The first in-depth showcase for MLB The Show 26 took place on February 5, highlighting what new gameplay features will be added to this year’s game and what each one does. Among the additions are the Big Zone hitter interface and the Bear Down pitching mechanic, plus other tweaks.

Big Zone

Sony San Diego showcased ‘Big Zone,’ one of the new features for MLB The Show 26. This feature, per the development team, was added to bridge the gap between the timing/directional interfaces and Zone hitting.

For Big Zone, the strike zone will be split up into different segments. Users can move the left analog stick into one of those quadrants and essentially predict where the ball will land.

It’s also worth noting that Big Zone will not allow players to achieve a Perfect-Perfect, which is the highest quality contact point. Nonetheless, it is that bridge point that Sony, as stated in the stream, did not exist prior to ’26.

Fixed PCI

There will also be an option to have the plate coverage indicator (PCI) fixed for MLB The Show 26.

This will be different than the PCI Anchor, which was introduced several years ago. Plain and simple, it’ll be the ability to move the PCI around the strike zone and not have it reset to the center when moved.

Bear Down

New to MLB The Show 26 is “Bear Down,” a new mechanic that’ll be visible on the bottom portion of the pitch type module. When activated — on screen, it was shown to be activated with LS/L2 — it’ll allow the player to shrink the PAR region and even have a velocity bump to get through an inning.

As far as what will affect how many Bear Down points one can have, it’ll depend on several factors. This will include throwing strikes and having a higher Clutch attribute.

Points for Bear Down will carry over from inning to inning. Additionally, this is available for all pitching interfaces.

PCI Sensitivity & New Attributes

PCI sensitivity will be in MLB The Show 26, allowing players to change how fast or slow they want the PCI to move.

Sony confirmed changes for attributes. As we’ve noted multiple times, there will be four directions added for Fielding, as well as a new Catcher Pop Time attribute for catchers.

H/9 for pitchers has now been split up for LHH and RHH. A hurler’s pitches will also be organized by actual pitch usage at the MLB level.

Additionally, Sony expounded on the concept of PCI “shrinkage,” a phrase that became used often in the vernacular of MLB The Show players on social media last year. Simply put, it was the shrinkage of the PCI that occurred on breaking balls from same-sided pitchers.

The development team showed off stills that illustrate the scaling of PCI in these situations.

The gist of it was this: Ambush Hitting is the way to adjust to these pitches. The developers didn’t state that this feature would be removed. However, there was clarity to note that it’s in the game to simulate swing-and-miss.

Other notes

Sony announced that new rotational options for online co-op will be added. Players can rotate when to hit for each subsequent plate appearance(s).

Additionally, the pitcher user will only pitch. This means that the non-pitcher user(s) will be in full control of fielding.

Hitter timeouts were reintroduced for MLB The Show 26. A slight delay for calling a pitch in a game will be added as well, to somewhat compensate for the removal of the RT/R2 “spam” that was a part of the metagame. Individuals can still pull down to check the pitch type. However, it will not affect when the opposing player can start the windup/stretch.

There were also new additions made to pitching. ABS and PitchCom were added for MLB The Show 26. ABS is only available in single-player offline modes. PitchCom can be turned off.

On top of that, there will also be an option to allow pitchers to choose whether to throw exclusively out of the stretch.

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