Thanks to Playground Productions, the Backyard Sports series is making a comeback, and it will start with a re-release this year.
Humongous Entertainment’s Backyard Sports series is cherished by the generation that grew up with these cartoonish, inclusive, and accessible sports games. I have fond memories of playing the Game Boy Advance version of Backyard Baseball, in particular, but the franchise also had games about soccer, football, basketball, and hockey. The series faded into obscurity by the early 2010s, so it’s exciting to see it finally come back. Playground Productions released an animated trailer to announce this revival.
Details are still vague. Playground Productions says it is planning a re-release to make these games “bigger and better than ever while staying true to what made the franchise so special” in a press release.
“We’re taking great care to preserve the look and feel that made the original games so special while updating them with modern features and gameplay that today’s audience expects,” CPO Chris Waters said in a separate comment.
I asked Playground Productions to clarify whether the Backyard Sports games will be re-released separately or as a bundle. While a representative for them couldn’t provide an answer for that, they said Playground Productions will be making more announcements about the re-release in the coming weeks and months.
Whatever form the re-release takes, Playground Productions’ plans for the franchise don’t stop there. This announcement confirms that the company has a “broader vision” for the future of Backyard Sports that also encompasses things like film, TV, and merchandise. While no firm plans for any of those things were announced at this time, Playground Productions seems to believe that Backyard Sports is still beloved enough to have a resurgence as a major franchise in the 2020s.
