Narrated by developer Lance Leahy, this week's MLB The Show 16 video blog showcases two new ways to play Diamond Dynasty: Battle Royale and Conquest.

Battle Royale is a competitive PvP experience where users will build their team in a 25-round draft and compete in shorter three-inning experiences. The more wins achieved, the greater the rewards.

Conquest resembles turn-based strategy games as users will attempt to earn fans to take over control of North America.

MLB The Show 16 developers will provide an in-depth look at these two new modes during Thursday, Twitch livestream. Continue on to see the video blog. ...

This week's MLB The Show 16 developer livestream focused on the improvements coming to Franchise Mode. The highlighted improvements include morale, real-life budget dynamics, and revamped GM goals.


Morale plays an important role as you developer your roster as it will have an onfield effect on player performance. Player morale can be influenced by seven overall factors, including the player's role on the team, coaching staff, and the team's city.

An improved revenue and expenditure model includes real-life budget dynamics including revenue sharing and the luxury tax.

Revamped scouting and GM goals, as well as improvements to player progression, contract logic, and call-up/send-down logic round out the Franchise Mode improvements discussed in the livestream.

Online franchise did not receive any of the upgrades mentioned in the livestream, however online gameplay stability has been improved for MLB The Show 16.

The stream concluded with gameplay as the developers competing in one round of the developer tournament. Continue on to watch the Franchise & developer tournament livestream archive. ...

Ahead of Thursday's developer livestream, MLB The Show 16 has revealed in brief detail some of the improvements coming to Franchise Mode.

Player Morale will play an important role in building your roster as player happiness (or discontent) can effect their performance on the field.

The contract negotiation screen allows for real-time evaluation of the player's interest level as you change terms of the potential contract.

Improved stat tracking and player career stats includes WAR and a full array of stat filters.

A new budget screen will allow GMs to see where their money is coming from - and going - and includes revenue sharing and the luxury tax. Also mentioned were the addition of new GM goals and the authentic 20/80 scale for scouting

Continue on to view the Franchise Mode VLOG courtesy the PlayStation Blog. ...

The latest weekly MLB The Show 16 livestream focused on highlighting improvements to presentation and commentary. Joined by Community Manager Ramone Russell, developers Kirby St. John & Michael Compton showcased some of the changes for almost 90 minutes on Twitch.

Three broadcast display packages (scorebug, other graphics) to help give the feel of national or regional coverage, based upon the team. Commentary has been improved with 14,000+ newly recorded lines and also the 'memory' to remember storylines, stats, records, and in-progress action in order to resume discussion when action warrants a breakaway.

Continue on to watch the archive of the stream and to see notes on the presentation & commentary improvements coming to the game. ...

This week's MLB The Show 16 livestream focused on Diamond Dynasty (DD) and improvements coming to the mode by taking a deeper look at some of the DD features announced earlier this week.

Play a Friend allows users to play others on their friends list with a bevy of options. There will be no way to farm or exploit items in this mode; it is simply playing friends.

There will be hundreds of 'Flashbacks' that will reflect the player at a certain point in his career. For example, the Jake Peavy Flashback card highlighted in the video has five pitch types, including a slider. Peavy does not throw a slider much currently, but since he did at that point in his career, the card will include it.

Other modes discussed include Captains, Inside Edge ('live' ratings updates), the ability to see player cards and improved filters in the Marketplace, Missions, bullpen energy, new player gear, dedicated stats area, pack types, card images, and more.

Additional ways to play & DD improvements will be announced in early March.

Continue on to watch the archived livestream. ...

A new video from the MLB The Show 16 development team (narrated by developers Nick Livingston & Lance Leahy) provides the first look at some of the changes coming to Diamond Dynasty, The Show's card collecting fantasy mode.

A popular community request, users can now play Diamond Dynasty games versus friends.

Some of the goals this year for the development team were to create more diversity in squads and avoid many user teams from resembling each other and also to increase progression ("more things to aim for") within the mode.

Partnering with baseball analytics firm Inside Edge to help get a daily match-up rating (which will effect player attributes if playing that day) for current players, considered 'live series' players. There are also hundreds of new 'flashback' (rookie, prime, and post-season) players which will focus on a specific moment in a player's career.

Additional ways to earn cards, stubs, etc. New this year are 'Missions' which require the user to complete a certain task to unlock an item. This task could be collecting players from a certain team, accomplishing a cumulative statistical goal, etc.

Another new feature, 'Captains' sees the user earn XP and tickets as they play the game. Users can then redeem these virtual tickets within one of six captain categories for items such as players cards, equipment items, and more.

The Thursday Twitch livestream (February 18) from Sony San Diego will focus more on the improvements and changes to Diamond Dynasty. ...

This week's MLB The Show 16 livestream focused on 'the little things' coming to the game in March.

The most notable addition is the return of The Sounds of The Show. A feature lost in the transition from PS3 to PS4, this will allow users to utilize their own audio files to play for specific in-game events. For example, they can set custom batter walk-up or home run music, etc. It was noted that the game will only import MP3 files from a USB memory stick. All other aspects of the mode work as they did on PS3.

Other aspects discussed/revealed during the stream include Challenge of the Week 3.0, open or closed roof options for applicable stadiums, in-game tutorials, re-designed batting cameras, six classic stadiums, and more.

Continue on to watch the archived livestream. ...

This week's MLB The Show 16 livestream showcased the bevy of gameplay improvements coming to the title.

The game has added new and player-specific animations for home run sequences, dives, double play turns, batting stances, outfield post-game rituals, and more. Four new swings (Spray, Slap, Asian, & Short Follow Through) bring the total of hitter types to seven.

It was also highlighted during the livestream that 'switch-pitcher' Pat Venditte will be able to pitch left or right-handed in the game (as he can in real life), but he will be the only player to do so. Also added will be the Jose Bautista bat flip from game five of the ALDS, Edwin Encarnacion's 'chicken wing' home run trot.

Improvements to in-game logic will include players out of position unable to use the same animations as an average player at that position, as well as improved bunt logic and foot planting.

The next MLB The Show 16 livestream will be on February 11 and cover the "little things,", including umpire personality traits, sounds of The Show, improvements to Challenge of the Week, and more.

Continue on to see an archive of the livestream as well as info on some of the gameplay improvements coming to the title. ...

A new video blog from MLB The Show 16 details some of the improvements coming to Road to the Show (RTTS).

This year in RTTS, users can play a series of games without having to go to the main menu which should allow for more games completed in less time. Changes to the training system allow users to utilize specific gameplay perks to help them excel. ShowTime is a new way to slow down the action in critical moments to help give the user more control.

The perks system has been a source of some debate and concern by the community as some worry that it could be gimmicky and ruin the purity of the mode.

The next MLB 16 livestream is tentatively scheduled for February 4 at 2 PM PT on Twitch with a deep dive look at Road to the Show improvements and the new ShowTime feature.

Continue on to see the MLB 16 VLOG as well as the upcoming information release schedule. ...