GM Games

To paraphrase one of the all time great wrestlers…finally meaningful basketball has come back to the NBA. That’s right, it’s the NBA playoffs. No more load management, no more tanking for Zion, just teams playing their best players in an attempt to win games – what a concept! We decided to let our game, Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2019, sim out the playoffs and evaluate the results. I want to note here that because DDS:PB 2019 does not come with any licensed information built in, to accomplish this we downloaded a community created mod file and then further modified it ourselves in order to have accurate playoff rosters and injury scenarios. We also set injury percentage to 0% for the playoffs and ran numerous simulations so that we would not have fluke results due to injury and of course the game has no way of knowing who might miss a game for suspension due to too many technical fouls – not like that would negatively impact a series, right? (looking at you Draymond). With those caveats out of the way – let’s hoop. ROUND 1 – EASTWe will start with the 1-8 matchup Milwaukee vs Detroit. Detroit is not a real good team to start with and a gimpy Blake Griffin doesn’t help that. Out simulations give Milwaukee the nod here every time. WINNER : MILWAUKEE The 2-7 matchup in the East doesn’t appear to be much more competitive. Orlando was a surprise to make the playoffs but the talent level just doesn’t matchup with Toronto. Our simulation isn’t giving Orlando no chance though – there is a very small possibility of an upset. Orlando has played very well lately and it would be fitting for the Disney sponsored team to pull off a Cinderella story. WINNER : TORONTO Continuing on with our theme in the East of powerhouse versus surprising playoff team we get Philly and Brooklyn in the 3-6. Philly was able to take this matchup every time as well and they should be headed to round 2 pretty easily. So far the East is a real snoozer. WINNER : PHILADELPHIA The final matchup in the East didn’t fare much more competitive. Boston v Indiana would have been a better matchup with a healthy Oladipo but this one doesn’t look very troubling for Boston. Indiana plays hard but so does everyone in the playoffs. WINNER : BOSTON ROUND 1 – WESTThe West isn’t going to start off any more competitive in the 1-8 matchup there with Golden State taking on LA. I have to admire the season LA put together. They drafted well with SGA, traded Harris for a decent rookie (Shamet) and two 1sts, have a ton of cap space going forward next season and made the playoffs. That won’t amount to much against Golden State as our sim shows them winning this matchup handily but still impressive nonetheless. WINNER : GOLDEN STATE Here’s where things could get interesting according to our sim – the 2-7 series between Denver and San Antonio. Denver and San Antonio split the season series 2-2 and our sim has San Antonio coming out on top 60/40 in this one. Denver doesn’t have the experience San Antonio does and San Antonio does have Pop. This should be a fun series. WINNER : SAN ANTONIO Another great first round series should be Portland vs Oklahoma City in the 3-6 matchup. Portland suffered a tough injury losing Nurkic for the year but our simulation showed that Enes Kanter can certainly fill up the stat sheet in his place. We’re assuming McCollum is playing in this series and that gives Portland a slight edge. WINNER : PORTLAND The West first round finishes off with Houston and Utah in the 4-5. Utah is thin in the backcourt with Rubio and Neto banged up and Exum out. Gobert will have some impact on Harden and our simulation did show a small chance for Utah in this series but it looks like its pretty comfortable to assume CP3 and Harden will carry Houston to victory. WINNER: HOUSTON ROUND 2 – EASTNow the fun begins in the East. As good as our simulation engine is the one thing we are not taking into account in this particular simulation is the mental side of the game. DDS:PB 2019 is calling for an upset in the 1-4 series in the East with Boston surprising Milwaukee behind some amazing Kyrie Irving play. If Kyrie is dialed in this could happen – Boston has the playoff experience that Milwaukee doesn’t and if somehow they can contain Giannis I’m not sure who else on that squad has the ability to beat them. WINNER : BOSTON In the other Eastern conference semi-final we get Toronto and Philly. Both of these teams have issues in terms of chemistry and I guess we will see how much that matters – Philly added significant new players in Butler and Harris during the season while Toronto played games with load management all year. DDS:PB 2019 is feeling the brotherly love in this series though sending Philly on. WINNER : PHILADELPHIA ROUND 2 – WESTIf there’s one team in the West that can stop Golden State it would be Houston. Some think they would have done it last year had it not been for a CP3 injury but Golden State added DeMarcus Cousins to a championship team and our sim isn’t giving Houston too much of a chance here. The real WCF happens in round 2 and its going to Golden State. WINNER : GOLDEN STATE The other West semi-final is going to be a true coin flip. Out of the simulations we ran San Antonio reached the WCF 40% of the time as did Portland with OKC making it the other 20% (sorry Denver). This would be a terrific series with a revenge narrative for Portland against LMA. We had to look back at every game simmed here to find a winner and DDS:PB 2019 is going with San Antonio in a seven game war. WINNER : SAN ANTONIO THE SEMI-FINALSA Philly/Boston Eastern Conference Finals would be alot of fun. Marcus Smart should be back for this series giving Boston a significant advantage depth wise. Philly has a big four (Embiid, Simmons, Butler, Harris) to rival anyone in the league but they don’t have much depth and at this point in the playoffs that big four is going to be pretty tired out. Boston has better depth and again if Kyrie is dialed in he knows what it takes to win it all. Who’s going to the finals? WINNER : BOSTON While a Philly/Boston ECF would be an exciting we don’t see a Golden State/anyone WCF being all that exciting. Like we said the best chance for someone to beat Golden State was round 2 with Houston. No matter who gets here Golden State shouldn’t have any problem getting back to the finals. WINNER : GOLDEN STATE THE FINALSWell we simmed it out and came to the same conclusion SI did before the season started. Golden State vs Boston stand as the top two teams in the conclusion to the NBA playoffs. Much to nobody’s surprise it looks like it will be Golden State hoisting the trophy once again but if Boston does get this far it will be because Kyrie is playing the ball he is capable of and that would make him very dangerous. This could be a series and who knows – this battle in the Finals could be the catalyst for teaming Kyrie and KD next season but for now… WINNER AND CHAMPIONS : GOLDEN STATE As you can see we’re predicting chaos all around outside of Golden State which in reality is sort of the case. Nobody is as good as Golden State and the other teams at the top of the standings (Milwaukee, Toronto, Denver) have had great regular season success this year but don’t have much or anything to show for the playoffs with their current squads. Philly doesn’t have much depth but does have an awful lot of talent at the top. Houston has the MVP and Boston might just surprise everyone who has written them off already and maybe Pop is just cagey enough and has a favorable enough draw to get back to the WCF. Would it really surprise anyone? Let the playoffs begin! Comment below with what you think of our sim results and with who your own predictions for the 2019 NBA playoffs. The post #FeatureFriday – We sim the NBA Playoffs appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

