MLB The Show 21 Announced For PlayStation and Xbox

Sony has announced that MLB The Show 21 will be coming to both PlayStation and Xbox consoles on April 20th, with Fernando “El Nino” Tatis Jr. being the cover athlete. This is the first time that the formerly exclusive PlayStation series will be appearing on another console, as well as the first time any PlayStation Studios game has appeared on other consoles.

When it launches in April, MLB The Show 21 will cost $59.99 on PS4 and Xbox One, and $69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series S|X. Cross-play will be supported across all platforms, meaning that people can play against each other across platforms in the same ecosystem (i.e. PS4 and PS5), and across ecosystems (i.e. PS5 and Series S|X). Cross-platform progression will be available as well. PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold will be needed in order to play online.

Unfortunately, there is no upgrade path from current-gen consoles to next-gen consoles. If you would like to have both versions of the game, you will need to purchase the Collector’s Edition of MLB The Show 21. Sony hasn’t given any additional information about the Collector’s Edition, but says they will provide more details in the coming days.

We’ve known for some time that MLB The Show would be going multiplatform. In 2019, the MLB and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced together that while SIE and Sony San Diego would continue to develop MLB games, the franchise would be available on other platforms starting this year. Though this means that the series is able to come to the Nintendo Switch, that does not appear to be happening at this point in time.

While this is the first time a Sony first-party title is coming to another console, it’s not the first to go to another platform. Last year, Horizon Zero Dawn came to PC after three years of being a console exclusive. And while not first-party, Death Stranding was exclusive to PS4 until it came to PC last year as well. MLB The Show being made available to other consoles definitely feels like more of a decision that the MLB organization made instead of Sony. Nonetheless, perhaps this will be the start of more first-party titles from the Japanese company making their way to other consoles in the future.