Over the past decade, sports games have gotten a bad rap for many reasons. Many players complain that they rarely make changes in each installment. But for most games, the only thing that really changes is the teams’ rosters.

Severe Monetization Mechanism

The heavy-handed Monetization mechanic makes it feel like some sports Franchises’ purpose is to squeeze players’ wallets. Madden NFL and FIFA are often the targets of such criticism. But one sports series that stands out is MLB The Show. And MLB The Show 23 continues the franchise’s tradition of enhancing the player’s overall experience year after year.

MLB The Show 23 showcases the series at its most innovative and experimental. Including a new single player game mode, fine-tuning of its game mechanics. And some big changes to its signature multiplayer mode, Diamond Dynasty.

After years of content changes, developer San Diego Studio has chosen to make a change and introduce season-based content releases. As the months passed, this new system did not appear to be without its flaws. But many players are frustrated with the way content is currently being released, and fear things will only get worse in the future.

Changes In Diamond Dynasty Philosophy

Before MLB The Show 23, Diamond Dynasty was one of the more accessible card-collecting game modes in the sports genre. SDS makes the mode accessible to players who don’t want to invest in MLB The Show 23 Stubs on microtransactions. And offers many of the best cards for those who just spend their time playing the game.

Building an impressive free team is something to be proud of for many Diamond Dynasty players. But MLB The Show 23 is making that increasingly difficult with its new season-based structure.

In MLB The Show 23, SDS introduces content seasons and decks. Certain card sets are only available in certain seasons. But as SDS made the high-level cards more abundant, once a player couldn’t use a certain set of cards, the number of available cards dropped rapidly.

This has also led to a serious imbalance between the supply and demand of high-level cards. Just like in Diamond Dynasty Season 2, SDS puts the vast majority of premium cards in card packs.

SDS likely knows that players will want to use these cards, which can be an enormous help to any team. But getting them is often prohibitively expensive.

The cards that are available for free are often lackluster for players who are in the set. All kinds of problems force players to either open their wallets or spend a lot of time struggling. It created a system that was a departure from Diamond Dynasty’s past design ethos.

Also Read: MLB The Show 23: What Is The Role Of Captains Added In The Diamond Dynasty Mode?

Lack Of Free Cards

Diamond Dynasty content from MLB The Show 23 will come to Season 3. This will probably determine the fate of future content drops for the mode. After Season 3 begins, cards from Set 1 will no longer be available in Competitive modes, except for any cards the player designated as wild cards.

This means that players will only be able to use cards from Set 2, core cards, and cards released in Set 3. If SDS continues to release high-level cards like Season 2, many players may not participate. Many players were disappointed by the lack of free cards and highly monetized content.

MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty has historically been the poster child for high-grossing sports games. But seeing it go down a similar path to FIFA, Madden NFL, and other sports titles will do a disservice to fans who stick around for the long haul.

I still hope that SDS can recognize their content problems in Season 3, and can reasonably deal with the problem of card supply and demand balance.