Summary
TheBackyard Sportsseries, which recently made its return with the release ofBackyard Baseball ‘97, will be releasing five more games in the near future. The game publisher’s officialSteampage shows games based on football, basketball, hockey, and soccer, as well as a second baseball title, in the works and coming soon.
From its birth in 1997 through 2010, the childhood sports game series released between one and six games every year for consoles and PC, with a pair of mobile games in 2015 seemingly as its last hurrah before the revival was announced. The series was originally published and developed by Humongous Entertainment, with Infogrames assuming publishing duties in 2000, but arevival of theBackyard Sportsseries after nine yearswas announced in August 2024 by its new publisher, Playground Productions. On October 10, just over seven weeks after the official announcement, the first game in the revived series was launched, and already five more are marked as “coming soon” on the company’s Steam Page.
The five games set for release, as listed on thePlayground Productions Steam page, areBackyard Soccer ‘98,Backyard Football ‘99,Backyard Basketball ‘01,Backyard Baseball ‘01, andBackyard Hockey ‘02, all remastered versions of some of the series’ earliest games. WithBackyard Baseball ‘97’s comebackon October 10, fans of the series can already look forward to a second baseball game on the way, in addition to a focus on four more popular sports. None of the five games has a set release date, and no information is available on the publisher’s website. Still, given the short amount of time between the announcement ofBackyard Baseball ‘97and its release, it’s likely fans won’t have to wait too long to dive in.
All Backyard Sports Games Coming Soon
Though it only launched today, reactions toBackyard Baseball ‘97have been overwhelmingly positive, fulfilling a lot of fans’Backyard Sportsreboot wish lists. It’s enjoying a 97 percent approval rating among Steam reviewers, and the only complaints on Playground Productions’ social media posts seem to be that it’s not available on more platforms, though the publisher seems to be indicating that a release on Mac is planned for the future.
Prior to the series’ official reboot announcement, even recently retired Philadelphia Eagles centerJason Kelce had expressed interest in revivingBackyard Football. Kelce stated during a podcast in February that he would like to see it and otherBackyard Sportsgames make a comeback, and that he had been interested in acquiring the rights to those games. While Kelce is not directly involved with Playground Productions, a Los Angeles news channel has reported that the company says he “represents an excited fanbase.”
