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'Backyard Sports' Set To Return; Video Game In Development For Next-Gen Consoles

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Having previously announced a full relaunch of the Backyard Sports franchise earlier this year, Playground Productions has provided some details about what the new title will consist of.

In a statement released on Wednesday (h/t Jennifer Maas of Variety), the game will be made available for next-gen consoles featuring all of the beloved characters from the original series and updated features for this era of gamers:

"The brand new game will feature all the original characters alongside a few new additions as well as embrace the comedy, diversity, accessibility and fun that made the original titles timeless classics. Like the retro titles, the next-gen game can be used as a tool to teach kids sports rules and strategies, but it will also have difficulty levels that are challenging for the original fan base."

A release date for the game is not yet known.

Playground Productions dropped a reveal trailer in August for the relaunched series, while teasing a new baseball game featuring Backyard Sports icons like Pablo Sanchez, Stephanie Morgan and Kiesha Phillips.

A remastered version of Backyard Baseball '97 was released on Steam on Oct. 10. An upgraded version of Backyard Soccer '98 is set to be released on Nov. 27.

Other remastered titles in the works include Backyard Football '99, Backyard Basketball '01, Backyard Baseball '01 and Backyard Hockey '02, but none of those games has a confirmed release date at this point.

The new next-gen version of Backyard Sports will be overseen by Playground Productions founder and CEO Lindsay Barnett and chief product officer Chris Waters, with Mega Cat Studios developing the game.

Maas noted the production company is also exploring the possibility of developing a television series or film adaptation set in the world of Backyard Sports.

The Backyard franchise debuted in 1997 with a baseball game released for Windows and Mac OS. The game's popularity launched an entire franchise that expanded to include football, basketball, soccer, hockey and skateboarding games.

Before the remastered games dropped this year, the last new release in the franchise was in 2015 when Baseball and Basketball were made available for iOS and Android.

Two WVU Freshmen Shine In Mountaineers' Backyard Brawl Loss To Pitt

MORGANTOWN — Not since a certain former West Virginia University basketball coach got lost in Pittsburgh a year and a half ago has anyone from West Virginia had a worse night in the Steel City than current WVU coach Darian DeVries and his Mountaineers as they took an 86-62 drubbing from the Panthers.

West Virginia had won the last four renewals of the Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh but this one was decided decisively and quickly as the Panthers, their student section roaring, rushed to a 44-22 lead. They built the lead to a high of 31 points five minutes into the second half and from there on the Pitt fans were chanting "Go home, Mountaineers!" over and over and you had the feeling they would have loved to have complied.

"I'm incredibly disappointed. There's no way to sugar coat it," DeVries said in his post-game radio interview.

The truth was most of the Mountaineers' problems came as the starters managed just 32 points.

If there was any bright spot it, it came from true freshman Jonathan Powell, who was hardly a wide-eyed rookie in his first Backyard Brawl, who led WVU with 16 points. He hit 6 of 12 shots, 4 of 10 of them from 3 on an evening when WVU was far off in its shooting.

"I was really happy with the way he came in and played. He played incredibly hard," DeVries said. "KJ Tenner played well, too."

Tenner is the team's other true freshman.

"I have no complaints with the way the two freshmen performed, especially for their first road game," DeVries said.

But that, along with some nice minutes inside from big man Eduardo Andre.

WVU hit just 39% of its shots, improving some against the Pitt subs over the final 5 minutes, while Pitt hit 48%. In 3-point shooting it was 21% for WVU and 37% for Pitt while the Mountaineers hit just 53% of their free throws including two misses that were air balls.

"We got off to a poor start and never recovered," Devries said. "We couldn't ever get the water shut off. We never found our rhythm tonight."

DeVries said they have to go back to the drawing board and find ways to create shots for the right players, to get to the free throws and rebounds, as they were outrebounded 45-32.

"It's a long, long season, but we are going to work at it," DeVries said. "The coaches and the players, we got to get some things figured out. We will continue to work and make the necessary changes we need to do to try and get better."

You knew it was the Backyard Brawl right from the start.

On the Mountaineers first possession, Amani Hansberry went up for a shot which was challenged by the Panthers' Guillermo Diaz-Graham. The ball went in and the blood began flowing from Diaz Graham's nose.

That sent the ACC officiating crew to the monitor, counting the basket but hitting Hansberry with a level 1 flagrant foul as his elbow had caused the damage.

From then on, though, all of the damage was caused by the Panthers, who doubled up the Mountaineers, 44-22, as their fans hooted and howled the night away at the Pete.

Probably all you really need to know about the first half was that at one point Toby Okani was fouled, one of the few calls that went WVU's way.

He missed both shots.

Both were air balls.

What can you say when that happens?

Interestingly, WVU played some pretty good defense in the half. It was just that everything Pitt threw up went in, no matter how hard they had to work to get the shot. The Panthers finished the half hitting 51.7% of their shots while making 6 of 15 from 3.

At the same time WVU started off missing their first 8 3s, finished with just 2 of 14 while Pitt took the Mountaineers' high scorer Tucker DeVries out of the game. He got off only 6 shots in the half and made only 1 of them.

"They did a good job of limiting his catches," Darian DeVries said. "He didn't get many good looks."

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