Ever since the retro-style R.B.I. Baseball series returned in 2014, it has benefitted from being the only MLB game in town for multiple platforms. This year, however, that changes, as the critically acclaimed, longtime PlayStation-exclusive series, MLB The Show, is finally making the jump to Xbox consoles for the first time. With added competition, R.B.I. Baseball 21, hopes to double down on the pick-up-and-play sensibilities of its title while expanding the feature set of its on-and-off-the-field suite.

Developer and publisher Major League Baseball Advanced Media has released a first look at gameplay. This year's title features more customization through the Create-a-Player mode, as well as additional options so you can choose the batting controls and camera angles you want. This year also adds industry-standard features like play-by-play commentary and Statcast data for pitchers for the first time in series history.

R.B.I. Baseball 21 features Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson on the cover. The soundtrack includes music from artists like All Time Low, Diplo, Justin Bieber, Cold War Kids, The Chainsmokers, and more. If you want to listen to the soundtrack ahead of time, the developer has put together a Spotify playlist with all the songs here.

You can catch the short glimpse of gameplay below.

R.B.I. Baseball 21 comes to Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and mobile devices on March 16. While we haven't gotten our hands on this year's edition, we've been largely underwhelmed by the series' offerings since it made its return in 2014. You can read our review of R.B.I. Baseball 19 here.

In recent years, EA has had difficulty connecting with gamers; with so many studios under its umbrella, that has caused a lot of concern for major franchises. With the recent report that EA is abandoning the live service model for BioWare's anticipated Dragon Age entry (a series known for its single-player adventures) and following the cancellation of Anthem, EA's own Laura Miele has confirmed that the publisher is making a drastic pivot for the foreseeable future.

Miele is currently the chief studios officer for EA and she recently sat down with IGN's Rebekah Valentine to talk more about her work and the future of the company. Within her role, Miele oversees over 6,000 gaming developers from all kinds of backgrounds working on all sorts of projects. Through her work, she tells the site that she's developed an incredibly intricate understanding of the "complexities and sophistication" of game development, and that insight has furthered her love for the craft immensely. 

Miele opened up a little bit about what it is like to empower the studios under the EA name to craft the stories they want to tell. "In terms of our game development philosophy, our players are always our north star," Miele mentioned. "As I started this current role, I wanted to strip away some of the preconceived notions about what games we should be investing in and really start listening to players and incorporating their voice into our development process. Since then, we have announced a slate of games that players asked for: a new Skate, College Football, a Command & Conquer remaster, the Mass Effect Trilogy and we developed free content in Battlefront 2 for several years to turn the perception of that game completely around."

She also talked a little bit about how the goal is to have players involved in the conversation during development, which was a big push behind the reason to release the source code for Command & Conquer. That being said, being able to keep players involved and to turn around gamer asks isn't as easy as snapping one's fingers. When talking about this, Miele brought up franchises like FIFA and Madden. The sports series under the EA name have come under fire more often than not in the past, mostly regarding the more predatory practices of microtransactions adapting a Pay to Win model. Miele told IGN that this type of feedback is being taken in, but making changes to games like this on a larger scale take work and sometimes those changes can take years to be set in motion. 

"We have recently added advanced innovation teams that are heavily focused on tech development and dedicated to long-term game development," Miele added when talking about EA's sports games. "These teams explore innovation initiatives that players will get to experience in two to three years." 

With that in mind, taking in player feedback does not translate to making every single gamer out there happy. Every individual player has different wants, different expectations, and EA is still a business that must appeal to shareholders and investors. That being said, she did add that the publisher is going through a lot of changes presently with the first major course of action being Anthem Next's cancellation.

While BioWare detailed why it would no longer continue in a previous statement, Miele added that it basically came down to one question: Does EA continue investing in this – something that a major portion of the community has already deemed a failure – or does the company take those resources and apply them to other franchise, franchises like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and even Titanfall, for a brighter future? We know which way the company leaned now, which does bode well for those that were concerned about the future of galaxies and a demon-infested Thedas.