Friday 31st March, 2006 – With the new baseball season just hours away, Sports Interactive, the sports management development specialists, have announced that their latest masterpiece, Out of the Park Baseball 2006, will be released on May 31st.

Available via digital download only, Out of the Park Baseball 2006 offers gamers the ultimate in realism with its brand new pitch-by-pitch game engine, unrivalled playability and unparalleled customization. You can create your own fictional baseball universe or team dynasty, sign free agents, draft hot prospects, and more, creating the most engrossing franchise management game ever.

Via his personal blogs on the official game website (www.ootpbaseball2006.com) Lead Developer Markus Heinsohn has kept fans up-to-date with the latest game developments and feature implementations and more are planned in the run up to release. “The community has played an important part in the game’s growth during the past seven years and for me it has made perfect sense to keep them informed every step of the way as the game evolves. Without them, OOTP 2006 wouldn't be what it is once released - the best baseball management game ever.”

Out of the Park Baseball 2006 will be released on PC and Mac and is available from May 31st 2006 priced at $34.99. Pre orders and further information can be found at www.ootpbaseball2006.com

Core game features

Manage your own baseball franchise

Set up the line-ups, your pitching staff and depth charts. Demote the struggling rookie, put the injured starter on the DL and trade for a backup catcher. Manage the 40-man roster, keep an eye on the waiver wire and scout the upcoming amateur draft pool. In OOTPB 2006 you can do almost anything a real life GM can do to guide your team to glory.

A realistic and accurate simulation engine

No baseball game is complete without stats and OOTPB 2006 is king. In addition to the multitude of statistics, a fully flexible engine allows you to make all the calls pitch-by-pitch. The game is truly as real as it gets.

Customizable financial system

Featuring the most flexible financial system in any baseball simulation ever made, OOTPB 2006 lets you mirror existing intricacies or allows you to invent your own. The only restriction is your imagination.

Scouting and coaching staff at your disposal

All of the staff in your franchise have varying strengths, weaknesses, personalities and of course contract demands. OOTPB 2006 puts all of your man management skills to the test; it’s in your hands!

Endless possibilities with historical and fictional leagues

Play the game with the real life setup of every major baseball league in the world and in addition, you can import every historical baseball season from 1900 to the present day. If that’s not enough simply create your own fictional baseball league.

Create or join an online league

Featuring a full online league mode, commissioners and multiple owners can battle it out against each other over the internet. Integrating seamlessly with FTP and HTML you can upload and download files and share them with friends.

Slick and intuitive interface

Utilizing the technology and expertise of Sports Interactive, the game has a faster, smarter and slicker interface than ever before. What’s more, it’s fully skinable allowing you to change the game to suit your own personal tastes.

About Sports Interactive
Sports Interactive (SI), is the world's leading developer of sports management simulations for home computers. SI's pillar titles cover a range of sports, including football (the Football Manager series), ice hockey (the NHL Eastside Hockey Manager series) and baseball (Out of the Park Baseball ). Founded in 1994 and based in Islington, North London, SI has a full-time staff of 35 and employs the services of more than 1,500 part-time researchers across the globe. The company's games have enjoyed an unparalleled history of commercial and critical success, with five of its creations among the UK's Top 20 best-selling PC games of all time. Further information on the company and its games is available from the SI website, www.sigames.com

Awesome

:D

Available via digital download only

Who's gonna launch the first salvo?

so everyone finally bitched at them enough...shame they had their hand forced here by a vocal minority

I hope they release a beta demo before the release day to try out.

Sometimes we can find things that betatester cant find.

Si release a beta demo and then a gold demo for EHM and FM before.

I hope no unexpected bugs creep up in late May.

I like digital download.

I like digital download.
I'm talking about the whole fiasco with WWSM 2006 and Digital River or whatever that place was called.

I'm surprised its that far away, I'm disappointed I prepaid.

Does this mean OOTP *gulp* has....gone gold?

May 31 release is the first delay.

First release announcement was for opening day.

May 31 release is the first delay.

First release announcement was for opening day.

Link to where that was announced?

Wow, this is far out.

so everyone finally bitched at them enough...shame they had their hand forced here by a vocal minority
Actually i read a couple times from Marc Duffy that they were planning to release a release date by the start of the baseball season.

