If you were a kid of the ’90s or early 2000s and played couch co-op with your friends or family there’s a good chance you have fond memories of the Backyard Sports franchise. Perhaps, you’re like me and as you entered teenage years or young adulthood memories of the series faded away. I, and probably many other millennials my age, had a nostalgia rush when the franchise popped up back in the news last year.
In 2024, Playground Productions made an announcement that they were leading a multi-media franchise revival of Backyard Sports, which was originally created by Humongous Entertainment; the revival started with a re-release of the original game, Backyard Baseball ‘97, which Playground Productions worked with game developer Mega Cat Studios on.
At New York Comic Con, the leads of both Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios were on hand at “The Return of Backyard Sports: Celebrating the Joy of the Game” panel, moderated by Jennifer Maas, to discuss how they’ve brought the series back and have honored the series while carrying it forward into the future.
Lindsay Barnett is the Founder and CEO of Playground Productions and her first encounter with the Backyard Sports franchise was as a five year old with Backyard Baseball ‘97. She fell in love with the series due to its characters and how it featured equal representation with 15 boys and 15 girls of equal playing ability on the roster.
“Interestingly enough, what I didn’t know is [that] the Humongous Entertainment franchise was actually part of an educational franchise,” Barnett said. “It taught kids the rules of sports. What I didn’t know is that I was actually learning all the rules and becoming a sports fan for life.”
Chris Waters is the Chief Product Officer of Playground Productions. He said that the reason the Backyard games have stood the test of time is they truly celebrate the joy of playing sports as a kid, grabbing your best friends and going into the backyard.
“That’s always at the heart of everything we want to do going forward,” Barnett said. “That’s the heart of Backyard in my mind.”
(L-R) James Deighan, Lindsay Barnett, Chris Waters, and Jennifer Maas at NYCC `25 for “The Return of Backyard Sports: Celebrating the Joy of the Game” panel (Photo credit: Aaron Halls)James Deighan is the CEO of Mega Cat Studios. He said that the original product, developed by Humongous Entertainment, was built in a way that was ahead of its time.
“It has a level of intuitive [and] accessible design that probably didn’t become game industry popular until [the] 2010s,” said Deighan.
When it came to the idea of bringing Backyard Sports back, Barnett said it all started with her work as an elementary school teacher; she credits her experience during the pandemic and remote work for inspiring her.
“I had 32 second graders who were trying to find great content at home, and they were playing very violent games,” Barnett said. “All the sports games were not accessible for my class. They were like, ‘These are too hard for us.’ The content on TV was not really for them. So, I just was like, ‘What happened to Backyard Sports? Those are the games I’d love to recommend.”
Playground Productions came after this idea, and eventually she was able to track the rights to the franchise down and acquire them.
According to Deighan, the preservation of the Backyard Games has been one of the most meaningful projects to Mega Cat Studios thus far. The development was extremely challenging due to the original source code for the games being gone. For the re-releases, Waters emphasized that Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios aimed for a balance of nostalgia and thoughtful updates.
“As Lindsay said, this was an exercise in bringing back the games and making them play just like you remember playing them and stoking that nostalgia,” Deighan said. “What was really fun for us [was] to see all the things that Mega Cat was able to layer on top of that we have, like challenges and reward schedules[. These are] all the things that have driven a lot of the user engagement on Steam and now on Mobile.”
In addition to Steam and Mobile, gamers can also play the re-rereleases of the Backyard Sports games on consoles such as PlayStation and Nintendo Switch with more coming this November. Barnett revealed that Backyard Basketball ’01 and Backyard Hockey ’02 will be released on Steam for free due to the support of fans, and they’ll also be a Backyard Sports bundle available for purchase on Steam. Additionally, they will also do free re-releases of the remaining games on Mobile.
“We’re grateful and excited and hope that a bunch of people start playing,” Barnett said. “We’re just so grateful for everything [our fans] have done for us.”
Though Playground Productions has seemed to hit a grand slam in the collaboration with Mega Cat Studios, they don’t want to slow down the franchise revival. Barnett announced they’re in production of a new Backyard Sports title and that there is an animated television special based on the series coming out next year. It will be directed by Mike Roberts (Bojack Horseman) and animated by Lighthouse Studios (Bob’s Burgers).
“Lindsay’s vision, when she acquired the rights, [was to build a world with the Backyard Games franchise.] We want to make these characters come to life, whether you’re a gamer or not,” Waters said. “We think that this has the same DNA as Peanuts. You’ve got these rich characters that really mean something to people. We want to honor that and tell stories around that. So, that’s a big part of what we’re doing going forward.”
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
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