Sony’s given us our first glimpse of MLB The Show 21 gameplay, although curiously it’s focusing on the PlayStation 4 version (running on a PlayStation 5, naturally) for the time being. Next-gen reveals are expected later in the title’s marketing cycle, with a full programme of Feature Premieres livestreams slated for March.

For now, though, we have a trailer with the series’ notorious Coach puppet and Fernando Tatis Jr. The video introduces three new gameplay style toggles, which are designed to tune the gameplay to your tastes. From what we can tell, these are effectively tailored settings that will adjust the sliders in a specific way: Casual makes it easier to hit, for example, while Competitive turns up the challenge.

Writing on the PlayStation Blog, brand strategist Ramone Russell teased some of the other gameplay improvements you can expect: “The team has invested significant development time working on other areas of gameplay – our biggest focus being fly ball catches, at the wall catches, and catches that come off the z-axis.” There’s also a new pitching mechanic teased in the trailer.

You’ll be able to test all of this out as part of a closed technical test, with sign-ups live now through here and getting underway on 23rd February. And more videos like the one above are planned bi-weekly for the rest of the month, so it looks like Sony has a long and detailed marketing cycle in store for this year’s release.

[source blog.playstation.com]