Hey everyone, the MLB FE team here to bring you the first installment of the MLB 10: The Show blogs. For this entry, we’ll be talking about some of the details that have gone into the new 30-Player Franchise Mode.

One of our goals going into this year was to finally enable the ability to mimic your real-life counterpart rosters when in Franchise mode. In order to do so, we had to allow all 30 teams to be set for user control. Before we could even dive into that, we had to change up how profiles and options work.

In the past, we’ve allowed you to create a total of four profiles. With this new 30-Player control, we had to open the profile system up to accommodate the potential for a full 30 players. One of the biggest reasons was to have the ability to support up to 30 different option sets. So now you have the ability to create 30 different profiles, and assign any or all of them to your selected teams. If you want only one team to use a custom option set, assign a profile to only that team, and all other selected teams will use the Global options set.

After crossing the options hurdle, another area we needed to expand on was our player injury system. In order for you to have that true-to-life roster, we saw the need to allow you to manage your player injuries. We now support a system that allows you to select which players should be injured, choosing their injury type and injury duration. You can also choose to remove players from the disabled list at any point, ensuring your roster can be kept in sync with the actual club roster. In order to use this feature, you need to first set the Injuries option to manual.

During our design phase, we realized one important roster control aspect we desperately needed to add — Class-A rosters. This year you will now have a Class-A team roster to work with, giving you even more wiggle room when making roster decisions. The Class-A team cannot be taken in game, but you can use it as another 15 roster spots for your organization.

Once we finished addressing the tools vital for you to support your rosters, we looked at polish features. We came up with a new email system in Franchise mode to provide you with one convenient place to keep tabs on your organization needs. This email system will provide with you updates in a variety of areas, including day-to-day operations, roster related information, Minor League player updates, and league transactions. You will have the ability to cater your inbox by selecting which areas you want to be notified of, and which you don’t.

One last area expanded upon was the waiver system we implemented last year. We’ve added real-time waiver periods. Now when a player is placed on waivers, teams will have 48 hours to place a claim on the player. After the 48-hour period, the claiming team with the highest waiver priority is awarded the player. Teams are now able pass players through revocable trade waivers and, if he clears, can trade that player after the July 31st trade deadline. Also, when a player is designated for assignment, teams will now have 10 days to decide whether to release him, trade him, or if he clears waivers, assign him to the minor leagues. As was the case last year, we have a transaction handbook that you can visit at any point to familiarize yourself with all of the rules.

As you can see a lot of focus has been placed on providing you with all the tools necessary to keep your Franchise roster up-to-date with its real-life counterpart. These enhancements aren’t limited to only Franchise mode, and the same 30-player control can be found in Season mode.

- Aaron Luke and Kolbe Launchbaugh

Happy New Year Baseball Fans and Welcome to The Show!

We’re less than two months away from Spring Training and the MLB off season news is making some big waves—Randy Johnson called it quits, Andre Dawson is headed to Cooperstown, and Matt Holliday is getting paid. More importantly though, I’m happy to give you the exclusive look at the brand new MLB 10 The Show box art featuring our own PlayStation Hall of Famer, Joe Mauer. For those of you looking to get your work in on the virtual diamond before Opening Day, MLB 10 The Show will officially hit store shelves on MARCH 2!

So far we’ve been getting a great response from media who have played MLB 10. ESPN recently called The Show “A franchise that simply captures the sport of baseball better than any other, past or present.” Here are a few more previews to check out, GameSpot, IGN and Destructoid.

I also thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight some of our brand new features this year, so here’s a rundown of what you can expect from MLB 10 The Show. Stay tuned for more MLB news from us and welcome to The Show!

MLB 10 The Show NEW Features:

• HR Derby – The Home Run Derby and MLB All-Star Futures Game are now available during the All-Star break in our season modes and as a stand-alone experience.
• Catcher Calling the Game – Call pitches and play as the field general, just like Joe Mauer.
• Online Gameplay Improved – This year the online gameplay experience has been vastly improved and will detect and respond better to adverse network conditions along with reduced bandwidth to help the speed and flow of online gameplay.
• User Controlled Pick-Offs – Surprise a base runner with a quick move or lull him to sleep with our new pick-off mechanism.
• Custom Music, Fan Yells, and Chants – Assign music or a recording to an entire team, edit tracks to assign batter walk-up music, or record your own voice and assign it to play for the team or player during the situation of your choice.
• Movie Maker – Select up to ten replays to add to a single movie and do all the editing for your own highlight reel.
• New Stadiums – Five new Minor League stadiums as well as classic parks including Forbes Field, Crosley Field, Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, Sportsman Park, and Griffith Stadium.
• New Fielding/Pitching Training Modes and Practice Drills – New pitching and fielding training sessions will be part of our Road to The Show training suite.
• Road to The Show Version 4.0 – New option settings (Game Watch and Game Completion) allow users to set how much of the game they wish to view, our mistake tracking system and new Green Light system reward and penalize good play, and our new stat tracking system keeps stats for your player’s career versus every pitcher or batter faced during the current season that can be accessed at any time.
• Full Online Season Leagues – Fully functional online season leagues, save and display MLB Player stats, track player energy, allow for trades/injuries, and offer 40-man roster functionality.
• Weekly Live Roster – An updated live roster will be available every week throughout the entire season.
• Online Game History – View every game you’ve ever played online, complete with opponents, box scores, and game logs.
• 1-30 Player Season Modes – Control one or all 30 teams right from the start of your franchise or season.
• New Camera System – The most realistic camera system available will make you double take and make sure you’re not watching a live MLB telecast.
• Real-Time Presentations – More than 1,250 new gameplay animations, more than 1,000 new presentation animations, and more than 400 personalized pitcher and batter animations.
• Stadium Realism and Experience – Details, details, details! MLB 10 The Show offers daytime transitional lighting, shows all players on field in
  real-time (including players in the dugout and bullpen), and offers improved stadium ambiance with HR/splash counters, fireworks, steam,
  noisemakers, towels, thunder sticks, working digital and analog clocks, crowd reaching over the rails, and crowd detail, such as interaction
  with vendors and placing K signs.