Opening Day is over and the 2019 Major League Baseball season is underway. The last two years, Out of the Park Baseball correctly predicted the participants in the World Series, as well as the eventual winner. Can OOTP 20 make it a perfect three-for-three? Our friends at MLB Network featured the results of our season […] View the full article

Twenty years in, Out of the Park Baseball continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and so does its team. The latest addition is Scott Spindler, our Ratings Evaluator and Spring Training Correspondent who came on board to offer his roster expertise for OOTP 20, which is available now. “The opportunity to work with the […] View the full article

Quick update on some small improvements and (finally) a new mobile app!More donation optionsI know this isn’t exactly the most thrilling new feature (hey look more ways to give me money!!) but over the years many people have asked for an alternative to PayPal. I’m happy to say you can now donate right here on Pennantchase with your card and not have to leave the website. We process the charge through Stripe so it’s extremely safe and secure. I’m excited about this because it costs significant money to run PC, and ad revenue is highly unreliable. Ads also suck, as we all know, but they are a necessarily evil to keep this site free for so many people. That said, if I can manage to increase the number of donors I could start significantly reducing ads for donors, or maybe even removing them altogether.Box score navigationAnother long asked-for improvement was the ability to quickly toggle through box scores. Now at the top of the screen on any box score you can quickly navigate backward and forward for either team. Update coming to mobile appsAs most of you know, our mobile app was pretty busted on iOS and Android. The app was removed from the App Store on both platforms. I have a new developer working on an updated version and hope to be rolling this out by early May at the latest.Most of you already know the site works great on your mobile browser, so the app isn’t essential. But the app is a really important marketing vehicle - many new users find Pennantchase via the App Store. I’m exited to get the new app live and drive some new people to this awesome baseball community. View the full article

We are back this week with our #FeatureFriday segment (I guess the excitement of the Sweet 16 is to blame for missing last week). We know with the Final Four coming up this weekend college basketball is still on everyone’s mind and if you missed our last #FeatureFriday on recruiting in Draft Day Sports: College Basketball we definitely invite you to check that out. But as much as I love college hoops after spending what seems like an eternity in another lovely Michigan winter I’m itching to hit the golf course. We are fortunate that our Studio HQ is not too far from what I consider to be one of the greatest business ideas ever, TopGolf. A brand new TopGolf opened in Auburn Hills this winter and their heated hitting bays have been a welcomed respite even on the dreariest of winter days. But as much fun as that is nothing beats the feeling of being out on the course. I’ve often thought about what my dream job would be and while running Wolverine Studios is up there on the list, just after NBA General Manager or head coach of a college basketball team trying to get to the big dance, I think my ultimate dream job would be pro golfer. First, think of the money. This article from golf.com says the average top 125 tour guy nets over 2 million a year after expenses (but before taxes). I don’t know about you but 2 million to be a guy nobody but the hardcore golf fan probably knows or recognizes would be pretty sweet. I wouldn’t even have to be the next Rory McIlroy – I’d be happy to be guy #125. Second, your job is to be outside at the world’s most beautiful courses playing golf. There’s a ton of work that goes into getting to the course on Thursday but how can you beat the office? Best of all, your view changes every week as you go to new locations and courses and it’s warm (mostly anyways). Maybe it’s the cabin fever talking but Hawaii in January doesn’t sound so bad. Here’s where golf has a leg up on the other pro sports – all of them have cold weather cities to travel to – even if the games are indoors – but you can be pretty sure that you’re not going to see snow when you land for a tournament. Plus think of the longevity – when the young guns are too much for you to handle there’s a senior tour to play on! Sadly I don’t think the life of a pro golfer will be in the cards for me (I would be amazed if I ever shoot one round under par) but the journey has always intrigued me – in fact it’s the reason why I developed Draft Day Sports: Pro Golf. I love the game of golf and there’s always been good golf games. I remember Mean 18 way back in the day. I’ve played Links, Front Page Sports: Golf and the EA offerings over the years. They all had fun gameplay and amazing graphics for their time but they all required a decent time investment to play out even one round and they all lacked something that I wanted – career play. Who doesn’t remember the gopher from Mean 18?I decided to do what I did when I couldn’t find a basketball sim to my liking – I just made my own game. Back then it was called Total Pro Golf and the two most important concepts to me were that it was a career game and that you could play rounds quickly (because you had a whole career of them to play!). I wanted the experience of starting on the junior circuit – having to be selective with training and entering tournaments because failure loomed around every corner while I struggled to gain enough experience and victories to qualify for the pro tour. From there the challenge of staying on tour, earning sponsorships and hopefully winning a tournament or two. I wanted the chase of not only a season long championship but of getting my name atop the all time leaderboard in wins and money won. I wanted the honor of being chosen to represent the United States in a special team match play event against the best Europe or the world had to offer. Florida Bay in Draft Day Sports: Pro GolfDraft Day Sports: Pro Golf offers all of that and more. You won’t find the beautiful 3D worlds most golf games focus on but you’ll be hard pressed to find better looking 2D displays and I love the fact that I can play a round that challenges me, offers me strategic options and the excitement of a tournament all in 15 minutes. So I guess I largely created Draft Day Sports: Pro Golf for myself and I am glad I did (even if it still hasn’t found a wide audience) – it’s as close as I will ever be able to get to the pro tour! And even though it is not one of the titles I develop on an annual basis it’s always a game I think about. What can I add to make it better down the line? What would help it find a wider audience? There are other golf simulation games out there – what do those players enjoy? I want to share the fun with you though. As a thank you for reading our blog I want to offer you a special offer if you want to try your hand at the life of a pro golfer. Visit our webstore and put the Deluxe Edition of Draft Day Sports: Pro Golf in your cart (I want you to get all our beautiful extra courses) and use code FFGOLF and you will save 50% off now through 4/30/19. If you’re a fan of the series I would love for you to comment below and let me know what your favorite features of the game are and if you’re just a golf fan in general I would love to know what your favorite courses are and if you have played any of them. What I wouldn’t give for a round at Pebble, Augusta, Harbour Town or even a chance to tackle the Monster at Oakland Hills right here in my own home state. Hopefully I’ll be able to hit the course soon. Thanks for reading and see you next week! The post #FeatureFriday – Do You Want To Be A Pro Golfer? appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

