Everything wrong with this game
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Dear San Diego Studio Team,
I’ve been a dedicated player of MLB The Show for years, consistently reaching World Series in Diamond Dynasty. I’m also a no-money-spent player, grinding for cards and building teams the way the game used to reward skill and time investment. I’m writing to share feedback about MLB The Show 26 from a competitive player’s perspective.
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Hitting Inconsistency
• Perfect-perfect swings are frequently punished, resulting in a 114mph liner off the bat straight to someone 60% of the time. Dare I even say more
• Bad swings or poorly timed swings often produce bloops, doubles, and triples
• This creates a frustrating disconnect between skill and outcome, undermining competitive gameplay. -
Fielding & Attributes
• Most cards feel slower due to nerfed speed and reaction times, with very few exceptions.
• Infielders and outfielders often fail to react realistically, making defensive skill less meaningful. -
Pitching Issues
• Starting pitchers are generally exploitable: they perform well only on one side of splits.
• Opposite-handed hitters often get overly generous PCI windows, creating unrealistic outcomes. -
Progression & Card System
• Early high-overalls reduce the feeling of grind and reward.
• Team Affinity lacks silvers this year, removing fun variety and creative deck-building options.
• Free high-overall cards on day one devalue early gameplay and diminish long-term team identity. -
Server & Stability Problems
• Disconnects occur even on stable connections, resulting in automatic losses.
• This undermines trust in online gameplay and penalizes skilled players for server issues. -
Community Focus
• The current updates favor casual players playing for a month rather than long-term, competitive players.
• Competitive players want skill to be consistently rewarded, and they want the grind to feel meaningful over time.
As a player who loves baseball and this game series, it’s frustrating to see a competitive mode that fails to reward skill, consistency, and long-term engagement. I hope the studio can take this feedback seriously to restore Diamond Dynasty to a competitive, rewarding, and skill-driven experience.
I am simply a 17 yr old that loves this game, it’s truly sad to see the state of this game right now. This isn’t out of frustration, I genuinely want a game where we get rewarded more than not, less crashes on launch every year, I pay 90-100$ every year pre-order just to play the game early every year. It’s just not the same. Last years game was unremarkable, content was amazing perfect perfect still got out a lot but this year is 10x worse. I have multiple people I play with daily because WE love this game, but everyone is already one foot out the door due to the poor state this game is in.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Peyton Isbell -
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Is the game perfect? Far from it but it really is the only baseball option. This year's game has some nice features. Been loving RTTS and won National Championship with my Hogs. This is a work in progress but the progress is headed in the right direction. I would like them to get the home field of these teams and have like 10 home college games before the WS.
Your 60% perfect/perfect outs seem really high. I personally have not noticed these.
As far as fielding I love this time of year as opposed to outfields of Beltran, Mantle and Trout running every ball down. What irritates me is not when a 60 reaction guy gets a bad reaction but when he doesn't. They should get the 60 reaction no matter if I'm winning 12-0 or down 12-0. Same thing with 90 speed runners slowing down or fielders throwing the ball quicker. Seems like a product of DDA to keep the game more competitive.
I also like the splits this year both pitching and fielding. There was some useless attributes in prior years and these matter and are a nice addition.
Death, taxes and bad mlb the show servers. This isn't going to change. Dedicated servers would likely fix but they are far more expensive than P2P so I don't see this going away - ever.
Casual players outweigh competitive players by a huge margin. I have made WS every year at least twice since I started playing DD heavy in 17. I don't think any card in the game should be unattainable. I feel if you are better, you should be able to get that card far quicker than casuals but that card (or any) should not be unattainable. If we are going to make cards only for the elite, let's get some anti-cheat then and monitor for chronus or other cheats which have infested online games. Do I see many people I think are cheating? Not at all (there was only like 4 people all of last year I suspect of cheating) but the ones that do need to be caught if we are going to have exclusive rewards.
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@IZZY243Cuh_PSN with all due respect, you are 17 years old. you aren't old enough to have the right to an opinion yet. most of us on here were playing the game before you were even thought of. and we all enjoy the game.
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@flyarrhea_MLBTS Hopefully you are being sacastic. Of course he is entitled to an opinion.....at that age, felt his email was extremely eloquent and well written as well.
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@IZZY243Cuh_PSN with all due respect, you are 17 years old. you aren't old enough to have the right to an opinion yet. most of us on here were playing the game before you were even thought of. and we all enjoy the game.