Actually i read a couple times from Marc Duffy that they were planning to release a release date by the start of the baseball season.

I heard that as well.

May 31st? Wow, I've usually lost interest in Baseball around the end of April (around NFL Draft time). Sounds pretty rockin' though. Perhaps I won't watch baseball until June 1 to extend my interest.

Damn May 31st. That stinks.

Damn, I thought it said it was being released March 31st at first glance. Oh well...

May 31st? I'm going to guess shipping two months after the start of the season is due almost entirely to the changeover to the SI codebase.

Sucks now, but I'd imagine we won't see this in future seasons.

Ah man, I won't be able to play for a little bit after it is released. I leave May 31st for my senior trip to Myrtle Beach till June 9th. What a shame.. :D

Ah man, I won't be able to play for a little bit after it is released. I leave May 31st for my senior trip to Myrtle Beach till June 9th. What a shame.. :D

Our Senior Trip was to Myrtle Beach. Good times... I could go in your place so you can enjoy OOTP ;)

Actually i read a couple times from Marc Duffy that they were planning to release a release date by the start of the baseball season.


I heard that has well.

Is May 31 still considered "Spring"? If not, maybe they should change their ads to "Summer" 2006.

Is May 31 still considered "Spring"? If not, maybe they should change their ads to "Summer" 2006.Doesn't summer start on June 21st-ish?

I heard that has well.

That is different than the game being released on March 31st.

That is different than the game being released on March 31st.
Shhh. Stop presenting facts.

sweet. may 31st really isn't THAT far away. especially when you consider that by early may i'd assume we'd have some sort of demo to knock at, and if there's a beta demo to come it could be really anytime this month that they get that out.

that's if there will be a beta demo or a pre-release demo, as i imagine the change to the SI codebase seems to have taken a lot of time for Markus.

whenever the game is ready to come out that's fine. i'm honestly not THAT eager for it, although i'm sure I'll buy it early and play it often it's not the end of the world that it won't be out until may. perspective people...perspective.

Man, I better hurry up on my new year's resolution.

Man, I better hurry up on my new year's resolution.

Vince,
you most over at Mccovey ? What's your handle there ?

And I love, love, the sig. :D

Vince,
you most over at Mccovey ? What's your handle there ?

And I love, love, the sig. :D
Every time I try to register, I never get the confirmation e-mail. I'm thinking of setting up a dummy e-mail address just to register (my e-mail is now tied to some name I don't have a password for). I only lurk over there, but I'm there every day.

So far the one of the things that bothers me, is that this version will not have any in-game sound.

I'm talking about the whole fiasco with WWSM 2006 and Digital River or whatever that place was called.

I believe they are using eLicense (Via Tech)

What's wrong with this picture?

http://www.sportsdigs.com/

What's wrong with this picture?

http://www.sportsdigs.com/

April fool's?? Early??

From what I'm aware of, this game won't ever be hitting any shelves either. Digital download only.

So far the one of the things that bothers me, is that this version will not have any in-game sound.


Serious. That kind of sucks as well as a release in june pretty much. Since you have to consider any sports text sim usually needs about two to four months of patches to get it to a point where it can be used for serious universes. BBCF and TCB are just know finished quality games ready to be used for serious universe/league play.

so everyone finally bitched at them enough...shame they had their hand forced here by a vocal minority

From my experience at the ootp boards I didn't see it that way. Marc Duffy had previously announced he thought he would know by opening day what the release date would be and would announce it then. I don't believe it had anything to do with the bitching.

Of course the "vocal minority" was doing their normal pissing and moaning, chicken little doom threads. Things, like usual, got out of hand, from ootp was vaporware to Markus was going to be forced out by the big British company SI and someone else would be programing ootp. Got to the point Duffy pretty much told them talk amongst yourselves I won't be back until I announce the date:D Chist then some crying really began. Some thought it was unprofessional, I thought it was quite funny and a good move. People bitched and moaned about that too but Marc did not bend to the pressure. He returned when he said he would, at the end of the month with the projected release date. Way to go Marc, I like a guy that tells it like it is and then follows through :cool:

What are your guys' preferred ratings systems when it comes to baseball sims? I have got to be honest. I've never understood the concept of gap power. I also don't get what's going on with the avoid k's and eye ratings sometimes. How is it possible for a guy to have high contact, but a high avoid k's? How can a guy with 7 power have 4 gap power? Or how could a guy with great eyes strike out a lot? I just get lost when I see how the ratings are put together.

