The Ballpark at St. John’s, home of the Red Storm baseball team, will be featured in the new MVP 06 NCAA Baseball video game.
The game, scheduled for release in March 2006, will feature 16 stadiums, including St. John’s own ballpark. The collegiate baseball game will also include 128 universities from 14 major Division I conferences.
Produced by Electronic Arts is the first of its kind.
Users will have the opportunity to play as the Red Storm. Not only will players have the chance to be part of the team, they will also play on the digitally recreated Queens Campus. EA Sports, with help from the University, was able to duplicate not only The Ballpark, but the surrounding campus area as well.
“We’re excited to be involved in the making of this game, especially what it means in terms of how people view our program,” said head baseball coach Ed Blankmeyer. “Choosing St. John’s to be a part of the game’s production, I feel, is a testament to our place nationally in college baseball.”
EA Sports has an exclusive NCAA baseball license with top universities and conferences, allowing them to feature many authentic ballparks including Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, NE, home of the NCAA Championship.
The game has many features, making it one of the most unique of its kind. Users can create their own university from the ground up. They can also create their own players. The Create-a-Player feature also includes face and body morphing capabilities, allowing for countless possibilities.
Creator Ben Brinkman said that going from a Major League Baseball product to a collegiate product proved difficult.
“Capturing all the differences between the pro and NCAA games and getting them across to the user [was the most difficult thing],” Brinkman told EA Sports. “This spans gameplay to dynasty. We want to be as true to the NCAA game as we were to the professional game.”
“We did our best to capture NCAA Baseball to a ‘T,'” Brinkman added. “For the most part the games are the same, but with a few notable differences.”
Although there are 285 universities that sponsor teams in MVP 06 NCAA Baseball, the list needed to be pared down to include the number of features Brinkman wished to add.
“Working with our licensing partners, we pared the list down to what we believed to be the 14 top conferences,” Brinkman told EA Sports. “Next year, we hope to have every D-I team.”