It would be right around today that a tech test would have started for MLB The Show 24 — if it existed. SDS decided against doing one this cycle, and some people are concerned about that and others are not. I would count myself among those who are not worried about it.
In essence, the tech tests in the past have been there to get gameplay feedback, test out the servers, and maybe see how things like the menus feel at this point. Why I’m not really sweating a lack of a tech test this year is that a tech test likely wouldn’t immensely help things this cycle, and anything that’s a big issue likely would not be caught by the tech test.
Let me explain…
MLB The Show 24 Tech Test No-Show
MLB The Show 23 ended the year in a great spot on the gameplay front, which I think is backed up by folks choosing it as the Game of the Year for 2023.
Coming in to ’23, there was a lot of concern about the hitting engine (too much randomness, unfair results, etc.), and overall MLB The Show 23 had some big questions to answer on that front. In other words, it needed a lot of feedback so the developers were sure they were on the right track. In general, MLB The Show 22 also felt relatively last gen, and while graphics did not blow people away with ’23, the “smoothness” of the gameplay certainly stepped up in ’23.
To put it another away, the tech test is there — first and foremost — to be a way to give gameplay feedback. While things can always be improved, and I’m sure SDS is hard at work on improving the gameplay, there’s no major concerns coming off ’23 that need to be ironed out as of now.
Of course, if MLB The Show 24 comes out and it’s riddled with gameplay bugs and so forth, then people will say this is due to a lack of a tech test, but I’d say it’s probably more likely SDS was just behind in the development schedule and there would have been issues either way. You can always use feedback, but if the tech test takes away from normal development time, it probably didn’t need to be prioritized this cycle considering how ’23 is viewed (at least in terms of gameplay).
The Tech Test Won’t Reveal The Real Problems
That headline sounds really scary and sinister, but what I mean here is that any “major” issues that existed last year probably won’t be solved by a tech test. Whatever server issues SDS might have probably won’t be found during a tech test. The “load” on the servers won’t be as crazy as at launch, and while I think crossplay can still be really weird, and the co-op system was flat out broken at times last year, that’s something SDS has to solve when the actual game is out.
There’s going to be no way to know if they “fixed” technical problems like that outside of getting all of us crazy folks on the game during launch week. Co-op being a fairly inconsistent and bad feature last year is a big deal that needs to be solved. I think if a tech test had existed, it should have been on this front just to at least see how things are going. However, even if co-op worked flawlessly during this theoretical test, I would not have trusted it until the same thing happened at launch.
Beyond that, things like graphics, animations, and so on are not going to appreciably change when you’re this close to launch. If you say something like “these graphics aren’t good enough” it’s not like SDS can turn around and just impress you a month later. It’s not how game development works.
Bottom Line
Not having a tech test is a bummer just because it’s always fun to play the new game early when possible. Still, MLB The Show 23 did not have any glaring gameplay issues that a majority of people were worried about, and that’s ultimately the main goal of a tech test: get gameplay feedback. Any major technical issues would likely not be found during this tech test, and any issues from last year’s game, like the co-op mode issues, probably would not be officially solved as of yet even if they worked well in the tech test.
In other words, if you’re concerned about MLB The Show 24, I would not point to a lack of a tech test as the reason to be worried about it.
