Matrix Games Signs PureSim Baseball 2005!

[Alex Fiedler]

Baseball Simulation for Casual and Hardcore Baseball Fans

Matrix Games is pleased to announce that it has added an exciting new sports simulation, PureSim Baseball 2005 (www.puresim.com) to its growing line. PureSim Baseball 2005 is the ultimate baseball fan’s toy, with support for both casual and hardcore baseball fans and the ability to play out any season in baseball history. The Matrix Games release will be a new updated version, scheduled for late Summer, 2005.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said, “We believe PureSim Baseball is the best and most flexible simulation of baseball available to fans of the sport. Whether you want to be the manager, the owner or build a fantasy league with players from different time periods and watch them improve, age and retire, PureSim Baseball can do it all.”

PureSim Baseball 2005 allows you to choose how much you want to do. You can play out each at bat in every game or focus on the financial or statistical aspects. Creating a league can be as easy as a simple three step wizard and allows fictional or real players from any season since 1871 with PureSim’s integrated support for the free Lahman 2004 MLB player database. Career play allows you to keep going for as many seasons as you like. Multiplayer support is included, run an entire league with other players!

Shaun Sullivan, Designer and Developer of PureSim Baseball, stated, “It has always been my goal to introduce PureSim Baseball to as many gamers as possible. Matrix Games has a strong record with strategy and simulation games and I feel that the PureSim community will grow and be well supported thanks to this relationship.”

PureSim Baseball 2005 also allows detailed statistical analysis, allowing multiple replays for checking lineup combinations, a full almanac system and metrics, full player editor support and unattended simulation features. Every pitch is tracked, with reports such as Runs Created 27 (RC/27), Relative Batting Average, Pitching Runs, Park Factors, Defensive Independent Percentage, and more. Add-in support allows the creation of mods that plug directly into the game.

PureSim Baseball 2005 – the game that every baseball fan should have.

[Amaroq]

This is a brilliant game. I've been playing games in the "sports management" genre across every sport for the past 20 years, and I feel that PureSim is one of the top three right all-time. Shaun's done some excellent work, and has been exceptionally responsive to user feedback via the PureSim forums. The game is a joy to play, and keeps getting better as he adds features to cater to different play styles. If you're at all a sports fan, even if you're not really a big baseball fan, I'd encourage you to check it out: this is not a teenager's "twitch" game, its a deep, immersive game for strategic thinkers.

One interesting aspect about the sports management genre is that it bridges the gap between a "finite game" and an "infinite game". A finite game, as you might imagine, has an ending point and (usually) a way to tell who won, or who succeeded. A single baseball game is a "finite game" - one team wins, and the other loses. A baseball season is a finite game - one team wins the World Series, and all the others do not. PureSim Baseball, however, is an infinite game. Didn't win it all? "Wait till next year!" Won the World Series? Great - can you repeat next year? What happens when your stars all get old and angle towards retirement - have you been grooming their replacements? Winning it all with the Yankees and getting bored? Try changing to a small-market team and see how you do there: can you beat the juggernaut you've assembled?

Plus, PureSim is very customizable: you can range from the small-ball games of the dead-ball era, playing in cavernous parks like The Polo Grounds, to the Golden Era of the 1950's, to the Steroid Era of the 1990's, and the game play modifies itself to reflect those eras, both in terms of the statistical results and the strategic choices which are rewarded. Check it out!

[mbMike]

The designer, Shaun Sullivan is very well respected in the Text-Sim community. Should be a good marriage between him and Matrix. (Shaun is very dedicated to this title and seems like a hard charger). Looking forward to seeing him become more widely available.