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Out of the Park Baseball 15 Announced!

by Out of the Park Developments GmbH on Jan 24, 2014

Out of the Park Baseball 15 Announced!

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OOTP 15 Now Available For Pre-Order - Save $5!

3D Ballpark Support, 2014 Rosters,
Real International Leagues, and More!

You Could Win a 64GB iPad Air,
a Microsoft Surface, or a $700 Amazon Gift Card!

Thanks to all of you for making Out of the Park Baseball 14 the greatest and best-selling version of our game yet. "The best got better," FanGraphs said in their review, which bestowed a 98/100 (A+) score, and we're thrilled that so many baseball fans agreed.

So how do we improve on an A+ grade? By working on OOTP's extra-curricular activities, of course, and we have a bunch of them in store for OOTP 15, including support for 3D ballparks and 3D in-game ball flight, seven real international leagues, a new ratings system, a revamped interface, and much more.

Before we get to all the features, here are the pre-order details:

Now through February 15th, pre-order OOTP 15 for the special price of $34.99 and earn an entry in our best sweepstake yet. *
The grand prize winner will choose between a 64GB iPad Air, a Microsoft Surface 2 tablet, or a $700 Amazon gift card.
Three runners-up will each receive a $100 Amazon gift card.
Three of you will get the chance to become immortal by being included in the game as prospects in the 2014 major league first-year player draft. ** (You select your name, position and basic skill set; your talent will be above average.)
Receive a free OOTP 15 Steam key. ***
Get the game three days before its official April release.

We won't be done with the giveaways after the price goes to $39.99 on February 16, though. Everyone who pre-orders between February 16th and three days before the official release in April will still receive the free OOTP 15 Steam key*** and get the game three days early.

Wow, how's that for a series of giveaways? After those are done, we'll be celebrating 15 years of baseball gaming excitement with more great sweepstakes during the spring and summer. Stay tuned, baseball fans!

Click here to Pre-Order OOTP 15 for PC Windows and Mac OS X

Click here to Pre-Order OOTP 15 for Linux

Here are the new and revamped features you'll find in OOTP 15. As in past years, more surprise features will be added as we get closer to shipping:

2014 Opening Day Major League Roster Set

Our 2014 roster set includes all Opening Day major league team rosters, as well as the complete minor league system down to the rookie leagues. OOTP 15 also features the Venezuelan and Dominican summer leagues for the first time. All major league (and certain minor league) player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' industry-leading player forecasting system PECOTA. The thousands of remaining minor league players are carefully rated by hand by our established research team.

Will Clayton Kershaw maintain his level of excellence and justify his new mega-contract? Will Mike Trout continue his MVP-caliber play in his third full season? How will Masahiro Tanaka perform in the Big Apple?

Will your favorite team have the puzzle pieces it needs to contend for the pennant? Play OOTP 15 and find out!

3D Ballpark Support and 3D In-Game Ball Flight

That's right, we've entered the 3D age and OOTP 15 is the first step toward visualizing full 3D action on the field. You can import 3D ballparks saved in the popular Collada (.dae) format, and the included ballpark editor lets you properly overlay the ball location diagram used by our simulation engine, including adjustment of wall heights, foul territory, and so forth.

The result is a new optional in-game view that renders realistic 3D ball flight in the stadium model. We know that our great community will come up with plenty of custom 3D ballpark models once OOTP 15 is available, so you'll be able to admire the flight of a Jackie Robinson home run in Ebbets Field, or a ball smashed off the Green Monster in Fenway Park for a loooong single by David Ortiz.

Future versions of OOTP will build on this 3D engine and will eventually feature thrilling 3D animations of on-field play, so you'll be able to watch Robinson's home run trot or see Ortiz take a wide turn at first after that single. Exciting times are ahead!

Additional Real International Leagues

Our research team has plenty more in store for you. OOTP 15 includes seven new international leagues that add thousands of real players, including stats and carefully adjusted ratings, to your baseball game experience.

