Backyard Sports video game franchise officially returning

The clip is 42 seconds, and looks like something out of a late 1990s or early 2000s children’s cartoon. Kids assemble from around the neighborhood at the local ballpark and get ready to “Play Ball” in a colorful animation.

Except, for an entire generation of Millenial and Gen Z sports fans who grew up on the “Backyard Sports” video games, those aren’t just any kids. That’s ace pitcher Stephanie Morgan flashing her trademark screwball and bubble gum pop. That’s Achmed Khan and Pete Wheeler joining her. That’s slugger Kiesha Phillips, mad scientist Dmitri Petrovich, twins Tony and Angela Delvecchio and speedster Kenny Kawaguchi along for the ride before Morgan stares down the legend himself — Pablo Sanchez.

Backyard Sports is returning after nearly a decade hiatus, its developer Playground Productions announced Tuesday. The 42-second trailer evoking the video game line’s flagship “Backyard Baseball” title immediately went viral upon its posting to social media.

“We’re incredibly excited to reintroduce Backyard Sports to a new generation of players,” Chris Waters, chief product officer at Playground Productions, told Sports Illustrated 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.”

According to Variety, a return of the iconic video game line is not the only “Backyard Sports” project the developer is building, as there are planned forays into film, television and expanded merchandise in the works.

At its height between its 1997 debut and the mid-2000s, Backyard Sports had video games for every major professional sport, including Backyard Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey and Soccer, with the first two games the most popular of the bunch. Playground Productions eventually signed licensing deals with virtually every major American professional sports league, including MLB, NBA, WNBA, NFL, NHL and MLS, with children’s versions of real-life star athletes joining the action.

It’s unclear which titles will be coming back in the relaunch, but an illustration used in Backyard Sports publicity materials Tuesday featured characters wielding a football, basketball, baseball glove, soccer ball and hockey stick, hinting at a full revival of the entire line.

The popularity of the games petered out as their initial user base aged and a switch from two-dimensional to three-dimensional graphics failed to win over new fans amid the rise of hyperrealistic sports video games from EA Sports and 2K Studios. Playground Productions has not made a Backyard Sports video game for PCs and consoles since 2010, though mobile versions of Backyard Baseball and Backyard Basketball for iOS and Android were released in 2015.

But the games remained in the cultural zeitgeist in multiple ways. Sanchez routinely appears on lists that rank the most iconic sports video game characters, often as the only fictional person on the list. Now-former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jason Kelce also made waves back in January when, on his hit “New Heights” podcast with brother and star Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, he revealed that he had been looking into who held the rights to the Backyard Sports games, which the brothers played growing up, to see if he could acquire and relaunch the games.

Neither Kelce brother is directly involved in this relaunch, which is being handled by the same entity, Playground Productions, that made the initial line of games. But it’s likely the Kelces will be first in line to get the “Backyard” treatment whenever “Backyard Football” returns.

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