I don't often reply to trolls, but this one was so far over the top that it earned a rebuke. You sir, are a [censored], and immediately after I send this reply, I am blocking your account because you are no one worth knowing!
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Kuddos for taking the time to organize your thoughts and sharing them. I would recommend removing your name from the forum though.
I have enjoyed hitting more this year because of the propensity of singles and lack of HR derby games so far. I think this will be short lived as the better cards come along, but right now it is fun.
I disagree, and have always disagreed with the idea that a perfect perfect should always result in a big hit because your skill earned it. Baseball just doesn’t work that way. Unless you have launch angle that’s just the breaks irl and the show. Bloop hits are part of the game, but it does seem to happen more in this version of the show. Otherwise, great post. Good job. Hopefully we see some tweaks as the updates come along. -
Your age does not make your opinion less valid, even if I disagree with a good portion of it. A good percentage of the criticism on this forums is written by someone throwing a tantrum, or being disingenuous with their arguments. Other than your perfect perfect exaggeration this at least not that and the forum could use more of it.
I do think you, like a lot of us, want DD to be a game that caters specifically to your playstyle when it is not.
But i think that highlights some of the problems. Neither the competitive players and casual players are necessarily happy with the changes. And then throw in the other aspect, of time able to be spent playing. There is a wide range of people to please.
Competitive players with limited time are typically the cash cows, and I do feel the mode is most designed for a player who has maybe 5-10 hours a week to play and wants to push World Series. if you are a 1000+ player, or a casual that has the time for long TA grinds, you definitely don't get the specific experience you want. And its impossible to please everyone, but I think everyone does have a good product in the end (with a few annoying bugs unfortunately...though the launch week stuff will pass)
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I mean, to be fair baseball is a game of failure. I’m ok with perfect/perfects outs 60-70% of the time…because that means I’m doing alright. Where I personally get annoyed is when the result of the swing doesn’t match the contact. And honestly it’s a smaller gripe…but when I’m just late as a lefty and it results in a pull to the second baseman, or square it up and it’s a pull down the line to either fielder…that drives me nuts.
I’ve also currently got a gripe with how much the ball “floats” for the CPU fielders(staying up way longer than it should so they catch it), versus how quickly it sinks for the user fielders. Feels like they’re getting to stuff they have zero business getting to…but it’s not the end of the world, I think they just need to properly balance the attributes themselves.
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@flyarrhea_MLBTS lol hes 17 and composed a nice, organized, and well written post while you are an "adult" with a word play on the word "diarrhea" as your user.
Be gone troll.
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@flyarrhea_MLBTS I’ve played this game my whole life, played ball my whole life, I love it and actually want to play it with fun I’ve always had sorry I had a different opinion than yours bro.
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@Sarge1387_PSN it’s just frustrating to see it when you used to get rewarded much more on good swings than the bad my personal experience might be different and I respect your opinion.
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@go4stros25_PSN thank you, i really did this for some feedback, people don’t think since I'm young im not well known to the sport. It’s all i grew up with. My first game was mlb the show 13, and absolutely love it since
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@Teak2112_MLBTS thanks for the feedback, I’ve looked back at it, it is kind of an exaggeration, but it has happened a lot. It has been unnecessarily happening a lot. I know what your saying it isn’t to please Everyone but I guess it could be the change they needed to reach more players and keep the casual players coming back to new games. I respect you for not slandering me for just being 17. You are the audience this was meant for.
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@DemIsE4_XBL thanks for the feedback, sorry if I don’t have the same opinion but I only play dd and I have played rtts earlier today and surprisingly fun. Glad, we agree on some and not on others.
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Doesn't matter what if I do or do not agree with your feelings/opinions. Bottomline, there are a lot of people (myself included) who could learn something from you about how we approach things on this board. Kuddos young man.
i'll find a way to troll you later
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@LIONED-33_XBL thank you I appreciate it, I hoped if I send this to sds, they might actually take me seriously. My experience may have been different than any other person.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL I really appreciate you, people think since I’m young I don’t have the drastic knowledge of baseball and/or MLBTS.
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@LHUBison58_XBL if you could help me, how do I turn it off. And I agree it shouldn’t always be a hit, but it should be a hit more than this show gives props for.
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@IZZY243Cuh_PSN well said for a 17 year old. Anyone who comes on here and crushes this kid is an idiot. Very well spoken. Most of what he said is true and he said it with respect and grace.
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@IZZY243Cuh_PSN hit the three vertical dots below your initial post. Select edit. Delete it.
