Everything New Coming to Road to the Show in MLB The Show 25

San Diego Studios and the developers behind MLB The Show 25 held their second Feature Premiere livestream Thursday afternoon, focusing on Road to the Show. The stream focused on an expanded emphasis on the amateur portion of a player's journey to the big leagues in MLB The Show's career mode.

New this year is the ability to begin that journey in your senior year of high school. Players will choose from one of four high schools, each with their own unique fields, and progress from senior day through a high school postseason bracket. During these games, the player will be recruited and scouted by not only one of eight college programs in the game, but MLB clubs as well. Each player can forge their own path to Major League Baseball by entering the MLB Draft process immediately after high school or first going to college.

If going to college feels like your desired path, the game provides another layer of choice in the benefits each school can provide. Some schools provide more development in key attribute or perk areas for that immediate boost when entering the minors. Others provide more exposure to help the player generate more draft interest. The path chosen will also impact incentives, which take the form of a new token progression system.

Tokens are used to purchase groups of attributes or individual attributes, as well as perks and pitch upgrades. They are earned both in decisions made throughout a player's career, as well as their on-field performance.

Loadouts and skill sets, which have been a hallmark of the Road to the Show experience for a number of years, have been removed in favor of this new system.

College might be a four-year commitment for many, but do not expect to play out four college seasons in Road to the Show. The Feature Premiere showed gameplay that went immediately from college commitment to "Three years later..." and the College Baseball Championship.

For those frustrated by breakout Draft Combine performances not earning high draft slots in games past: Yes, the developers have confirmed that your player CAN go No. 1 overall in MLB The Show 25. Be prepared to lock in for high school, college and/or Draft Combine at-bats to earn that distinction, though.

Developers emphasized that this journey will be experienced as much with audio as the visual components, as metal bats and the sound of a double rattling off a chain link fence help immerse the player in the amateur portion of their career. This is the only mode to find metal bat sounds, though, as the developers confirmed they will not appear in Diamond Dynasty or any other mode.

Unique celebration animations for the high school and college experience will also be seen throughout Road to the Show gameplay. 

Overall, while perhaps not the multi-year amateur journey players might have dreamed of when it appeared in the reveal trailer, Road to the Show will certainly provide some added depth and replayability for casual and diehard players alike.

Deep dive video releases and feature premieres have now been held on gameplay and Road to the Show. The remaining schedule of reveals looks like this:

Tue., Feb. 25: Feature Deep Dive: Franchise

Wed., Feb. 26: Feature Deep Dive: Storylines S3

Thurs., Feb. 27: Feature Premiere: Storylines S3/Franchise

Tue., March 4: Feature Deep Dive: Diamond Dynasty

TBD: Ratings Reveal

Thurs., March 6: Feature Premiere: Diamond Dynasty

Tue., March 11: Dev tournament and Legends trailer

Thurs., March 13: Feature Premiere: Live Content

Fri., March 14: Early Access

Tue., March 18: Launch Day