With the first full day of March Madness in the books what better topic to cover today then the biggest step in getting to the big dance? If you want to be dancing in DDS: College Basketball in March you need to build yourself a program and the key to doing that is being successful at recruiting. Just like in real life recruiting is complex and takes some work and we want to provide an authentic experience – in fact so authentic that you have the ability to offer bribes to recruits when calling them with of course running the risk of getting caught and facing the consequences (you can always turn the bribe players option off if you prefer a squeaky clean version). Now if as a gamer complex and work aren’t your thing don’t worry – this article might not be for you but the game has you covered. You can always turn over recruiting duties to the AI completely or new in the 2019 version of the game you can have the AI take over for the summer portion with the click of a button and resume any duties later on. But for those who want full control in building their collegiate dynasty we’re going to share some helpful tips to make the most of your recruiting efforts. Each summer you start off planning for the year purchasing your scouting reports and planning your summer travel. If you’re playing as a big program and have a large budget you can feel free to be a bigger spender in these areas but its also necessary. If you are a powerhouse program you’ll have players all over the country who will want to play for your school so the additional information you can gather will make it easier to find your initial targets. With a smaller school you’ll have less budget to spend but also are not likely to be scouting outside of your region or maybe even your state. One thing about the budget is that its always good to go through your first season a little cautiously to see just how much you’re spending on recruiting and your coaching staff. Once you get an idea of what you spend in those areas you’ll know for the future how many extra reports or camps you can purchase. It does help you to spend as much of your budget as you can – if you’re not using up the budget the board of directors isn’t likely to approve a request for a budget increase later on. Scout the top high school players play against each other in summer campsOn the recruiting screen the first thing you’ll want to check out is the key dates button. You’ll see the year is broken up into multiple sections with different things you can do during different periods. Notice that there are only three short periods during the year you can visit a recruit’s home – these periods, especially the one in the late fall, are crucial because this is when you “seal the deal”. Not only is that realistic to the real world it also makes sense – a coach can’t go off visiting kids across the country and be at home for practice or games after all. Let’s take a look at this recruit below. A look at one of the #7 overall recruit in our gameWe can learn a whole lot from this look at the recruit. All summer long we have had him on our call list and have been using the call player option – that’s how we obtain our recruit notes and learn things about the pitch categories. As you can see in the image on 8/14 the recruit mentioned that he’s all about playing time. We have also been using the game film option and between that and watching him perform at summer camp the coaching staff has been able to apply ratings to the recruit. Between those ratings and the WSSN ranking we can tell Starkey would be a nice recruit for us to have and he’s got a 2.8 GPA so we’re pretty sure he’ll score well enough on his SAT to be eligible for our school’s requirement (although he probably won’t score high enough for the elite academic schools). Now that we’ve spent all summer calling, watching, scouting and even hosting him on campus for a visit it’s time for the moment of truth – we schedule the home visit and we’re going to pitch playing time to him. After all he’s said that it is the most important factor and I’m pretty sure we can find the minutes for a guy who looks this good. Recruiting is all about finding players that fit your program – any coach will tell you that. If you’re a team that wants to press you better be looking for players who grade out high in athleticism and defense. If you’re going to be a team that launches threes all day then you’re going to want to focus your search on players who are good outside shooters. There’s no right way to build a program and you can have success with a number of different paths. The key is to use the tools you have available to identify players that fit your program and its needs. He might be a five star player looking to be a one and done at a major or a JUCO transfer looking for a home at mid-major program – the recruits themselves are as numerous as the ways to recruit them. It’s up to you to get out there on the recruiting trail and try – after all your in game coach will acquire experience in his recruiting ability just like in real life…through repetition and trial and error. Try starting out at a small school – you’ll have a smaller pool of recruits to focus on and go after and as you become a better recruiter and establish yourself in states (the game does have a pipeline feature) you’ll be ready to move up to the big time and will be dominating the recruiting trail. There’s nothing like the feeling of seeing that email in your inbox telling you that the recruit you have been after for months is going to be on the floor for you next season! The post #FeatureFriday – Hitting The Recruiting Trail in Draft Day Sports: College Basketball appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

It’s officially tournament time! The brackets have been announced and it’s time for our 2019 Bracket Challenge. Entry is open to anyone who wishes to participate and the rules are simple. One entry per person and the entrant with the winning score will win our grand prize of one copy of our ENTIRE suite of Wolverine Studios games which includes Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019, Pro Basketball 2019, College Football 2019, Pro Football 2019 and the Deluxe Edition of DDS: Pro Golf. We will also be giving away one game of choice from our current Wolverine Studios lineup to the entrants who finish 2nd-5th in the contest. All you have to do is click here to sign up. Remember, only one entry per person. Any entrants that attempt to enter with multiple email addresses will be ineligible for winning any of the prizes listed above. Good luck to everyone! The post Join The Wolverine Studios 2019 Bracket Challenge appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

Welcome to something new for the Wolverine Studios blog – we’re calling it #FeatureFriday and we’re going to highlight either some of our favorite features in our games or some features that might go unnoticed with the depth our games have. With conference tournament season in full swing and the big dance less than a week away what better topic to feature right out of the gate than the Selection Show in Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019. Don’t forget to comment below and share this blog post! With our suite of Draft Day Sports games our goal is to draw you into a world of your own with great detail and exciting visuals. Now we could have simply just let the game advance to the tournament stage or even just given you an in-game email (which we do) stating which of the four postseason tournaments you made (if any) but why stop there? We wanted to give you the excitement and the sweat of finding out what seed you would be or if you even were lucky enough to make the 68 team field. The panel highlights the benefits of the play-in gamesThe in game selection show breaks down every single matchup in the first round offering quick takes while you wait anxiously for your team to come up on the screen. Even the commentator knows the better ranked seeds are always at riskNow if you happened to win your conference tournament you know you’re in and are just waiting to see where the selection committee has determined your seeding but for those at-large bids, especially those teams that were hovering on the bubble (which you can see with the Bubble Watch – located in the game under the Association Media link) there’s nothing more nerve wracking than to have your championship hopes in the hands of the selection committee. You can view teams on the bubble from February 1 until the Selection ShowAre you ready to experience the excitement of March Madness? It all starts with the Selection Show and this is an amazing way to experience that in the game! If you think you are on the edge of your seat watching the real thing to see if your favorite school is getting into the big dance that will be nothing compared to wondering whether all of your hard work in the game is going to get rewarded with a ticket to the dance or if you’ll suffer the disappointment of having to play in one of the three other post-season tournaments and waiting next year for your chance to dance. If you’re ready to experience this all for yourself you can find out more about the game including trying a free demo and if you’re ready to jump in then go right to the webstore and get your copy today! Don’t forget to comment below on what you think of this feature – please note that you are not required to leave any information to comment. The post #FeatureFriday – Selection Sunday in Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

