Esports title Rocket League has secured a licensing agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) to feature its branding into the video game.
Publisher Psyonix has agreed to incorporate downloadable content from the MLB Fan Pack, to allow gamers to customise their own race car with cap toppers, flags and player banners for all 30 MLB teams. Rocket League will also create a ‘Baseball Rocket Boost’ feature.
The activation will be available Rocket League’s community of more than 56 million from Monday 25th March, making the MLB Fan Pack available to purchase for US$2.99 in time for the start of the upcoming MLB season.
Led by Jamie Leece, MLB vice president for games and virtual reality (VR), the deal is a further push to expand the league’s brand into new areas.
Last month, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred admitted that the league is lagging behind its major US rivals in the esports market.
The National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) all have their own gaming strands but MLB is yet to follow suit.
MLB has only ventured as far as Home Run Derby virtual reality (VR) tournaments at the All-Star Game and Little League World Series in the esports market thus far.
Speaking at the SportTechie State of the Industry 2019 conference, Manfred hinted that MLB would be making a bigger push into esports this year.
“Strategically, we see esports has kind of been a weak spot for us,” he said. “It is a real priority for us going forward. It is tough to say more than this but I’m pretty confident that in 2019 we will have a nice announcement in that space in terms of platform-based games.”
Esports title Rocket League has secured a licensing agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) to feature its branding into the video game.
Publisher Psyonix has agreed to incorporate downloadable content from the MLB Fan Pack, to allow gamers to customise their own race car with cap toppers, flags and player banners for all 30 MLB teams. Rocket League will also create a ‘Baseball Rocket Boost’ feature.
The activation will be available Rocket League’s community of more than 56 million from Monday 25th March, making the MLB Fan Pack available to purchase for US$2.99 in time for the start of the upcoming MLB season.
Led by Jamie Leece, MLB vice president for games and virtual reality (VR), the deal is a further push to expand the league’s brand into new areas.
Last month, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred admitted that the league is lagging behind its major US rivals in the esports market.
The National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) all have their own gaming strands but MLB is yet to follow suit.
MLB has only ventured as far as Home Run Derby virtual reality (VR) tournaments at the All-Star Game and Little League World Series in the esports market thus far.
Speaking at the SportTechie State of the Industry 2019 conference, Manfred hinted that MLB would be making a bigger push into esports this year.
“Strategically, we see esports has kind of been a weak spot for us,” he said. “It is a real priority for us going forward. It is tough to say more than this but I’m pretty confident that in 2019 we will have a nice announcement in that space in terms of platform-based games.”
Psyonix
