Out of the Park Developments is the home of outstanding sports simulation games for the PC including; Out of the Park Baseball, Inside the Park Baseball, Title Bout Championship Boxing and Title Bout Boxing Quiz!

Game Chronicles goes on-on-one with Markus Heinsohn, creator of Out of the Park Baseball, and Inside the Park Baseball, in an exclusive interview by Richard Cross.

GCM:

What is the future of OOTP and ITP? Will there be a version 6 of OOTP and version 2 of ITP and when? What new features and changes can we expect?

Markus Heinsohn:

Well, there will be an OOTP 6 sometime in March, and I plan to do ITP 2 this year as well. OOTP 6 will not include that many new bells and whistles than previous versions, but rather we will focus more on the fundamental aspects of a baseball simulation. We will add more stats, customizable reports, a new ratings system, a better in-game engine and a more complex financial system. The game will also feature head-to-head internet play. ITP has received very positive feedback so far, but the one weakness of the game is probably the amount of interaction between the character and NPC’s. There will be much more added through an update later this spring, but the whole interaction concept will be reworded in ITP 2.

GCM:	Can you provide me with some information on the upcoming Total Pro Baseball (I believe it is a .400 Software Studios’ product)? Will it be similar to OOTP. What are its strengths and weaknesses compared to OOTP?
Markus Heinsohn:	TPROB is actually the next version of Shaun Sullivan’s PureSim Baseball. It's more a solo-player game, there are no online league features as far as I know. I personally liked the previous versions a lot. I do not want to compare it to OOTP, aside from the main concept the games are really different.

GCM:

What benefits have OOTPD and .400 Software gained by splitting the companies? What brought about the split?

Markus Heinsohn:

I personally had the feeling that I wasn't born as a CEO of a gaming company, and that this role detracted me from developing games. And since I didn't want to put my product under the umbrella of a company that I do not take charge of, I went back to the roots and to the way I was doing it before. We have 2 developer teams now, one for the baseball games and one for the boxing games. It's a much more relaxed climate now that we are a very small company again.

GCM:	Will your excellent products ever be available at a retail store like Best Buy?
Markus Heinsohn:	Unless there is a publisher around that is interested, no. We have had several offers lately, but none really were of interest for us.

GCM:	Will you offer any type of discounted bundle price in the future for customers that would like to purchase 2 or more of your products?
Markus Heinsohn:	We will look into that possibility once OOTP 6 is released. I think there will be a bundle, maybe $39.95 for both titles. We currently have a bundle of Title Bout Boxing and Title Bout Quiz, which runs at $39.95 as well!

GCM:	What other exciting projects are currently in the works for OOTPD for release later this year?
Markus Heinsohn:	Like mentioned, I will probably release ITP 2 later this year, and OOTP 6 sometime in March. Our new boxing sim that will focus on the management and role-playing part of the sport is under development as well, but there is no release date set yet.