Out of the Park Baseball 20 is the result of 20 years of authentic baseball innovation and computer AI for baseball simulation. [This press release is made available courtesy of OOTP Developments with modifications.] From the front office to the field, baseball has changed dramatically over the past few years – and nothing has kept up with the modern game like Out of the Park Baseball. Whether you love today’s world of exit velocity and launch angles or pine for the ‘good old days’ of complete games and ‘small ball’, everything you could possibly want in a baseball strategy game is waiting for you in Out of the Park Baseball 20. No matter how you like to play, we’ve got something for you in Out of the Park Baseball 20. Take the reins of your favorite club on your own in the 2019 season (or any season in history), compete with and against friends in an online league, battle players around the world each week in our Perfect Team mode, create your own completely customized universe, or try any of the other dozens of options. Out of the Park Baseball 20 is the culmination of 20 years of building the best sports strategy gaming experience possible. Here’s what you’ll get in OOTP 20: Integrated live services all season long! For the first time ever, OOTP features Live Services for MLB rosters! You can start a new MLB game any day during the regular season and Postseason with up-to-date rosters, standings, stats and player ratings, or to update player ratings in your current game based on their current performances. Can you keep your favorite team’s hot start going throughout the season, or take control to turn around a disappointing start? Our brand new 2019 roster sets include all projected Opening Day MLB rosters as well as the complete minor league system down to rookie leagues, including independent leagues. All Major League (and over a thousand minor league) player ratings are based on Dan Szymborski’s popular ZiPS player projection system. The remaining minor league players are carefully rated by hand by our recently upgraded research team. Listen here to one of our OOTP Now Podcast episodes as the newest member of our roster squad explains how this is done. In addition, OOTP 20 features 12 international leagues (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Italy, The Netherlands, Mexico and Cuba, plus 4 brand new leagues with Germany, France, Spain and the Czech Republic) and several US and international independent leagues. All of the teams have accurate and projected 2019 rosters. Improved 3D Animations We hit the motion capture studio for the first time ever to create hundreds of new animations which take the 3D in-game action to a whole new level. Diving plays, shoestring catches, hitters celebrating a walk-off in style: it’s all there (except for a fancy bat flip creation feature – sorry about that)! Improved AI, Game Engine and Modern Strategic Options Baseball is constantly evolving, as is our award-winning simulation engine. This year we have introduced several new strategic options, such as an opener and a follower as MLB teams continue to seek every possible advantage to winning in 2019. We have also improved the simulation engine and AI to handle and counter these new options and also make the smartest strategic decisions possible at any time during the game. But that’s only the start! We’ve improved all AI-related aspects of the game, including trading, contract logic, general roster building, and player evaluation, which lies at the core of the entire OOTP AI, resulting in the most challenging and rewarding gameplay ever in OOTP 20. Perfect Team Mode 2.0 Perfect Team was a massive success after we introduced the revolutionary online competition mode for OOTP 19 in November of last year. Over 12,000 total teams have competed in the exciting universe of Perfect Team, over 5,000,000 player cards have been pulled, history was written, and countless epic moments were created. For OOTP 20, Perfect Team mode will return with more cards (over 3,200 total) and more features, including exciting tournaments (coming in April), collection missions (coming April / May), an improved auction house, more achievements, an additional league level (6 in total) and all the new strategy and AI improvements of the core game. Build your very own Perfect Team and battle the best OOTP managers in the world! Out of the Park Baseball 20 includes: All new Spray Charts for players Improved historical league player ratings and simulation accuracy All new tiebreaker calculations Added support to have players in lineup backup other positions, and substitute in starting lineups for them Teams can participate in multiple tournaments at the same time The post OOTP 20 to include new in-game 3D experience, strategies, AI and 2019 rosters appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

Out of the Park Baseball 20 is the result of 20 years of authentic baseball innovation and computer AI for baseball simulation. [This press release is made available courtesy of OOTP Developments with modifications.] From the front office to the field, baseball has changed dramatically over the past few years – and nothing has kept up with the modern game like Out of the Park Baseball. Whether you love today’s world of exit velocity and launch angles or pine for the ‘good old days’ of complete games and ‘small ball’, everything you could possibly want in a baseball strategy game is waiting for you in Out of the Park Baseball 20. No matter how you like to play, we’ve got something for you in Out of the Park Baseball 20. Take the reins of your favorite club on your own in the 2019 season (or any season in history), compete with and against friends in an online league, battle players around the world each week in our Perfect Team mode, create your own completely customized universe, or try any of the other dozens of options. Out of the Park Baseball 20 is the culmination of 20 years of building the best sports strategy gaming experience possible. Here’s what you’ll get in OOTP 20:Integrated live services all season long!For the first time ever, OOTP features Live Services for MLB rosters! You can start a new MLB game any day during the regular season and Postseason with up-to-date rosters, standings, stats and player ratings, or to update player ratings in your current game based on their current performances. Can you keep your favorite team’s hot start going throughout the season, or take control to turn around a disappointing start? Our brand new 2019 roster sets include all projected Opening Day MLB rosters as well as the complete minor league system down to rookie leagues, including independent leagues. All Major League (and over a thousand minor league) player ratings are based on Dan Szymborski’s popular ZiPS player projection system. The remaining minor league players are carefully rated by hand by our recently upgraded research team. Listen here to one of our OOTP Now Podcast episodes as the newest member of our roster squad explains how this is done. In addition, OOTP 20 features 12 international leagues (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Italy, The Netherlands, Mexico and Cuba, plus 4 brand new leagues with Germany, France, Spain and the Czech Republic) and several US and international independent leagues. All of the teams have accurate and projected 2019 rosters. Improved 3D AnimationsWe hit the motion capture studio for the first time ever to create hundreds of new animations which take the 3D in-game action to a whole new level. Diving plays, shoestring catches, hitters celebrating a walk-off in style: it’s all there (except for a fancy bat flip creation feature – sorry about that)! Improved AI, Game Engine and Modern Strategic OptionsBaseball is constantly evolving, as is our award-winning simulation engine. This year we have introduced several new strategic options, such as an opener and a follower as MLB teams continue to seek every possible advantage to winning in 2019. We have also improved the simulation engine and AI to handle and counter these new options and also make the smartest strategic decisions possible at any time during the game. But that’s only the start! We’ve improved all AI-related aspects of the game, including trading, contract logic, general roster building, and player evaluation, which lies at the core of the entire OOTP AI, resulting in the most challenging and rewarding gameplay ever in OOTP 20. Perfect Team Mode 2.0Perfect Team was a massive success after we introduced the revolutionary online competition mode for OOTP 19 in November of last year. Over 12,000 total teams have competed in the exciting universe of Perfect Team, over 5,000,000 player cards have been pulled, history was written, and countless epic moments were created. For OOTP 20, Perfect Team mode will return with more cards (over 3,200 total) and more features, including exciting tournaments (coming in April), collection missions (coming April / May), an improved auction house, more achievements, an additional league level (6 in total) and all the new strategy and AI improvements of the core game. Build your very own Perfect Team and battle the best OOTP managers in the world! Out of the Park Baseball 20 includes:All new Spray Charts for playersImproved historical league player ratings and simulation accuracyAll new tiebreaker calculationsAdded support to have players in lineup backup other positions, and substitute in starting lineups for themTeams can participate in multiple tournaments at the same timeThe post OOTP 20 to include new in-game 3D experience, strategies, AI and 2019 rosters appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

