MLB The Show 22 brings co-op to online multiplayer for the first time

polygon.com:

MLB The Show22 will, in a series first, offer competitive, cooperative online multiplayer, meaning teams of two or three friends can divide up the on-field duties and take on other teams of two or three.

Friend 1 may pitch, with Friend 2 playing middle infield and/or Friend 3 taking right field. And then all three can hit, assuming they’re playing Diamond Dynasty (where there is no designated hitter). MLB The Show 22’s co-op multiplayer will let two or three buds combine their Diamond Dynasty collections to form a super-super (or super-super-super) team.

This means that three players can use their Road to the Show superstars together, then, as MLB The Show 21 last year unified created players across RTTS and DD, the two most popular game modes by a mile. That, too, would be a first, and a modest step closer to something I’ve long wanted to see — players participating in one another’s careers, MMO-style.

Note that, for MLB The Show 22, this only concerns one-off multiplayer games against human competition. A PlayStation Blog post did not say that cooperative multiplayer would support PvE games (i.e. two or three human players against a fully AI opponent). Polygon has reached out to a PlayStation representative for clarification and insight.

In other news, there will be a technical test lasting about one week — Feb. 17, beginning at 1 p.m. EST, until Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. EST — on all platforms. That means PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, as well as Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

The technical test will offer online matchmaking, cross-platform play, online cooperative play, and more. There’s no need to sign up for anything, just download the test client for free from your console’s online store beginning Feb.