From 1999 to 2015, Backyard Sports was a beloved kid-friendly sports activities recreation franchise with colourful graphics, simple gameplay, and probably the most dominant athletes in online game historical past in Pablo Sanchez. At this time, Playground Productions has introduced that Backyard Sports is coming again, and it is doing in order extra than simply video video games.
Backyard Sports can be returning “throughout a number of verticals, together with video video games, merchandise, movie, tv and extra” in line with a press launch. The primary of those initiatives will launch “within the coming months,” however nothing specific–including whether or not or not it is a online game or what platforms it’ll arrive on–was introduced.
A short teaser trailer was launched alongside the announcement, which exhibits a number of youngsters within the signature Backyard Sports artwork model making ready for a baseball recreation. We see a treehouse with league standings and match brackets, the playground itself, after which because the pitcher takes the mound, Pablo Sanchez steps as much as bat.
Playground Productions was based in 2022 by Lindsay Barrett, a former second-grade instructor with “over a decade of expertise within the Chicago public college system.” The company’s website says that by “leveraging the very best know-how, expertise, and character IP, Playground creates content material that celebrates the spirit of play, meets kids the place they’re developmentally, and permits youngsters to be youngsters.”
Backyard Sports debuted on PC as Backyard Baseball in October 1997, with Backyard Soccer and Backyard Soccer following it in September 1998 and October 1999 respectively. Probably the most-recent Backyard Sports video games earlier than this announcement have been on cell gadgets, as each Backyard Sports: Baseball 2015 and Backyard Sports: Basketball 2015 launched concurrently in February 2015. A Backyard Sports film was additionally introduced in 2016, however the venture by no means moved ahead.