The final page to be redesigned was the Favorite Teams Draft page... which comes with what is sure to be a hot topic since I added a few teams to the "three years only rule".... but more on that in a second... Before we all start fighting over the fairness of the Favorite Teams leagues, please take a moment to join me in celebrating the fact that EVERY SINGLE FREAKING PAGE HAS FINALLY BEEN REDESIGNED. (One exception, I did not modify the Live Draft Room.) This is a journey that started about three years ago. I did a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and then some crazy things happened (like I had a daughter) and so the redesign took a long pause, and then I finally decided it had to happen.In the 8/27/2018 blog post, I launched the first redesigned page and said it could take a year or more to finish the whole site. Turns out it took about six months. I figured out a few ways to take some shortcuts while I was doing it, so that helped. I didn't vastly "re-imagine" every single page as I had aspired to, but overall there were a lot of great additions and changes, and it was needed. The prior design was limiting and definitely dated.While I do need to take a moment to celebrate, there's still so much more to do. I never finished that Waivers feature I started last year. I now need to fix the darn mobile apps, which became crap as iOS and Droid upgraded. I also want to really take some time to analyze the Rank impact. And there's an endless list of cool stuff people have asked for.Oh yeah, and about those Favorite Teams Leagues... For now, I have added a few franchises to the three-year limit. These teams were winning at a really high clip. Namely Boston and LAD in the All-Time leagues, and Houston and Boston in the 1965-2018 versions. Of course there are other teams that win decently well, and as I continue to analyze the results, we can tweak as needed. I'm still not sure what I want the end state of these leagues to be. Maybe we expand to five years, with certain franchises only getting four. I'm not sure, but I'm open to ideas.With that said, I need to get some sleep. Good night. View the full article

Hi everyone. I wanted to take a moment to briefly announce a couple of the most recent updates. 1) More control over moving players around the Supplemental Draft List page. This enhancement has been up for a while now. When adding a player from the table, you'll see a new button that says "Insert #". This will present a dialog that allows you to specify the exact spot in your list to drop the player. Likewise, once a player is already in the list, the target icon can be clicked to bring up the same dialogue.2) Ballpark images. When the team pages were redesigned, I made room for a park image. The images have now been rolled out. The intent is to provide a visual to help owners quickly understand the impact of their park settings. The images are not meant to be exact or represent any sort of specific fence dimensions. They are just meant as an easy way to visualize what your settings are. As you set your park, the image will change on the Edit Team page so you can quickly see the impact of your decision.Enjoy! View the full article

As promised, as I work through the redesign, I've been making an effort to add long-asked-for features where possible or as time permits.The new Edit Strategy page now includes additional controls that have often been requested:Control sac bunts with one out: Many have asked for control with one out vs. no outs. Now you can. The prior setting is now used for no outs, with a new setting specifically for one out. The default is 10% with one out.Shut down steals when trailing: Many have said they would steal more if they could control when to turn it off. Nothing worse than trying to get a lot of men on base only to see your guy take off for second, down by 4. You now have that control. More control on pen match-up usage: A lot of people turn the L/R pen match-ups off because it burns through their pen too often. You can now tell the manager to only do that late in the game (7th, 8th, 9th or later). More will be coming down the road in terms of granular controls on a player-by-player basis (ie, only allowing certain players to steal, for example).As always, let me know if you see any issues crop up with these new features. View the full article

College Basketball season begins TODAY for you, coach! Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 will officially launch on 2/5/19 but you can get your hands on a special pre-order deal today! Everyone who pre-orders gets immediate access to the latest beta version of the game so you can start playing before anyone else! On your email receipt you will find a link to the download page. Remember, it is a beta and there may be a few items to work out before the final release but you’ll have a great time getting to know all the new features of DDS:CB 2019. You’ll also have the opportunity to score some big time savings. If you purchased DDS:CB 2018 from wolverinestudios.com last year go to the webstore, put DDS:CB 2019 in your cart, fill out all your personal information including the SAME EMAIL address you used before and then enter coupon code CB19UPGRADE and you’ll save 15% today! Did you just recently purchase DDS:CB 2018 from wolverinestudios.com? We have an even better deal for you! If you purchased in the last 30 days we’re letting you upgrade for an amazing deal. Follow the same instructions as above and use coupon code CB19NEW and you will save 70% today! Are you new to the series or purchased a prior version somewhere else? No worries – we still have a pre-order discount for you too. Just use coupon code CB19PRE and you will save 10%. In addition to the option of playing the beta and some awesome savings you’ll also be able to request a FREE key if you want to play the game on Steam when it is released there. This deal is exclusively for pre-order customers! If you want to learn more about what’s new in the #1 college basketball sim on the planet check out our prior blog post. But as soon as you do get yourself to the webstore and get yourself a pre-order deal because these deals are only good until Feb 4, 2019. The post Pre-Order Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 Today! appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