From what I'm aware of, this game won't ever be hitting any shelves either. Digital download only.

That's not quite accurate. I checked the link provided in the first post here as I'm on dialup and not looking forward to a long download. They have a CD option available. It doesn't look like it will be on shelves like you said, but at least us poor dialup people get a helpful hand.

That's not quite accurate. I checked the link provided in the first post here as I'm on dialup and not looking forward to a long download. They have a CD option available. It doesn't look like it will be on shelves like you said, but at least us poor dialup people get a helpful hand.

the CD option is not offered by SI, but by elicense. basically, you're paying them $10 to burn the file for you and mail it to you.

Damn, figured someone would've responded by now. Are guys completely happy with different batting ratings then?

Damn, figured someone would've responded by now. Are guys completely happy with different batting ratings then?

a high power, low gap type player is probably the kind of guy who hits lots of flyballs and fewer line drives. A dead-pull hitter. Bunches of homeruns and fewer doubles

Damn, figured someone would've responded by now. Are guys completely happy with different batting ratings then?

and a guy with a great eye can have plenty of strikeouts. Just because he has a great eye doesn't mean he can always put the bat on the ball. Just look at Mark Bellhorn

How about a guy like Cristian Guzman (http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/guzmacr01.shtml) who hit 20 triples and only five more doubles in 2000? His best ability was to shoot from 1st to 3rd. It was pretty much luck that the ball would go in the gap or down in the corner. Does speed play a role in doubles and triples?

How about a guy like Cristian Guzman (http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/guzmacr01.shtml) who hit 20 triples and only five more doubles in 2000? His best ability was to shoot from 1st to 3rd. It was pretty much luck that the ball would go in the gap or down in the corner. Does speed play a role in doubles and triples?

I think running instincts and running speed has an affect for doubles and triples beside Gap rating.


Is hitter type like spray hitter, normal, pull hitter just costmetic?

I believe they are using eLicense (Via Tech)
We are using eLicence for OOTP.

It was pretty much luck that the ball would go in the gap or down in the corner. Does speed play a role in doubles and triples?

In reality (not Ootp!) studies show that a batter has almost no hitting ability for extra-base hits. It is mostly luck and speed (turning a single into a double, turning a double into a triple). The 2002/03 correlation of Doubles/Triples was something like 0.3.

palli

We are using eLicence for OOTP.


Yeah! about time you guys got it right. Softcrap was terrible.

I'm surprised its that far away, I'm disappointed I prepaid.


Me, too. I don't want it released before it is done, but I wouldn't have preordered if I knew it would be this long before release.

I cannot wait for this game. I am so excited. I don't even know what I'm going to do first... start in MLB, Japan, maybe even create a budding league in England or something, maybe like equal competition to the MLB..

The max number of teams in a league is 5000? Good lord. LOL

I bet Shorty has some gap power.

Do they ever specifically mention on the OOTP website if it is a Professtional Baseball Simulator?

:D

Do they ever specifically mention on the OOTP website if it is a Professtional Baseball Simulator?

:D

Kind of, it's based on Canadian baseball rules. The only reason it hasn't been released is if you play out a game and follow it with an autosim the outs aren't recorded. So it ends up with the visiting team batting into perpetuity.

Sorry, scratch that. This is for ootp, I thought it was a Maximum Baseball thread :D

Cant wait...:(

Don't bump this unless you have news of an early release. :)

I cannot wait for this game. I am so excited. I don't even know what I'm going to do first... start in MLB, Japan, maybe even create a budding league in England or something, maybe like equal competition to the MLB..

I heard that the Japanese model will be missing the main components of the Japanese leagues...ie. Ties.

Which I'm dissappointed about.

Do they just not play extra innings?

Do they just not play extra innings?

Because all the girls wear schoolgirl or sailor moon outfits, the Japanese do not mind "kissing their sister", whether it be literal or metaphorical.

they play 12 innings and then if the game is not decided, it's a tie