Taylor Bauer
Taylor BauerThere are sports simulation games, and then there are games for the sickos who want to manage statistics more than step up to the plate. I’m in both camps and while many are flocking to MLB The Show this time of year, a whole audience of management sim fans and baseball fanatics are excited about Out of the Park Baseball. This year’s entry is getting some mixed feedback from diehard fans of the franchise, so let’s dive into my thoughts on Out of the Park Baseball 26.
For the most part, this is a relatively safe year for Out of the Park Baseball. Of its major marketing headlines, things like an authentic World Baseball Classic and improved draft mechanics and tracking are relatively ornamental updates and improvements. There aren’t major things for a series like this that would suddenly shift the way you play the game. In all, this is a deep management sim experience, and it’s one of the best in the video games industry.
That said, the new Player Development Lab 2.0 is a nice offering. There are many ways to play the numbers in baseball, from limiting your players prone to strikeouts to taking the Moneyball approach to getting as much output for as few dollars as possible. New additions that help you track what skills you’re honing for players in the Lab make it easy to see whether investing resources in a player is worth it. Even a player making strides in the Lab can get to the Show and struggle, so there’s always that unpredictability.
For the most part, many of my gripes with Out of the Park Baseball 26 are rooted in reality. You can’t have a realistic baseball simulator that somehow gamifies the right moves to make to get into a season that guarantees success. It’s that unpredictability that makes me love baseball and the games that depict the sport. While the option to check out leagues in other countries like Korea or the Netherlands is a nice touch, the results are the same. You have all the control in the world. You can do everything right, and it still might not matter.
That’s not the developer’s fault; that’s just how it works. That said, AI programming for things like a coach’s impact or trade logic sometimes feels nonexistent. There are bugs at the beginning of any lifecycle of an Out of the Park Baseball game that the devs address, but I’d say this year’s bumps in the road feel especially frustrating. I had multiple game crashes both before and after the launch. I also noticed some bugs in monitoring prospects, who seemingly had stats shift week to week in ways that didn’t make much sense.
These things are sure to be addressed, and for many franchise veterans, this is the process. The finer details, like military service requirements for Korean players in the KBO or the ability to replay a historic Hall of Famer’s career repeatedly to see what shifts make this game special. My general impression of Out of the Park Baseball 26 as it stands at the end of March 2025 is that you can probably wait to pick this one up until some major bugs are addressed. I’ll likely spend more of my spring playing a pretty stellar MLB The Show 25.
Peeking at the experience of others, I seem to have been spared from the worst of what the game’s bugs are causing, including corrupted saves. Still, the game crashes and inconsistencies in the tracking of certain stats (which are essentially the core mechanic) leave me thinking this game isn’t quite where I’d love it to be for a glowing recommendation. Still, any player of an annual release game knows the cycle. Devs address concerns, players give additional feedback, and it’s usually a few months post-launch until things feel like they’re where they need to be.
A PC review copy of Out of the Park Baseball 26 was provided by Out of the Park Developments for this review.
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15 Out of the Park Baseball 26
49.99
Pros
- Great additions like the World Baseball Classic
- Still one of the deepest sports management sims out there
Cons
- Early issues and game-crashing bugs are harming the experience
- Nothing monumental has been improved from last year's game
