‘Backyard Sports' Franchise Set To Be Revived By Playground Productions As Film, TV Efforts Continue
They got back! Root root root for the classic sports game franchise mostly dormant since 2010
Not sure there’s been video game news this humongous in a while. Playground Productions has announced the relaunch of the beloved Backyard Sports video game franchise, a return that the family-oriented production company assures will be “bigger and better than ever while staying true to what made the franchise so special.” It’ll be happening “in the coming months”. In addition, it seems attempts at a film adaptation are picking up steam again after being initially reported in 2016, with merchandise and television expansions being sought this time as well.
“Backyard Sports is more than just a game; it’s a cherished part of childhood for millions of people,” said Playground Productions founder and CEO Lindsay Barnett in a statement. Variety claimed her to be franchise creator but nothing was lining up. However she did also state “I look at media as the largest classroom in the world. As such, our goal is to produce meaningful content that not only entertains but also educates and inspires. The return of Backyard Sports is the perfect embodiment of that goal.”
The Backyard Sports franchise was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari kicking off with Backyard Baseball in 1997, which introduced a roster of "Backyard Kids" including Pablo Sanchez, Stephanie Morgan, Kenny Kawaguchi, Pete Wheeler and others. The franchise would expand with Backyard games for soccer, basketball, football, skateboarding and hockey. Backyard Baseball 2001 began the practice of utilizing licenses to use not only the leagues’ teams, but their biggest players or at least kid versions of themselves. Future Hall of Famers at that. The NFL, MLS, NBA, WNBA and NHL, they got it. It was not clear whether they were in pursuit of regaining those licenses for this new era. The 2005 closure of Humongous led to a lot of wild asset scattering and plenty of bouncing around for Backyard Sports. The last regular releases were in 2010, while mobile-exclusive editions were made in 2015 with vastly different character models by this point.
“We're incredibly excited to reintroduce Backyard Sports to a new generation of players,” Chris Waters, the chief product officer at Playground Productions said in a statement. “We're taking great care to preserve the look and feel that made the original games so special while updating them with modern features and gameplay that today's audience expects. I can’t wait for fans to see what we’re building on the Playground.”
Meanwhile producers Ari Pinchot and Stuart Avi Savitsky released a joint statement that said “We’re excited to embark on this next chapter of Backyard Sports led by Playground Productions.” What’s interesting here is that Pinchot was part of that initial 2016 film development, as Crystal City Entertainment president (which a LinkedIn profile connected with Barnett’s purports he still is) and the property was under the ownership of Day 6 Sports Group, working with Cross Creek Pictures. At that time, he said “This brand was a favorite of my children for years and represents the best of sports. We are thrilled to bring the imaginative world of Backyard Sports to the screen.”
Sources: Variety, Sports Illustrated, Deadline