Sony’s MLB The Show 25 Is Skipping Xbox Game Pass This Year And Ditching PS4

MLB The Show 25 is making some big changes for 2025. Sony’s annual baseball franchise revealed this week that it won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year and it’s also ditching Sony’s last-gen console, though it’s still coming to Nintendo Switch.

“We are also thrilled to announce that MLB The Show 25 will launch on March 18, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch,” San Diego Studio announced on the PlayStation Blog on Tuesday. “The game will not be on platform subscription services in 2025. Early Access begins on March 14, for anyone who purchases the Digital Deluxe Edition.”

For the first time in the series’ history, the 2025 cover features three players—Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes, Cincinnati Reds’ Elly De La Cruz, and Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson. A full gameplay reveal is set for February when the latest entry’s first trailer will go live.

But MLB The Show 25 is marking some other notable firsts as well. After having been a day-and-date Game Pass release in recent years, the latest entry is going back to the standard boxed sales approach. It also won’t be coming to PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, a relief to many fans tired of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions feeling held back by older hardware. MLB The Show 25 will still be on Switch however, seemingly with an upgraded version on Switch 2 whenever Nintendo’s new console releases later this year.

Both Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures also skipped PS4, despite the latter also being on the less-powerful Switch. Just over four years into the PS5’s lifecycle, Sony is all but turning the page on its last-gen console, even as tens of millions of players still use it. It also sounds like MLB The Show 25 won’t be hitting PS Plus in 2025 either. Last year’s entry hit the service in September, six months after it launched.