Alarming Dissatisfaction Numbers For This Year’s MLB Titles

Last week I posted up polls to gauge the reaction to MLB 10: The Show and MLB 2K10. The results are very interesting. While 2K10 fell about where would be anticipated, the general sense that there is growing discontent towards The Show has been confirmed. Given that the expectations for the two titles were completely different, the numbers are better looked at to analyze the games as individuals rather than for any sort of comparison.

MLB 2K10

Satisfied But Disappointed: 39%
Dissatisfied: 36%
Very Satisfied: 25%

Analysis
The MLB 2K franchise has such a bad stigma now it will take a few years of quality efforts to dig out of. The game was certainly better this year, and it had a fun factor that helped in overlooking some flaws. My Player mode was a very nice addition but the apparent lack of managerial AI hurts the mode. The delayed response for hitting in online play is devastating there making the games practically unplayable.

Overall MLB 2K10 was much cleaner, certainly not the bug riddled mess that was 2K9, but there are still the problems that affect the general experience. While 2K Sports has regained their footing in that regard, sales will be down this year. As seen with the NBA Live series it takes years to re-gain any ground, and there is no certainty that it could even happen before time on a series runs out. Skipping out on providing the first patch for the PS3 is another example of why consumers have lost a sense of trust with the series and those type of actions damage the way the company is perceived.

MLB 10: The Show

Very Satisfied: 42%
Satisfied But Disappointed: 36%
Dissatisfied: 22%

Analysis
The 22% dissatisfied is a startling number. Overall having 58% of consumers feeling at the very least disappointed with the game is something that can’t be ignored. MLB 09 would have probably seen the unsatisfied number in the low single digits and few expressed disappointment at all with that game outside of online play. For MLB 10 the franchise bugs, various console freezes, and continued poor online play experience has taken its toll.

There also seems to be an increasingly common thought that the series did not do much to advance this year. Gameplay and authenticity remain strengths, but outside of that there were no new compelling features. Improvements to areas such as Road to the Show were minor or non-existent, while the online play got somewhat better but remains well below par compared to other sports titles. These numbers say that next year consumers will be looking for more out of The Show, rather than seeing it as an automatic purchase.