College basketball season is underway and as we countdown to March it’s time for a brand new edition of the #1 college basketball game on the market – Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019! We’re excited to show off our brand new trailer highlighting just a little bit of what makes this franchise so great. Take a look! As you can see we have highlighted a few of the new features in that video including the brand new UI which not only is even better to look at than before but puts more information and links at your fingertips for quick and easy navigation. Our new 2D coaching screen also is shown which puts all of the coaching features right on the game screen allowing you to make adjustments on the fly. We also added feedback for when you are trying to motivate your players so that you understand how they reacted to you trying to fire them up! We also gave you more coaching options like the ability to have your team stall on any offensive possession you want and the ability to call a timeout on a made basket to setup that all important press in the final seconds of a game! But that’s only the start of the improvements to the best college basketball game on the planet. We added a brand new sandbox mode to the game this year which will allow you to jump to any team you want in the offseason. If you’re a hardcore simmer up for a real test we also still have the challenge mode where you will have to prove yourself to get the bigger jobs (and to keep the one you have!). We’ve also made huge improvements in player generation and the simulation engine making stats even more realistic than they already were. You’ll find an array of new things in and around the league. The brand new scouting report gives you a clear look at head to head stats between you and your opponent and even shows you a percentage chance of winning the game. The summer camp preview magazine has been enhanced to show which players you have recruited and who has interest in your school to make it easier to target some of the top names to be recruited. Speaking of recruiting – no game does it better and if you’re a fan of the game you already know that. We improved the recruiting screen to make navigation a little easier and also added saving your last viewed settings so that you don’t have to reset your filters each time. We also know that recruiting isn’t everyone’s favorite job. New to Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 is the option to skip the summer activities and go right to the season! Check your in-game email on the first day of the season for this option and then sit back and relax while the summer is simulated quickly with just one click. You’ll be coaching in no time! We’ve also expanded our popular Tournament Maker feature which allows you to take the teams in your league and make exhibition tournaments. We expanded this feature to allow 16 and 32 team tournaments now instead of just a 64 team field and stats are now tracked for this exhibition tournament so you can see which players fared the best. We could go on and on – there’s new coach and player faces, coach outfits, player jerseys for their photos, expanded jersey numbers for players to wear, new simulation speed options, emails detailed why your request to the board was denied and so much more. The good news is you don’t have to wait long to experience it all for yourself. We will be launching our FirstAccess program on Monday! FirstAccess gives you the opportunity to pre-order DDS:CB 2019 and in doing so you get a discount, a FREE Steam key when the game is available there and most importantly the opportunity to download the latest beta version of the game and start playing. Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 will be officially released on Tuesday, February 5th and as always a fully playable free demo will be available then. We look forward to seeing what you can do this year, coach so get ready to get back to school and #BuildYourDynasty! The post The Best College Basketball Game Out There Is Back appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

Get Ready For Our Newest College Football GameWe are excited to announce that DDS: College Football 2019 has moved into its final pre-release stage and is ready for our FirstAccess program. FirstAccess allows you to download beta versions of the game after you pre-order and receive a license key and helps our company by getting our game in front of not only more testers but people who are invested in the game itself by pre-ordering. As always we are offering some special pre-order savings for our valued customers. You can pre-order DDS:CF 2019 in our webstore right now and we have the following coupon codes available to use. The pre-order window only lasts a short time so don’t delay. Anyone is able to use coupon code CF19PRE – that will entitle you to 15% off as a pre-order discountIf you purchased DDS:CF 2018 from wolverinestudios.com we offer a bigger discount to show our appreciation for your loyalty year after year and in ordering directly from us. Those customers can use coupon code CF19LOYAL and will receive 30% off for upgrading to CF19. In order to receive this discount you MUST enter all of your personal information first including the SAME EMAIL address you used when purchasing CF18 and then enter and apply the coupon code.For those who purchased DDS:CF 2018 from wolverinestudios.com in the past 30 days we’re offering a 70% upgrade discount since you just purchased CF18. Follow the same instructions as above but use coupon code CF19NEW for your discount.In addition to getting some big savings and immediately getting a license key and being able to download the beta and participate in our FirstAccess program if you wish (its totally optional but we appreciate the help) you also will receive a FREE key for the game on Steam whenever it becomes available there. So if you prefer to play on Steam, that’s fine – pre-order here and save yourself some money and you’ll be able to contact us for a key when its ready. Remember this offer is good ONLY for those who pre-order. Once the FirstAccess program ends and the game is officially launched this offer will go away. If you want a quick look at a few of the new items in Draft Day Sports: College Football 2019 check out our earlier blog posting on it here. We can’t wait for you to check out the game and see it all for yourself. As we said, your chance to save on our pre-order is limited so don’t waste another minute. Get to the webstore, pre-order Draft Day Sports: College Football 2019 and #BuildYourDynasty today! The post Draft Day Sports: College Football 2019 FirstAccess begins appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

