I just don't see this other stuff making the cut this year. I hope I am surprised. But 2K10 sold like Backbreaker. And that company has decided to no longer make console games. I don't see 2K investing too much in a baseball series until they can negotiate a better license. It's within the realm of possibility that when this deal is done, 2K baseball will go the direction of College Hoops. If that happens, I will then be rooting for the return of EA to baseball. With the introduction of analog controls to The Show, I feel like we can count on EA Baseball of including them in their game. I'd prefer to see EA and 2K battle it out.

I couldn't agree more. If they can improve on 2K10, it should be a solid game. I honestly enjoyed 2K10 despite the no injuries and errors, but am hoping to see them back in.

I remember in 2K9 when comebackers to the pitcher would result in concussions and then 2K10 made the super-fielding.

In a nutshell, if they could find a happy medium with everything, it would be awesome.

I'm somewhat optimistic, but kind of nervous about 2K11 as well.

# 64 rudyjuly2 @ 01/16/11 10:27 PM

Adding more sliders will help a ton imo. Pitch accuracy was still too easy and the cpu used the contact swing way too often. I'd love to be able to tune the cpu aggressiveness at the plate.

# 65 ryan36 @ 01/17/11 02:49 AM

This isn't the end of the world for 2k, OS, or mlb fans. I suppose it's not really even indicative of the quality of the game...even though I asked about that awhile back in a thread I created.

The bottom line is as bfjoe said, it is what it is.

# 66 Trevytrev11 @ 01/17/11 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saberq


	Does anyone have an idea when the next insight is supposed to come out?

Do you mean:

MLB 2K11 Developer Insight #2 - Pack It and Ship It, with the head of 2K's west coast distribution center...or...

MLB 2K11 Developer Insight #3 - Less is More with the assistant graphic artist behind MLB 2K's four-page instruction booklet.

# 67 hitstreak13 @ 01/17/11 12:44 PM

I have a gut feeling that 2k11 is going to be a solid game this year. If they add 40 man rosters, waivers, futures game, etc. people are going to be ecstatic (including myself). The gameplay, from the look of things, has looked pretty good the last two years, so that shouldn't be a problem. Like some of you have mentioned, if they iron out a few things (such as errors and injuries) it's going to be a good year for 2k.

# 68 jeffy777 @ 01/17/11 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hitstreak13


	I have a gut feeling that 2k11 is going to be a solid game this year. If they add 40 man rosters, waivers, futures game, etc. people are going to be ecstatic (including myself). The gameplay, from the look of things, has looked pretty good the last two years, so that shouldn't be a problem. Like some of you have mentioned, if they iron out a few things (such as errors and injuries) it's going to be a good year for 2k.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saberq


	It has pretty good foundation man.....If they build on it they can refine the gameplay experience to be very good....

Yeah, for the most part the gameplay was pretty solid in 2K10 (besides a few things such as the lack or errors and injuries obviously). They finally laid a fairly strong foundation last year. Now they just need to build upon it and smooth out the kinks.

If they can improve some key things, I'll be very happy:

1.) Add errors and injuries
2.) Make the pitching more of a challenge (it's too easy to pinpoint your pitches once you get good at the motions) or add a pitch accuracy slider. This should also help the AI hit for more power because we won't be able to constantly nibble the corners.
3.) Improve the animations in general
4.) Decrease the pitcher's fielding ability. Too many scorched balls up the middle are effortlessy gobbled up by the pitcher.
5.) Also for fielding, make the right stick throwing more like it was in 2K8 where the placement of the stick affected the accuracy of the throw.

That's really all I want. Based on what VC has done so far with this series and especially the progress they made with 2K10, I'm optimistic for 2K11. It would be nice if they released info sooner, but we'll have plenty of info soon enough.

# 69 Eski33 @ 01/17/11 04:02 PM

Uh, ....................what?

# 70 jeffy777 @ 01/17/11 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apostle


	This game took a step in the right direction last year. There were still some problems, but when looking at on a bigger scale, this game did get better. I do think that people need to try and be patient when it comes to information. When I first read this "insight," my reaction was like a lot of you, but then I realized that it's not really a big deal. 2K does market differently, but I'll give it time. Bottom line, info being released to us is not a necessity. I'm more of a "wait and see" type of gamer now, as I'm not going to rush out and buy titles on release day (with the exception of a couple of games). Before we know it, we'll have as much information on this game as our heart desires. It might not be until after release, but patience is key for me.

I think that sums it up pretty well.

# 71 rudyjuly2 @ 01/17/11 09:26 PM

Totally agree with your list Jeffy. Now I'd lilt to know when I can get my hands on a custom cover template.

# 72 The Living Legend @ 02/04/11 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulls23


	Hmm wonder when the next (or should I say first) insight is coming? The game is 5 weeks away from shipping and still no insights. At this time last year, they already had one on Franchise: Online Feb/03/2010 \| 26 comments MLB Today Jan/29/2010 \| 16 comments Franchise Mode Jan/27/2010 \| 41 comments Art Direction Jan/15/2010 \| 42 comments Community Efforts Jan/08/2010 \| 17 comments

Yea, I mean, we have honestly got nothing at all and its 5 weeks like you said. No audio, Fielding, Graphics, gameplay, i mean nothing. Just weird thats all.

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