MLB The Show 23 introduces the long awaited feature of Face scan. Face scan is one of the better innovations of gaming in recent memory. It allows you, as the name implies, to scan your own face and put it on your created player. This allows players to get the most accurate representative of themselves in the game. It’s something 2K has been doing for nearly a decade with both it’s NBA 2K series and WWE 2K series. However, as recent as NBA 2K23, there have been a plethora of issues that hold the tech back from being truly amazing.
Will MLB the Show 23 Face Scan Learn from NBA 2K23’s Mistakes
Brief History of NBA 2K Face Scan
NBA first introduced face scanning in NBA 2K15 and has since made it’s way into every possible NBA 2K title that proceeded it. The concept was simple: that a photo of yourself on your phone, upload it to the 2K servers, download it in your game. The first game had you to take photos through the PlayStation Eye Camera and Xbox Kinect. The results were always mixed and rarely good. Eventually, it moved on from those proprietary devices and started allowing access through a more mainstream gadget. Namely, people’s smart phones. With better cameras, it’d be easier to get a good photo to scan. They introduced the MyNBA2K app, which allowed you to take photos from there, upload it to their servers through your log-in, and download it to your device. But this is where problems start to surface.
The Issues of NBA 2K23’s Face Scan
Essentially since it’s inception, the face scanning tech has had issues. So much so that 2K had to put out a guide on how to get the cleanest image to implant on your character. But even following the instructions, players found themselves with characters that looked little to nothing like them. Some even turned out looking like monstrosities you’d expect in a Silent Hill game. Past that, if you aren’t in the optimal lighting, at times it can give you a different skin color or a character that looks like they went through a brutal fight. Worst yet, several players have reported that, not matter what they do, they get the same types of face, and none looking like them. Though, for the ones that were able to get it all captured nicely from the multitude of angles 2K suggests, surely it would be fine. Right?
In lies the next issue, sometimes it just simply doesn’t work. Not the capturing of your face itself, but the upload. It can be corrupted, interrupted, or fail for seemingly no reason. Practically every year there’s essentially a workaround to whatever new or pre-existing issue the newest iteration of NBA 2K faces, and 2K23 was no different. Players found they had an inability to upload their scan. Some fixed it by rebooting their phones. Others deleted the app and re-downloaded it. Some switched from Wi-Fi to cell data or vice-versa. A few even just brute-forced their way in by constantly trying until it worked. While one of those solutions worked for a lot of people, it doesn’t stop the underlying issue. That being, no one knows what causes these issues so there’s no actual fix, just workarounds.
Will MLB The Show 23 Face Scan Work Better
It’s easy to see why people would be apprehensive. The Show is using and saying a lot of the same things that NBA 2K does: a companion app, a selfie with no eye wear or hats, a neutral background, good lighting with no harsh shadows, so on. While this may be true, The Show seems to be taking it in a slightly different direction. It would seem more predictive of the shape of your face as opposed to trying to 1:1 recreate it. 2K has you take photos from multiple different angles by rotating your head slowly, The Show only needs a front-facing selfie. Afterwards you can still adjust most of the facial features like ears and nose, just not the shape of your face.
This doesn’t mean it won’t be without its issues. A lot of 2K’s problems stem from the app itself or server overload. The Show could end up mirroring these problems or creating new ones. It is, from the San Diego team, a new technology, after all. Still, it’s looking like a good first year for the feature.
Related: How Batting Works in MLB the Show 23
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