MLB Front Office Manager Interview
by 
Ever since the announcement of MLB Front Office Manager nearly a month ago there has been some good initial info provided along with a batch of screenshots. It has actually been outside of 2K Sports’ M.O. to have this much about a game out this early, with the release date not coming until late January.
The details on the game continue with Jon Robinson of ESPN having an interview with producer Edwin Loo. A bunch of topics are discussed at length. If you have any interest in the game it is well worth checking out.
We embarked on this because we’re baseball enthusiasts and we wanted to make a game that was really deep, really authentic baseball. To do this, we built a brand new sim engine. This engine has not been used in any of the other 2K games. Instead of season stats, where past baseball games only take into account the past season, we have career stats. We have all the stats for all MLB players throughout their careers. This way, our sim engine can put together logic so that if Dan Haren is matching up against Ryan Braun, if they had faced each other in previous years, they would have a history, and we could put that into our sim engine to get a pretty accurate outlook of what that at bat is going to look like.
With how much NCAA Football’s Online Dynasty has changed my outlook on sports gaming I’m especially interested in the Online Fantasy mode. It definitely won’t be a traditional experience but does sound as though it has a lot of potential. More details of Online Fantasy can also be found within the interview.
November 5, 2008 at 7:06 am
If UR NOT 1ST UR LAST!
November 5, 2008 at 7:09 am
I like how they say they are baseball enthusiasts….you could have fooled me with MLB 2K8!
November 5, 2008 at 7:14 am
2K has built a brand new engine for a baseball game. Where have I heard them say that before. Last year I recall them saying “we built a new engine from the ground up”. Maybe for a game like this, where you’re just managing and not playing, it’ll be better.
Wasn’t MLB 2K8 built on a brand new engine. They need to get their engines straight.
November 5, 2008 at 8:01 am
I understand the trepidation, but in this case with it being a completely different studio I would give the benefit of the doubt to them. We’ll still have to see it in action before making any determination but I wouldn’t discount Blue Castle.
November 5, 2008 at 8:48 am
all the baseball games have been garbage in the past years they better make a good game
November 5, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Pasta,
Good job on the podcast btw. I had you pegged as an EA loyalist to a degree and since we live very close within the Seattle area, I understand your passion for gaming as well as mine from listening to the podcast.
After reading this article, this game does seem interesting. Im glad the VC decided to start working on these engines. After letteing Venom make PF, which was meh at best, they really ned to keep the better devs whose engine worked or have been refined on do their sports games. For omst of the people that dont know VC has decided to work back on the games that made them great. The people that made MLB 2k8’s engine are not there anymore IIRC. So this is good news.
November 5, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it. I’m hoping to do more along those lines (such as podcasts) in the future. I guess it does present an opportunity for people to get to know where I’m coming from better, and I can vent a little more easily than I can in an article
November 7, 2008 at 4:36 pm
what i dont get is why couldnt they just build on 2k7’s game, i thought was HUGE step toward a great baseball game then idk what happened last year, the show was really good, but could be better. Baseball has the ability to have so much added to it and they leave so much out, it makes me wonder if these actaully watch games or are just comp geeks, i thought brinkman knew what he was doing but based on last year yikes, i wonder what went wrong.