A Brief History of Backyard Baseball

With news dropping today that a remaster of the original Backyard Baseball game released in 1997 will be coming to Steam on October 10th, I thought that it would be appropriate to bring everyone up to speed about this franchise. If you were a kid who grew up in the 2000s, this game was likely something that you had. For myself, Backyard Baseball was one of those few games that my sister and I could bond over. Now there are certainly people who have never heard of this title before, so to explain the sensation that is Backyard Baseball we have to go back to 1997.

On October 10th, 1997, Backyard Baseball was released! Developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. This company was in the edutainment business, creating a variety of games that would appeal to children while also teaching them valuable skills that would expedite their learning. Humongous Entertainment released Backyard Baseball five years after the creation of the company. At that point, they already had big hits such as Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, and Pajama Sam. While all of these games are recognizable today to a certain audience, Backyard Baseball would be the beginning of the franchise that would define Humongous Entertainment.

Within the next few years, Backyard Baseball would expand into Backyard Sports as new entries would be developed. Backyard Soccer, Backyard Football, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Hockey, Backyard Skateboarding, and others were eventually brought into the ever-expanding franchise. While this growth promised a lot of things, it didn’t promise stability for Humongous Entertainment.

In July 1996, the company had been purchased by GT Interactive and this began a long line of acquisitions and shaking up of Humongous Entertainment that saw things spiral downwards. After a failed attempt to regain control of the company by the co-founders, the company eventually collapsed entirely in August 2005. All that remained were its assets as most of the employees had either left or were fired shortly following a new sale.

In the following years, Backyard Sports games would still pop up from time to time. Backyard Baseball in particular was released on Windows, Macintosh, Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, iOS, and Android. The last entry was released on February 6th, 2025 and since then the franchise has been dormant. That is until August 20th 2024, when a new company called Playground Productions made an announcement trailer that Backyard Sports would be returning.

Under the command of Lindsay Barnett, a teacher turned filmmaker, this company intends to restore Backyard Sports to its glory days and it is starting with Backyard Baseball ‘97. Will they succeed with the help of Mega Cat Studios? Only time will tell, but we will all be getting our first taste when Backyard Baseball ‘97 makes its Steam debut on October 10th; 27 years after the first entry was released.