Several league settings have been tweaked or added (for example, a free agent posting system) so we can model league interactions in a realistic manner. OOTP 15 features these international leagues:

Japan (including one minor league)
Korea (including one minor league)
Taiwan (including one minor league)
Mexico
Cuba
The Netherlands
Italy

Each league is available as a template, so you can choose which ones you want to include in your OOTP baseball universe. You can scout the next superstar from overseas and watch grizzled veterans leave the US for playing time in other countries (Manny Ramirez, anyone?). Those ex-major leaguers may even eventually attempt a comeback in the US leagues.

Or you can try a totally different experience by managing a team in a small European league. It's up to you, so play the game your way!

New Ratings System

In previous versions of OOTP, the player ratings were absolute numbers based on the hidden internal player ratings. The problem with this approach was that you didn't know if a 60/100 power rating was actually above or below league average. OOTP 15 introduces a new optional rating system which calculates average player ratings for all positions at the start of the season and then displays player ratings throughout the game in relation to those averages. So, for example, you'll know that a 60/100 power rating is actually above the league average (which is always 50 in the 1-100 rating scale) - by one standard deviation, to be exact (for you math heads).

A Revamped Interface

OOTP 15's interface features an extensive overhaul, starting with a default design for widescreen resolutions (16:9 or 16:10), instead of the 4:3 ratio we've used in the past. This results in a cleaner look with more room for statistics and other information. We've also reworked the menus and added tooltips to most menus and buttons, so beginners will find the game easier to navigate.

In addition, we've overhauled the Manager Home, League Scores, League and Game Setup, and other screens, and we've introduced new screens that take advantage of the multi-league baseball universes made possible by the addition of real international leagues. Those new screens give you all the news, scores, schedules, stats, and more from around your game world.

Historical League Improvements

OOTP 15 makes it much easier for you to create the historical league you've always dreamed about. The league creation wizard has been completely redesigned and offers new functionality - for example, you can easily set up a historical league with teams from different eras, or create a fictional league with a historical player pool of your choosing.

More League Options

Each year we add new options to the game, and OOTP 15 is no exception. You'll find useful settings like minor league service time roster limits, options to limit contract lengths, spring training length customization, and more.

But Wait, There's More

And as in years past, OOTP 15 offers a lengthy list of other new features, including:

Enhanced player history tracking (yearly salary, 2nd & 3rd place award finishes, grand slams, walk-off hits, 1- hitters, and other game performances)
The ability to offer jobs to coaches and scouts while those jobs are still occupied
Reworked team control options
Teams may retire uniform numbers
Improved news stories and in-game play-by-play
Improved online league functionality
Improved AI throughout the game
Improved first-year player draft and negotiation
Almost every other area of the game will be tweaked and improved
Even more surprise features that will be revealed before the game ships

Excited about OOTP 15? So are we. We can't wait to show you more in the coming weeks, including the first batch of screenshots.

Wondering about iOOTP Baseball 2014 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch? It's in the works too, and we'll reveal all the details next month.

Here's to another year of baseball excitement in real life and on your computer!

The OOTP Developments Team

PS: Anyone following the NFL playoffs? Looks like the Super Bowl will be one heck of a game. Good luck, Seattle and Denver.

Pre-Order OOTP 15 for PC & Mac

Pre-Order OOTP 15 for Linux

* Pre-orders must be placed by midnight Eastern time February 15, 2014 to be eligible for the pre-order sweepstakes. No purchase necessary to participate: simply send an email to preorder15@ootpdevelopments.com to enter without pre-ordering.

** OOTP Developments reserves the right to reject any player name deemed obscene or otherwise unsuitable for use in the game, including trademark violations and slander.

*** As with previous versions of OOTP, all OOTP 15 licenses allow up to two installations of the game for personal use. All OOTP 15 pre-order customers will also receive a free Steam key that they will be able to retrieve via an online form on the OOTP Developments web site shortly after the game's release on Steam.