I'd been wondering aloud lately about the status of the R.B.I. Baseball license. The game was originally created by Namco, but that game (part of Namco's Family Stadium franchise) was taken by Tengen (Atari under a different name) and released for the NES without a license! It was one of those crazy black carts, but a licensed version was also released. It, along with Baseball Stars, serves as one of the greatest console baseball games of all time, and any other answer you may think to provide is actually completely incorrect.

OK, I'll accept that you might really like Baseball Simulator 1.000. That first Griffey game for the SNES was really good, too.

Anyway, last developments in the RBI saga went cold years ago. Midway eventually purchased the Atari/Tengen assets, but I was told that the baseball license was sold off separately, well before Midway's last-gasp sale to Warner Brothers. An in-development game called RBI Baseball showed up for the Xbox 360, with a company called Six Degrees Games at the helm. It was never released.

Today, Major League Baseball--like, the league--announced that it's getting into the video game business proper. And its first title? R.B.I. Baseball 14. Weird, right? Specifically, this would come from the company's Advanced Media arm, which was in the news last week as the partner for WWE's soon-to-launch streaming video service, the WWE Network.

The title is planned for release this Spring and is listed as a release for "current and next generation consoles and smartphones and tablets." One can only presume that this means Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, and iOS devices, but heck, I'm just guessing at this point.

Can a new RBI Baseball game come out and not be terrible? Can a developer that's primarily known for making solid streaming video services possibly develop a solid arcade-style baseball game? Do I seem prophetic for running my look back at the original RBI Baseball a little over a week ago? Those are just a few of the questions that come to mind. Here's said look back at the original RBI Baseball, by the way...

MLB has registered a Twitter account for the game at @rbigame. Crazy, right?

Wow really? They must have seen the video!

I hope to god they knock this out of the park!

OK Jeff,

Now can u do something about bringing Phantom Dust back? ;)

Someone told Jeff!

That's pretty prophetic right there. Also a video game produced by the league itself? INteresting.

I AM SCREAMING INTERNALLY WITH JOY RIGHT NOW.

We should stop Jeff before he can use his new powers for evil

Finally no more awful 2K baseball games.

Jeff is quick, damn

This is just weird. Everything about this is just weird.

Has Jeff ever jumped up and down and squealed like a little girl? I think this would be an appropriate time.

How Web 2.0 is that logo? I hope it's good, please be good, ohgodohgod.

JEFF PLEASE KEEP PLAYING WINDJAMMERS

You know what you have to do now, right? Make a video about Mutant League Hockey so somebody will make a new one of those

Lottery numbers Jeff! All I can say is your next video needs to be lottery numbers.

I hear that X Wing Aliance and Colony Wars are pretty cool. Jeff should investigate.

Do a bombastica of Mappy so we can finally get Mappy DX.

We thought we we're watching them! They're watching us!

Wut?

I'm pretty convinced Jeff has a strange power over this industry. He knows not the power that he has. I'm pretty stoked for this.

Jeff's Encyclopedia Bombastica got them to finally pull the trigger on a new R.B.I. Baseball announcement.

I may not sleep again until spring.

Are we gonna get a new Law of the West now too? Because that would be cool.

Watch out Sony San diego!

Watch out Sony San diego!

What, no love for CyberStadium Base Wars?

Jeff will not rest until his past is completely remade for current and next-gen consoles.

@jeff Perhaps you could do a video for Blast Corps next?

So... now that this is happening... when are you gonna do an Encyclopedia Bombastica of Mutant League Football, @jeff? :|

I would really like a new Bad News Baseball game about now...anyone...anyone listening?

HOLY SHIT!

@R Bigame? What could it mean????

I would not have predicted this.

This is good so Xbox users have a baseball game this year. I love The Show and I get it every year but I would consider purchasing RBI, too as long as it's an arcade-style game and not a simulation game.

There is no way this is can live up to nostalgia, at best it is the old game with updated rosters. Which I guess would be nice

@benmo316: Yeah, wonder what kind of game this will be.

Keep playing more Windjammers maybe we'll get a new Windjammers!

@jeff Fancy doing a Gunstar Heroes EB? or possibly Kid Chameleon?

I can't wait till GB becomes a video game publisher.... it seems inevitable at this point

Will this now be the best basketball game???

When I saw "old consoles" in the title I though they were making NES carts of the game or something! :P

I hope it is simple controls. I liked the early 00s where you just swung.

Now I wish I still had my old Genesis copy of R.B.I. Baseball 3.

@hadestimes: I want to kiss you full on the mouth.

MLB.tv is the best sports streaming service, period. If they are as good at making video games as they are streams Sony might have some competition. That said, they will have a big task a head of them to come close to The Show.

That's a crazy coincidence.

Okay, you're gonna need to do an Encyclopedia Bombastica for all the old games I like now so that they'll announce sequels like a week later.

Let's start with Uniracers.

Wow what are the odds that a week after Jeff posted a video of playing RBI on the NES there would be an announcement of a new game.

Fuck..is this real? Please be real.

Finally, somebody that speaks my language!

EDIT: As for a reaction to this news- There's no way that this game doesn't turn out to be a large pile of A-Rod's dookie.