College sports live here – simulate your favorite school all year round!As the calendar gets ready to flip over to 2019 we’re ready to bring you the big news about our college lineup. Our teams have been hard at work on Draft Day Sports: College Football 2019 and Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 and we’re going to bring you a quick look at some of the great new things to expect from both franchises. As always we want to reward our loyal WolverineStudios.com customers so there will be pre-order discounts and FirstAccess open beta testing and the great news is BOTH games will be getting ready for this stage very, very soon. Let’s start on the gridiron and talk about some of the improvements there. The first thing you will see when starting a new career is the new “Career Mode”. This mode gives you the opportunity to create your head coach and then face the pressure of living up to expectations. Fall short and get canned. This brand new feature brings a whole new dimension to DDS: College Football – just don’t get fired because who knows where you might end up! We’re also excited for some big changes to recruiting in the game. First, players can now transfer and you will have an opportunity to recruit those transfers prior to the start of each new season. We also know that recruiting isn’t necessarily everyone’s favorite past time so we’ve added both an auto-recruit and auto-scout mode to help you do some or all of the dirty work on the recruiting trail. By the way, take a look at the brand new user interface which puts all of the game links at a glance on the left side so that anything you want to find in the game is just a quick click away. For all you coach wanna-be’s out there you’ll be in heaven with the new features in the depth chart and strategy sections. Fans of Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2019 will appreciate these additions as you will now have the ability to setup multiple packages on offense and defense, see how all of your players line up in the formations in graphical format, setup the percentage you want to use each formation, create custom playbooks full of your favorite plays and analyze how each play works out for you. You’ll feel just like a real head coach! That’s only some of the upgrades in the 2019 version. Don’t forget all of the other amazing features of DDS:CF like the ability to watch your games unfold in exciting 2D gameplay, new customization options to let you have control over prestige, training and camp improvements and of course the ability to send your players to the big leagues by exporting them for use in Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2019. You can follow your favorite players from 5 star recruit all the way to hall of fame player! College Football fans aren’t the only ones in for a treat this year – Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 will surely delight whether you’re a hardcore fan or only tune in for March Madness. Our beautiful 2019 UI has made it’s way to DDS:CB as well. Everything you want to access is available with a quick click and we’ve reorganized some screens like the recruiting screen to make it a little bit easier to find what you’re looking for and not be too overwhelmed. There is not a college game out there with the in-depth recruiting options of DDS: College Basketball but we know that for some people they want to get right to the games and not worry about recruiting. In the past you could assign those tasks to the AI but you would still have to click through every week of the summer while camps and recruiting took place. We made a big change this year giving you the opportunity on the first day of the season to skip right through the summer and get right to the games! You can now temporarily hand over control of recruiting and practice decisions to the AI and take back control when it’s time for the season to start. For those of you who wanted to get right down to business each season- this one’s for you! The most exciting part of college basketball is that it’s fast paced and decisions have to be made in a split-second. That’s why we are so excited about our new 2D interface. Rolling over the big logo on the side will now give you access to the usual options like calling timeouts and working the ref but you’ll see some brand new options guaranteed to make the coach in you giddy with excitement. There is now a stall option that will force your team to go into a slow down for as long as its selected. You can use it to close out a half or a game, to just slow down the pace and get control of what’s going on or to drive your opponent nuts by slowing the pace to a crawl. You will also see the “on score” checkbox area which will allow you to call a time-out immediately after a made basket letting you be able to set up your press, make a key sub or go into a full court man to man press to make sure you get a quick foul if needed. You’ll see some other new buttons there – now you will find buttons for offense, defense, matchups and team stats which will display those items in the side window allowing you to make changes on the fly as opposed to having to go to the subs/coach popup like before. This makes for a much more seamless in game experience and makes it far easier to make changes as the gameplay takes place. Those are some of our favorite new things but it’s far from all. We’ve made (and are continuing to make) so many improvements based on user feedback. You’ll see things like a new sandbox mode so that you can jump from any team you want on a year to year basis, our new coach and player faces (with coach suits and player jerseys) are coming over from DDS: Pro Basketball 2019, you will get an email explaining why your request from the board was denied, an enhanced summer camp preview magazine to help you better see who has interest in your school and tons of other tweaks including reworking the sim engine to make wing players more effective scorers and more realistic in terms of their shot distribution – things like using a dribble to get a mid-range shot instead of shooting too many three pointers. We rely on our community for improvement ideas in all of our games and we are confident once you get these games going you’ll find just how many areas something (large or small) has been added based on a request from our amazing community members. We can’t wait to get you back at your favorite school for the 2019 campaign – stay tuned as you will not want to miss the pre-order and upgrade discounts as well as the opportunity to get your hands on these great games before anyone else does! We hope you’re excited about these new additions. If you want to discuss or ask questions don’t forget you can hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or even in our new Slack Channel. We look forward to seeing how you #BuildYourDynasty with our new college football and college basketball games coming in 2019! The post Your first look at college sim heaven – Draft Day Sports: College Football 2019 and Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2019 appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

The Quebec Nordiques spent 23 years on the ice between the WHA and NHL® before moving to Denver and becoming the Colorado Avalanche®. However, that didn’t stop Franchise Hockey Manager 5 producer Jeff Riddolls and community manager Adam from indulging in a “What if?” scenario by bringing the highest level of North American hockey back […] View the full article

“This is a next-level phase for us,” OOTP Developments CEO and Out of the Park Baseball creator Markus Heinsohn says about OOTP 19’s new Perfect Team mode. “It offers an always-on, dynamic new online experience for players that has never been available in our history. Giving players the chance to assemble completely unique teams, tailored […] View the full article

I wanted to inform everyone I am going to start launching the new design this Friday. I’m starting with all non-league pages, and will slowly convert league pages as time allows.I know some people will hate the change. Unfortunately that happens anytime you change a beloved product. But the redesign is truly necessary to future-proof the website. I hope that everyone can eventually come to learn and enjoy the new design. In truth, it won’t be a major shift from what exists today. I’m sure I’ll get at least a couple threats that people hate it so much they are leaving PC forever, and to those people, I say god bless. There will be someone to replace you. We have to move forward. As mentioned in a previous blog post, my life got pretty hectic and I had to put a pause on the website redesign. But since then, we’ve run into more issues that highlight the need for a modern design. One example is the mobile app. The latest iOS updates have broken the app and that could mean it’s time for a new app. But we can’t do that until we have a new design. Another issue is that it’s more difficult to release new changes on the current design, and its a waste of time if I’m going to have to rebuild the new feature down the road. So overall this is a good thing, but it will come with some bumps in the road. Many of you tested the new design and gave valuable feedback, so we are in a pretty good place with the new design. But we will continue to tweak as needed. As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. View the full article

