OOTP and the NPB

Time for controversy

OOTP and the NPB

This seemingly innocuous post on the OOTP Development Forums has set the baseball simulation world abuzz:

Background

Before we get into what we think happened, a little bit of background is probably necessary.

First of all, if you aren’t already aware, Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) is one of the most popular baseball simulations on the market today. You could make a very good argument that it is the most popular of the choices that exist, though fans of Action! PC Baseball, Replay, and (of course) Diamond Mind Baseball might disagree. Largely because of its ability to simulate baseball into the future with a full game world, in addition to its unmached 3D engine, OOTP has risen gradually to the top of the pack.

Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) refers to the Japanese professional baseball association. One of OOTP’s chief selling points has been its ability to simulate baseball around the world, including baseball in Japan. If you wanted to take control of a Major League Baseball club and focus all your scouting efforts on Japanese youth, you can do so in OOTP. Or you could, at least.

Com2uS is the name of a South Korean gaming company that generally focuses on mobile game development. What you might not know is that Com2uS purchased OOTP in 2020, much to the consternation of longtime OOTP fans.

And that’s where we start to see how significant that post above really is.

Projects Forever Changed

The technical notes above probably don’t mean much to you — unless you are actively playing OOTP, that is.

OOTP implemented this policy by pushing out a patch that directly alters all save games. Based on numerous reports on Reddit, OOTP took all in-game information relating to Japan and moved everything to South Africa. Word on the street is that OOTP players should back up their save before the latest patch goes into effect; however, it’s not entirely clear whether players can continue to play the game without eventually needing to apply the patch.

Discussion on the official OOTP forum has been heavily censored, with predictably sarcastic results. There are some Reddit posts purporting to include a workaround; however, these tend to be somewhat mystic and difficult to understand.

As things stand, it seems that NPB will no longer be a part of OOTP in the future.

Konami?

Word on the street is that Konami is to blame.

Honestly, I take issue with this conclusion. While I do know that Konami is a litigious organization, I really have a hard time believing that they put pressure on OOTP to aggressively alter the saved games of its paying customers like this.

I’m skeptical because Konami doesn’t do the same with Football Manager, the widely popular soccer simulator (that I blog about as well). The Reddit thread I linked to above mentions the fact that Sports Interactive is not allowed to include any Japanese players or league information in its game due to rights issues. While this is true, it is also true that Sports Interactive’s official forums offer a workaround that is easy to apply — and I’ve never heard of a Football Manager save being altered like this through Steam.

My guess is that this has more to do with Com2uS policy than anything else. And that’s bad news for gamers who want to play OOTP with Japanese players.

Implications

There are a few implications of this action that seem to be lost in all the noise.

• It’s not clear who actually “owns” the game itself. If the game company is able to directly change your project like this, is it really yours? Remember that this has nothing to do with games that were saved on a central server; this impacts anybody who decides to upgrade their copy of OOTP, even if they’re not on Steam.

• This absolutely is a bad sign for those of us who were hoping for historical NPB players in OOTP. Old projects like the Spritze High School database offered historical players from Japan, Korea, and numerous other countries. With this move, I think it’s extremely unlikely that we will see future OOTP database expansions that include those players, making the concept of replaying a historically accurate baseball world all but impossible.

• So much for the promises that Com2uS’ takeover of OOTP would mean nothing for the playerbase. This 2020 post included a question about what implications this move would have for the next 3 years of OOTP. I don’t know how OOTP’s mobile development has been, but I’m pretty sure that its computer customers are quite concerned about Japan suddenly turning into South Africa.

• Older players will note that card based games don’t have this problem. Even if your favorite company goes bankrupt, you can still play with the cards as if they were brand new. Nobody will go into your home and change the ratings while you sleep.