MVP Baseball 2005 is a 2005 baseball video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It features Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez on its cover. It is considered by many to be the best baseball video game of all time, and possibly the best sports video game of all time.
The game used full Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, and Major League Baseball Players Association licenses. Like the previous installments, the game includes real-life announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who are best known for their roles as the announcers for the San Francisco Giants. EA Sports pivoted to producing a college baseball series called MVP: NCAA Baseball which had very similar gameplay and graphics but was discontinued after the 2007 edition. Online modding communities have produced versions of the game with updated rosters, stadiums, and graphics.
Gameplay
MVP Baseball 2005 consists of 30 Major League Baseball teams and includes all licensed players within the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Barry Bonds notably does not appear in the game due to his withdrawal from the MLBPA's licensing agreement. His "replacement" is a fictional player named Jon Dowd. Dowd bears no resemblance in appearance to Bonds, but his skills mimic those of Bonds. Similarly, Kevin Millar, who was not a member of the MLBPA due to his crossing the picket line during the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, is also absent from the game, replaced by a fictional player named Anthony Friese. Rosters are current as of January 12, 2005, and the game includes the then-new Washington Nationals, along with their then-temporary home, RFK Stadium. New rosters could be downloaded to the Xbox and PS2 versions via their online play menus.
Minor league teams from the California, Carolina, and Florida State Leagues (High A) were added to their respective teams. However, most Minor League rosters are incomplete and feature developer-created replacement players. The game also supported online play, but the servers for the Xbox and PS2 versions were shut down somewhere before August 1, 2006.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for MVP Baseball 2005 includes nine songs, all by different artists. The game was the first release for four of these songs, from artists ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Bravery, Hot Hot Heat, and Louis XIV. The soundtrack is widely held as one of the best in-game soundtracks of the 2000s.