Konami’s most recent foray into the Power Pros series outside of Japan is coming to an end sooner than many would have hoped. From January 30 (11:59 p.m. Japan Standard Time), WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros will be removed from digital store fronts - the Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store. Online support for the game will remain until March 31 at 11:59 p.m. (JST). The saving grace with this story - something is being planned for the future. The press release states, “While this chapter comes to a close, it is far from the end of WBSC’s eSports journey. We are already excited to bring you the WBSC eBaseball™ Series 2.0.”
Update: Konami provided an update on January 15 that says, "due to various circumstances," the end time for online services will be at 10:00 a.m. JST on March 31.
The last Power Pro game to be released was 2024’s Power Pros 2024-2025 in Japan (you can find our review of that one here). To offer up a bit of speculation, it’s interesting to note that the two year release cycle (along with support) for that game has come to an end, making a Power Pros 2026-2027 look very likely for a Japanese full retail release. This also opens up a very small possibility for Konami to come back to the series with the MLB license for release worldwide. Konami has the rights to use Shohei Ohtani on baseball products and has done so with pretty much all of their baseball offerings on both console and mobile. The most realistic scenario is that another eBaseball title similar to the 2023 release is on the table and we’re just days, weeks…or months away from an official announcement and reveal. This could be with Konami or the WBSC could opt to go with another developer and a completely different baseball title. We’ll just have to wait and see what will happen from here.
WBSC Power Pros originally came out on February 9 (8 in some territories) on the Switch and PS4 as a budget title, retailing for ¥100 / $1.00. You can learn more about the game in our review here or by checking out the video below.
by Danny Bivens
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