Grab your glove, hop on your bike and race to Steele Stadium—because the iconic franchise is officially coming back to a neighborhood near you.
Playground Productions, a production company dedicated to creating family-friendly content, announced Tuesday that the beloved video game series is returning "in the coming months" with the same aesthetic of the games released in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“We're incredibly excited to reintroduce to a new generation of players,” Chris Waters, chief product officer at Playground Productions, said in a statement. “We're taking great care to preserve the look and feel that made the original games so special while updating them with modern features and gameplay that today's audience expects. I can’t wait for fans to see what we’re building on the Playground.”
The original game titled was released in 1997, debuting the iconic cast of "Backyard Kids" characters like Pablo Sanchez, Stephanie Morgan, Kenny Kawaguchi, Pete Wheeler and more. Originally developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari, the franchise later added games for soccer, basketball, football and hockey.
In 2001, Backyard Sports partnered with MLB to feature one player from all 30 teams in in addition to the 30 fictional characters, portraying each big leaguer as the kid versions of themselves. Randy Johnson, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken Jr. were among the athletes featured in the first edition. The other games followed suit, partnering with the MLS, NBA, WNBA and NHL to feature other athletes from those sports, including Kevin Garnett, Lisa Leslie, Brandi Chastain, Cobi Jones, Jerry Rice and Joe Sakic, among many others.
