Friday Starter is a weekly column of news and tidbits from the world of baseball video games—past and present, domestic and foreign.
“Future Stars” MLB The Show lawsuit settled
A lawsuit launched last year by Program 15 against Sony for its MLB The Show series has been settled this month. The case was called Program 15 Sports, LLC v. Sony Interactive Entertainment, LLC, filed back in August 2023.
The suit alleged that Sony unlawfully used the plaintiff’s trademark for the Future Stars Series to promote their product. Sony used the term for a Future Stars Series of Diamond Dynasty cards, which I always assumed was tied to the common Future Stars insert series in Topps baseball cards, though I don’t really see Topps branding anywhere in that official post.
The plaintiff owns a trademark through the Future Stars Series, a development program for amateur baseball players.
Sony filed for Rule 11 Sanctions, basically calling this a frivolous lawsuit, last year but that motion was denied this year in February.
The terms of the settlement have not been announced.
MLB The Show happens to be on pace for record sales numbers for the series this year, according to game sales analyst Mat Piscatella.
Yes, it is possible to play Backyard Baseball ’01 online
There were indications pre-release that the new Backyard Baseball 2001 rerelease by Mega Cat Studios would include online multiplayer for its Steam version. This did not turn out to be the case… officially.
However, following the steps from Backyard Baseball YouTuber skwidlegs, you can unlock the online play that was available in the original Backyard Baseball 2001. Follow these steps:
- After installing the Steam version of Backyard Baseball ’01, go to C:\Users\[your Windows username]\AppData\LocalLow\Mega Cat Studios\Backyard Baseball 2001\. If the AppData folder doesn’t appear for you, click on View > Show > Hidden Items in Explorer to make it available.
- Click into the only subfolder inside the Backyard Baseball 2001 folder, then open hegames.ini for edit in a program like Notepad.
- Enter this (not a joke) line under [baseball 2001]: OnlinePlay=TooCrashyCrashySorryWeTriedOurBest
- Open the game on Steam and then click the newly available Online Play button in the main menu.
This was clearly meant to be a feature in the rerelease but they were unable to get it working with enough stability to include officially. Once you log in, the News page is even updated with a real event from the new franchise owners Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios:
Song of the Week
This is “Baseball Boogie” by the Lee Brothers (Leron and Leon Lee). These former MLB players became stars playing in Japan, and, it being 1980, a Blues Brothers riff was the way to go (specifically “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (originally Otis Redding) is the song being heavily cribbed).