Take a break from placing blocks and step on into the batter's box. Major League Baseball has entered the world of Minecraft.
Thanks to a partnership with Microsoft Studios and The Misfit Society, Minecraft players can now download the MLB Home Run Derby DLC and swing for the fences in a fast-paced home run competition.
The first-of-its-kind athletic DLC for Minecraft allows players to compete as one of over a dozen Minecraft characters, and features all 30 MLB teams and stadiums with every park having been meticulously recreated using Minecraft’s notorious pixel art style.
“Some of my favorite games growing up were NES Baseball and Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. on Nintendo 64, so we took a lot of inspiration from those games and put them into our game,” co-founder and managing director of The Misfit Society Gerald Bove said. “Now, being able to play this with my six-year-old son and being able to connect across different generations over a game that’s been around for the past 100 years is something that feels really good to me personally.”
Getting started is as simple as stepping into the clubhouse to select a character, uniform and stadium combination, before entering the batter's box to compete in a point-and-click contest based on reflexes and accuracy. Rounds are timed, with each stadium’s scoreboard displaying time remaining, home run total, and the distance of a player’s last hit and longest home run. Players can also head to a batting practice arena within the game’s interactive menu to sharpen their skills before heading out to the field.
Players can also bring a souvenir back from the ballpark to stories and other minigames across the Minecraft universe by purchasing their favorite team’s jersey top and selecting it in the Character Creator tool.
“More than just saying we took MLB and slapped it into Minecraft, we wanted to say that we brought the two together in that there is a true sort of crossover feeling,” James Dusek, co-founder and creative director at The Misfit Society said. “You’re playing in MLB stadiums, you’re playing in MLB jerseys, but you’re playing as Minecraft characters. … My hope is that most people recognize the amount of creativity that went into this project and the amount of love that went into this project. I think that’s what Minecraft is all about.”
A multi-platform Sandbox game, Minecraft boasts over 130 million active monthly users across the globe between mobile devices, game consoles and Windows computers. Microsoft announced that Minecraft had surpassed 200 million copies sold in early 2020, roughly 11 years after the first public version of the game was released.
MLB Home Run Derby is available now on the Minecraft Marketplace for $7.99 or 1,340 Minecoins. Don’t have the game? Check out Minecraft’s $29.99 Starter Collection to access cross-platform play between Windows 10, Xbox One, Mobile, Switch and PlayStation 4.