It’s insane. It’s crazy… It’s Black Friday! It’s the single biggest shopping day of the year and we’re not only doing our part today but we’ve got a deal to last the entire weekend all the way through Cyber Monday! We’ve saved our best deals of the year for this weekend. You can save 15-70% from the original prices and EVERYTHING is on sale. No coupons are needed – everything is already marked down in the webstore. All you need to do is click and buy! Here’s the rundown on what you can save this holiday weekend! How can you beat these deals? Best of all – you don’t even need to leave your house to grab them! Want to take a test spin first? No problem! Just head to our demo page and download a FREE demo of any of these games – play as much as you like and then order your license key from the webstore. Next time you start the game, enter the license key and pick up right where you left off. Nothing else to download and no need to restart! These are our biggest deals of the year – don’t waste another minute. Snap them up right now. You’ll be glad you did! Now get out there and #BuildYourDynasty The post Black Friday and Cyber Monday Savings on your favorite sports games! appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2019 Prepares To Take The FieldWe are very excited to announce that DDS: Pro Football 2019 has moved into its final pre-release state and is ready for our FirstAccess program. FirstAccess allows you to download beta versions of the game after you pre-order and receive a license key and helps our company by getting our game in front of not only more testers but people who are invested in the game itself by pre-ordering. Details for out FirstAccess program for DDS:PF 2019 can be found at this link. Before we get on to talking about most of the cool new features and updates in this year’s version let’s talk about that pre-order deal. Right now you can pre-order DDS:PF 2019 in our webstore and we’ve got two coupon codes to make sure everyone is covered. If you purchased DDS:PF 2018 from us here at wolverinestudios.com we want to especially thank you for your loyalty in purchasing here and we’re offering you 20% off when you upgrade to PF19. To get this 20% off go to the webstore, put DDS:PF 2019 in your cart, enter all of your personal information first including the same email address you used when purchasing PF18 and then enter coupon code PF19LOYAL and hit apply. If you’re new to the series or purchased elsewhere before like on Steam then we have a 10% pre-order savings for you. Just use coupon code PF19PRE at checkout. In addition to getting some big savings and immediately getting a license key and being able to download the beta and participate in our FirstAccess program if you wish (its totally optional but we appreciate the help) you also will receive a FREE key for the game on Steam whenever it becomes available there. So if you prefer to play on Steam, that’s fine – pre-order here and save yourself some money and you’ll be able to contact us for a key when its ready. Remember this offer is good ONLY for those who pre-order. Once the FirstAccess program ends and the game is officially launched this offer will go away. With that said let’s get on to some of the cool new features in DDS: Pro Basketball 2019 NEW depth charts and custom playbooks : new depth chart options give you the ability to create and name different packages so that you can fine tune your depth chart to perfection and then create your own custom playbooks with each play laid out in detail so you can put together exactly the playbook you want.NEW full play analysis : every play that is run by and against you is tracked so you can view which plays are working (and which aren’t) – use this information to make that playbook really unstoppable!NEW player responsiveness : players have even more depth now as they can provide details to you in the expanded contract offering section. Find out if a player would be happy to join your team or if he can’t wait to catch the next plane out of town when his contract ends.NEW contract improvements : promise roles to players, offer different types of bonuses and chose how you want to distribute the contract for the maximum use of your cap now and in the future!NEW totally redesigned UI : we’ve stripped the interface down and totally rebuilt it. Everything is just a click away and easy to navigate around!NEW game modes : create yourself as the general manager and play in two different modes offering you different levels of control – also try out the brand new increased AI difficulty option to really put your skills to the test!That’s just some of the great new improvements you will find in this season’s version. If you are looking for more info don’t forget the official DDS:PF homepage or our previous announcement on the game. We can’t wait for you to check out the game and see it all for yourself. As we said, your chance to save on our pre-order is limited so don’t waste another minute. Get to the webstore, pre-order Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2019 and #BuildYourDynasty today! The post Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2019 Release News appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

The Major League Baseball Postseason is underway, with the Houston Astros seeking to defend their first World Series championship. Many of the teams have returned from the 2017 MLB Postseason, with the exception of the Atlanta Braves (last appearance: 2013), the Oakland Athletics (last appeared in 2014), and Milwaukee Brewers (last berth: 2011). Like last […] View the full article

Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2019 Prepares To Hit The CourtWe are very excited to announce that DDS: Pro Basketball 2019 has moved into its final pre-release state and is ready for our FirstAccess program. FirstAccess allows you to download beta versions of the game after you pre-order and receive a license key and helps our company by getting our game in front of not only more testers but people who are invested in the game itself by pre-ordering. Details for out FirstAccess program for DDS:PB 2019 can be found at this link. Before we get on to talking about most of the cool new features and updates in this year’s version let’s talk about that pre-order deal. Right now you can pre-order DDS:PB 2019 in our webstore and we’ve got two coupon codes to make sure everyone is covered. If you purchased DDS:PB 2018 from us here at wolverinestudios.com we want to especially thank you for your loyalty in purchasing here and we’re offering you 20% off when you upgrade to PB19. To get this 20% off go to the webstore, put DDS:PB 2019 in your cart, enter all of your personal information first including the same email address you used when purchasing PB18 and then enter coupon code PB19LOYAL and hit apply. If you’re new to the series or purchased elsewhere before like on Steam then we have a 10% pre-order savings for you. Just use coupon code PB19PRE at checkout. In addition to getting some big savings and immediately getting a license key and being able to download the beta and participate in our FirstAccess program if you wish (its totally optional but we appreciate the help) you also will receive a FREE key for the game on Steam whenever it becomes available there. So if you prefer to play on Steam, that’s fine – pre-order here and save yourself some money and you’ll be able to contact us for a key when its ready. Remember this offer is good ONLY for those who pre-order. Once the FirstAccess program ends and the game is officially launched this offer will go away. With that said let’s get on to some of the cool new features in DDS: Pro Basketball 2019 NEW offensive and defensive schemes : choose an offensive philosophy that suits your roster like “pace & space” or speed it up with the “seven seconds” offense. Defensively choose how your team will play man to man defense. Will you rush the three point line and force players into your shot-blocking center or will you lay off and hide your weak interior defense? Even set game specific matchups to make sure your best defenders are on the players you want them to guard.NEW playing styles : select either Challenge Mode to take on a team and hope you don’t get fired by ownership or Sandbox Mode where you can change teams each season if you likeNEW ownership goals and budgets : ownership now provides you with specific budget guidelines for roster and coaching/training staff in addition to demands for roster quality. Goals are clearly laid out for you on your home office screen and its up to you to hit them or suffer the consequences.NEW graphical improvements : all new player photos, jerseys and a brand spanking new UINEW lottery choices : use the old method, the new method coming next season or give every team an equal chance for the top picksNEW in game improvements : check out the season preview and see who were the key acquisitions and losses for each team, edit coach names, see the additional data provided for lineup tracking and enjoy the new changes to 2D mode to let you make all of your lineup and strategy changes right from the game screen itself.NEW sim modes : new sim speed modes let you zip through the season or go slow enough to see the top players from each game simmed. Start a career without owning a team and you can set the game to sim multiple seasons into the future before you take over to build up a historyThat’s just some of the great new improvements you will find in this season’s version. If you are looking for more info don’t forget the official DDS:PB homepage or our previous announcement on the game. We can’t wait for you to check out the game and see it all for yourself. As we said, your chance to save on our pre-order is limited so don’t waste another minute. Get to the webstore, pre-order Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2019 and #BuildYourDynasty today! The post Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2019 Release News appeared first on Wolverine Studios. View the full article

The 2018-19 NHL® season is underway, and Franchise Hockey Manager 5 is now available worldwide. You can also check out the game trailer on YouTube. To celebrate, we took the latest season for a spin in the game and shared the results with our friends at NHL Network, who recently featured our forecast on one […] View the full article