Last year, the Backyard Sports games saw a revival on PC, with the releases of Backyard Baseball ’97 and Backyard Soccer ’98. Fans of the series have been eagerly awaiting a release on additional platforms, and it has now been confirmed that the games will be making the jump to mobile devices. There won’t be a long wait either, as Playground Productions has confirmed a release date of March 27th. The games will also be playable offline, so players won’t have to worry about being in service to enjoy the games. As of this writing, the games have not been listed on the App Store.
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One of the biggest problems with mobile games is that they are often plagued with microtransactions. Playground Productions has confirmed that the games will not have any microtransactions on mobile platforms. There won’t be any ads either, so it seems like this will be pretty much the exact same experience that players have gotten on Steam. That means we can probably expect these to be paid releases, but there has been no announcement regarding the cost. Backyard Baseball ’97 and Backyard Soccer ’98 are regularly priced at $9.99 on Steam, so we can likely expect a similar price point.
In addition to price, Backyard Sports fans have also been asking whether the mobile versions will feature controller support. At this time, we don’t know if there will be controller support, or if the games will only work through the touch screen. Hopefully Playground Games will have multiple options that fit each player’s preferences. With the mobile release date less than 2 weeks away, we should have a lot more information in the coming days.
While the addition of these games to mobile devices has led to a lot of excitement, some fans are still wondering when (and if) these games will also land on consoles. Following the announcement, the official Backyard Sports X/Twitter account fielded several questions from fans, offering hints at further announcements to come. The account stated “consoles soon,” but did not elaborate on platforms. However, the Backyard Sports account did seem to hint heavily at a version for Nintendo Switch in a reply to another user.
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The Backyard Sports games have a lot of passionate fans. Backyard Baseball ’97 currently has an “overwhelmingly positive” rating among Steam users, with more than 1,430 reviews. It’s hard to say how much of the positivity around these games is based in nostalgia, but the mobile and console releases will give an even bigger audience a chance to find out for themselves. In an era where there aren’t a lot of sports games beyond EA’s yearly offerings, it’s nice to see something a little simpler.
Are you happy to see the Backyard Sports games on more platforms? Did you play the games when they originally released? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
