Shohei Ohtani is on the cover of MLB The Show 22, and that is the whole pitch. The Los Angeles Angels two-way player and 2021 American League MVP fronts the first MLB The Show game to land on a Nintendo Switch, and the second straight entry to hit Xbox Game Pass on day one.
MLB The Show 22 is a 2022 baseball game developed by San Diego Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the seventeenth installment in the series. It shipped for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and, for the first time in franchise history, Nintendo Switch.
The Switch version is the headline. It is also the part that will decide whether this year’s game feels like a step forward or a lateral move.
Trailer, via IGN.
Shohei Ohtani and the Takashi Okazaki Cover
Ohtani is the correct cover star and not a close call. A pitcher and a batter in the same season, coming off an MVP, is the most interesting thing happening in the sport. San Diego Studio built the marketing around him, and the MVP and Digital Deluxe editions carry manga-style art of Ohtani by Takashi Okazaki.
That art is the best thing about the packaging. It gives the deluxe tier a reason to exist beyond a roster of in-game items, and it treats Ohtani as a cultural figure rather than a stat line.
People who bought the MVP or Digital Deluxe editions got early access starting April 1. Everyone else waited for the standard release.
What the Switch Port Changes
A first for the franchise is a real milestone, and it is worth being precise about what it means. By the time MLB The Show 22 arrived, the series had no simulation competitor left in the United States. The R.B.I. Baseball series ended. The source gives no reason for that. In Japan, the only rival is Konami’s eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2022.
So the Switch release opens the series to a handheld audience that never had it. Separately, and not because of it, the domestic field is empty.
That is a win for access and a loss for choice. Both are true.
Modes, Perspective and the Moment-to-Moment Game
The game advertises faster, deeper and more intense moment-to-moment match action on the field. It carries modes for rookie players and returning veterans alike. Single player and multiplayer are both in. The camera work covers first person, third person and a bird’s-eye or isometric view.
That range of perspective matters more than it sounds. A baseball sim lives or dies on whether the player can read a pitch out of the hand and judge a ball off the bat. Giving players three ways to watch the same play is not decoration. It is the difference between a game that feels like baseball and a game that feels like a spreadsheet with grass.
Genres listed for MLB The Show 22 are simulator and sport, with action themes. That is an honest label. This is not an arcade game, and it is not pretending to be one.
Two Editions, Two Sets of Buyers
The edition split is simple, and it is worth laying out plainly because it drives who plays when.
| Edition | Cover art | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Shohei Ohtani | Standard release date |
| MVP | Manga-style Ohtani by Takashi Okazaki | Early access from April 1 |
| Digital Deluxe | Manga-style Ohtani by Takashi Okazaki | Early access from April 1 |
The gap between the standard and deluxe tiers is early access and the Okazaki art. Whether that is worth the upgrade depends entirely on how much a player cares about playing a few days sooner.
Platforms, Ranked by What They Ask of You
Ranking the platforms is not about which version is best. It is about which version asks the least of the buyer.
- Xbox Series X/S — available to Game Pass subscribers at no additional cost, second year running.
- PlayStation 5 — the flagship Sony platform, full-price purchase.
- Xbox One — supported, but on older hardware.
- PlayStation 4 — supported, but on older hardware.
- Nintendo Switch — the first time the series has been on the platform, and the version with the most to prove.
The Game Pass arrangement is the single biggest fact in this list. For the second consecutive year, Xbox owners with a subscription get MLB The Show 22 without paying for it directly. That is an enormous value proposition, and it is the kind of deal that quietly reshapes which console a baseball fan buys.
The Competition Question
Here is where MLB The Show 22 gets genuinely interesting, and not in a way that flatters it.
The game launched into a market with no domestic rival. R.B.I. Baseball is gone. In Japan, eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2022 from Konami is the only alternative. A franchise with no competitor has no external pressure to fix what is broken, and no one else to steal its ideas from.
That is not a knock on San Diego Studio, which has built a consistently strong sim. It is a structural fact about the genre. The seventeenth entry in a series with no peers is a game that will be judged almost entirely against its own past.
What 7.9 Out of 10 Means Here
The published critical aggregate for MLB The Show 22 sits at 7.9 out of 10, drawn from five outlets. That is a good score and not a great one, and it lines up with what the game actually is.
The Switch port is the reason this entry exists as a distinct release rather than an annual refresh. It is a genuine first, and it is the detail that will be remembered. Ohtani on the cover is a strong choice, and the Okazaki art gives the deluxe editions something worth owning.
But a port is not a reinvention. The core pitch — faster, deeper, more intense moment-to-moment action — is the same promise the series makes every year, and the mode list for rookies and veterans is not new either. The perspective options are welcome. They are not a reason to buy a game you already own.
The Game Pass deal is the most consequential thing here for players, and it is the part that has nothing to do with the game itself. It is a distribution decision, and it is a good one for anyone on Xbox.
The absence of competition is the part that should worry people who care about this series long term. MLB The Show 22 is a solid baseball game. It is solid in a room with no one else in it.
Worth playing, especially if Game Pass covers it. Worth paying full price for on Switch only if the handheld version is the whole reason you are here.
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