Sony San Diego cannot 'dilute' MLB The Show experience by working on other sports

Sony's San Diego studio is known for their quality work on the MLB The Show series. Year after year, critics have called it the best baseball game in the biz, beating Take-Two's MLB 2K series. However, that wasn't the only sports franchise that called San Diego its home. The studio also worked on NBA The Inside, a series that disappeared after its 2008 release.

So what happened?

Christian Phillips, San Diego Studio senior director talked about the commitment Sony has to its baseball game in the latest issue of GameQ (now available on iPad, free). He said that the team could no longer work on other sports games, as their focus is to "ensure that we never take away from or dilute the excellent experience delivered each year in MLB The Show."

Delivering a "best-in-class" game offers a reason "why sports fans need to own a PlayStation console," Phillips added.

MLB The Show is a 'system seller' for Sony

Consolidating the studio's focus to just one sports game appears to have yielded significant critical returns. Whereas the final installment of NBA The Inside floundered with a 63 Metacritic score, MLB The Show has seen remarkable improvement, going from a 77 score in 2007 to entirely positive reviews from 09 to now.

For more behind-the-scenes on MLB 12: The Show, read issue one of GameQ, now available on the App Store.